Alexander Johnson

Born:    1963: Chichester, West Sussex.
1980-82: Foundation Diploma, West Sussex College of Design.
1982-85: BA (hons) Fine Art Printmaking, South Glamorgan IHE.

  As a teenage punk and still at school Alexander Johnson designed posters to promote concerts by local bands. He began a two year foundation course in Art and Design at Worthing Art College (now Northbrook) where he made his first screenprint entitled 'Hiss' based on a song by the Velvet Underground. He went on to do a degree in Fine Art in Cardiff specialising in printmaking and producing etchings, lithographs and silkscreens working under Phil Jennings RA.  Ending his formal education in 1985 Johnson  moved to London where he exhibited in the Royal Academy Stowell’s Trophy exhibition. He continued to make prints and exhibit work in the capital until his departure for Barcelona in January 1989.
Spain
From 1989 – 1990 while in Barcelona, Johnson studied Spanish and began to use short pieces of text in Spanish and English in his work, including representations of the graffiti that covered the area where he lived in Carmelo. The anarchist and civil war history of the Catalán capital tied in well with his own developing interest in European history, while the strong design influences of Gaudí that adorn the city were a source of visual stimulation throughout the two years he lived there.

Holland
In 1991 Alexander moved to Nijmegen and set up his own studio producing large monotype screen-prints on canvas as well as editions on paper and exhibiting in galleries throughout Holland. During this time he also produced visual material for La Verbe, an educational editorial company focussing on immigrant communities in urban areas of Holland. After three productive years in Holland, he moved back to London late 1995, relocating to Brighton the following year.

UK
From 1996 until 2003, he worked on a series of paintings on canvas for established outlets in Holland. Between 2002-2005 he worked part-time at a mental health day centre in Brighton running a successful art group and organising a fund-raising exhibition of the work produced which received interest from the local press. In late 2003 he began work on a series of linocut prints that would eventually lead him back to his first love of silkscreen printing.

Alexander currently has a studio in Hove and works professionally on collections of silkscreen prints (both monotype and in editions) based on themes including Venice and Barcelona. He is currently a member of the Hove Artists Open House group who exhibit annually as part of the Brighton festival. Alexander exhibits regularly in Holland and the UK and continues to be an active member of the visual arts community in Brighton and Hove.

Upcoming shows 2008:
ASB Law Brighton, March - June.
Chalk Gallery, Lewes, featured artist April/May.
Artists Open Houses, Brighton Festival, weekends through May.
ASB law, December - Feb 2009.

Exhibition selection:
2007 ART/Clic: Bankside Gallery, London.
2007 The Postcard Show: Claremont, Hastings.
2007 Brighton Wave Hotel (abstracts)
2007 Brighton Festival Artists' pen houses.
2007 Chalk Gallery, Lewes.

2006 Brighton Wave Hotel
2005 ASB Law, Brighton
2005 Brighton Wave Hotel
2003 Kunstuitleen, Den Bosch, NL
2001 Terre á Terre, Brighton
1999 Absolute Brighton, Sussex Arts Club
1997 Freedom Café, Soho, London (Solo show)
1996 Alternative Arts 'Terminal Survival'(solo show) London
1996 Galerie Valke, Amersvoort (solo show)
1995 Galerie 111, Nijmegen 'Hotel Babel'(solo show) (NL)
1994 Galerie Raster, Utrecht (NL)  
1994 Galerie Hússtege, Den Bosch (NL)
1992 Este Bar, Barcelona (solo show)
1991 Galeria Del Sol, Barcelona
1990 Café des Artistes - Covent Garden
1989 Braganza, Frith Street, Soho, London. (solo show)
1987 Hackney Town Hall (solo show)
1986 Fallen Angel Gallery (solo show),  
1985 Royal Academy Stowell’s Trophy Exhibition, London