SNUGGLE UP | JOHANNA WILBRAHAM
Johanna is a London-based Artist captivated with contemporary female portraiture and the female gaze. She is interested in representation and examining the ways we look at women. Her paintings explore vulnerability and beauty, whilst rejecting idealised, sexualised and media driven images of women.
With an experimental and playful approach to mark-making, she rarely uses a paintbrush and instead uses tools which allow her to blur the boundaries between representation and abstraction. Her large-scale oil portraits are created using jars and jugs, pouring diluted oil paint on to a flat canvas in a series of complex and translucent layers. In this way the process is highly spontaneous and unpredictable – the tension of the controlled and uncontrolled underpinning every work.
We now have a great selection of Johanna’s original painting and limited edition prints available at Artsnug!
How did your art practice begin?
My creative practice really found it’s form during my years of study. I was always an art nerd, but I remember being given a portraiture project at college and having a terrible time with it. I really struggled to master the complexities of the face and I became quite obsessed with it. I can’t say I ever lost that obsession! I carried my passion for the portrait with me to University, however I remember being frustrated that I couldn’t find a unique way to express my ideas. At one point, a tutor told me to stop trying to paint like everyone else and start painting like Jo. This turned out to be very freeing (and yet still somewhat mysterious) advice. Looking back, I think frustration has been a key catalyst in the creative journey! The first time I produced a portrait in my signature style I was feeling completely overwhelmed and frustrated. I threw caution to the wind, made a huge canvas and threw a jar of diluted oil paint down on it. I didn’t know where I was going, but it was the first time it felt like something unique.
What do you hope that your work communicates to the world?
This is constantly changing and evolving for me, but I am primarily interested in representation of women and deconstructing mainstream ideas of beauty, examining the way we ‘look’ at women. I have always been interested in vulnerability too – my favourite lyric being Leonard Cohen’s ‘There is a crack in everything, that’s how the light gets in’. This speaks to me of the common humanity and beauty in imperfection, brokenness and fragility. Whilst it may not sound empowering - I believe it is! I dream of creating empowering, interesting and unique female portraits which resist idealised and sexualised ideas of beauty.
Tell us about your studio practice. How do you create your artworks?
I’m really interested in the magical space between abstraction and representation. My large-scale oil portraits are created using jars and jugs, pouring diluted oil paint on to a flat surface in a series of complex and translucent layers, rarely using a paintbrush. In this way the process is highly spontaneous and unpredictable. Like a chess game, the paint makes a move and I respond, continually attempting to control chaos. This tension of the controlled and uncontrolled underpins every work, large or small. It does however mean that I spend a lot of time waiting for paint layers to dry!
This visual language is equally as important as the subject matter of each piece. Whilst the creative process is certainly a vehicle for me to explore contemporary portraiture, the female portrait also acts as a vehicle for experimentation and exploration of mark-making techniques.
What is your ‘Je ne sais quoi’? That special something that makes your artwork unique.
I think this is such a good question for an artist to always ask themselves, at every stage of their career. I really believe in using the idea of play and following your curiosity to continually find new ways of making. I think at the moment the thing that makes me ‘unique’ is my process of diluting and pouring paint on to a flat surface, holding the tension of that which can’t be controlled within the genre of portraiture. I am attempting to use a very abstract and organic process to depict something very figurative. It is a constant battle and I don’t always win!
Which art movements, artists or art works have influenced you?
Huge influences for me have been contemporary artists Marlene Dumas and Peter Doig, ever since seeing their incredible exhibition ‘The Triumph of Painting’ many years ago. At the moment I am inspired by artists Tina Berning, Gill Button, Anne-Sophie Tschiegg and Martha Zmpounou.
There’s a zombie apocalypse! You can only take one piece of art to the bunker, but it can be anything in the world. What do you take?
Marlene Dumas’ ‘Jule-die Vrou’ - I LOVE this.
You have the chance to hop into a time machine and join any historical art movement. Which do you go back to?
It would definitely be to the wild, experimental and colourful time of Fauvism, where ideas about figuration and colour were questioned and manipulated whilst still retaining a representational form.
We've all had time to reflect this year, and to think about how we’d like the ‘new normal’ to look. What changes would you like to see in the post-COVID art world?
I’ve been so encouraged seeing people be very intentional about shopping locally and supporting small businesses. I think this is something I would love to see continue – people seeking out their local artists and investing in them. Also, I think people are talking so much more about mental health, our relationship with our bodies, and embracing diversity in representation – all exciting changes that I feel will push the artworld on too!
Do you have any advice for people just starting their art collection?
I do – choose what you love and go with your gut! Seek out your local art spaces and artists. Look for artists who are doing something you have never seen before, and seek out diversity. There are always groups of artists who have been historically under-represented – seek out their work and show them some love!
If you could choose 3 pieces of Artsnug artwork to ‘snuggle up’ with, which would they be?
Well it would be a huge struggle to choose just 3, but I would choose ‘Greenhouse’ by Clare Halifax, ‘Charlie and Annika’ by Rosie Emerson and ‘Glitterbomb’ by Linda Bernhard. I can’t get enough of Clare’s delicate botanicals or Rosie’s vintage-inspired intricate vignettes. And I have fallen head over heels for the sparkling red-haired fashionista in ‘Glitterbomb’!