Morgan Johnson (He/Him)
Morgan Burton Johnson was born in Santa Monica, California, on November 25, 1952. He received his Bachelor of Arts Degree in Psychology from the University of California, San Diego, in La Jolla in 1974 after attending the Lycee du Universite au Dijon in Dijon, France, receiving a Certificate of Foreign Studies in culture in 1968. Although he has no formal art education, his work includes use of oil, watercolor and water media, palette knife, collage and encaustic painting. His styles range from classic realism, pointillism and fauvism to abstract expressionism and minimalism, all reflecting the diversity of the twentieth century. His impressionist, divisionist and fractionalist painting has been the object of his awards and shows.
The artist started painting at age eight, receiving paid commissions at age twelve. He has completed several murals, two of which are located at the UCSD campus in La Jolla, with one a competition design winner for Discovery Hall, Revelle College, 1971. He has been published in the San Diego Union (1971), the La Jolla Light (1976), the Advocate (1978), the Long Beach Tribune (1978, 1996), the Medford Tribune (1993), the San Francisco Bay Times (1994), National Library of Poetry (1997-2007), Who’s Who in the West (1997-2006), The Rogue Valley Messenger (2014), MISKA (Russian, 2016) and is included in two books: The California Art Review, 1990, and American Artists: A Survey of Leading Contemporaries (1991).
His work has appeared in the last five decades in many juried shows across the nation, including museums and art centers. His educational shows have presented his artwork in the perspective of style evolution, the stages of historical art growth, and how combined mediums like photography and oil painting produce unique interpretations in art. Universities, colleges, libraries and community centers that have presented his work solely or under a themed heading include University of Oregon, Stephen F. Austin State Univerity (TX), Oregon State University, Southern Oregon Unversity, Florence Events Center (OR), San Luis Obispo State Unversity (CA), Bryn Mawr (PA), Coos Art Museum (OR), White River Museum (WA), Llano country Historical Museum (TX), Walker Art Museum (KS), Tubac Arts Center (AZ) and the Downey Museum of Art (CA). His work has been show in more than thirty states, always parsed by a juror; his work has appeared in more than 150 regional and national shows in his career. Internationally he has been shown or been purchased in Canada, England, Germany, Luxembourg and France.
