Brennan Johnson (b. 1999) is an American multi media artist from Portland Oregon. After completing undergrad at Carleton College in 2021, Johnson moved to Los Angeles and worked at Gemini G.E.L. as an assistant printmaker to Xavier Fumat, where he editioned bodies of work for Richard Serra. Johnson now lives and works in Portland.

My work explores intimacy, feelings and memory. As a subject I use my own life. In this way it contains a documentary aspect. I’m less concerned with unbiased portrayals than with capturing the slippery, shifting nature of erosion in our memories. My work depicts a stylized representation of overflowing emotions that can be evoked within a single still image.

Recently my practice has expanded to include photography. My photographs exist as lines forever tied to moments that I’m scared of relinquishing to the past. This fierce grip on past moments is a central theme in my work. I have a deep sensitivity to feelings of nostalgia and love. I have a need to bring my attachments to this world out of my body and into material existence. I want everyone to know what is special to me.

I use exaggerated palettes to suggest a departure from an idea of passive observation, and a move towards a more emotional idea of memories. My most successful pieces are about scenes and people I treasure so deeply that words cannot express. I make work in the arena of intense emotion and the webs between people and moments over the course of a life.