Matt Johnson
A History of the World in 100 Objects, 100 Grand, and a Rock, 2020
Los-Angeles based artist Matt Johnson, a former student of Charles Ray, crafts visual jokes through the juxtaposition of material and subject matter. The artist has created faces in Wonder Bread, rendered the Pietà—the traditional depiction of Mary holding a dead Christ in Christian Art—out of bronze pipes, and transformed a basketball into a Jack-O-Lantern. Johnson’s jokes often have double meanings. In Puzzleman (2008), the artist assembled wooden puzzle pieces to create a replica of Auguste Rodin's The Thinker. A closer observation reveals that the sculpture contains another puzzle: Johnson replaced the figure’s head with a portrait of Symbolist painter Paul Gauguin.
Los-Angeles based artist Matt Johnson, a former student of Charles Ray, crafts visual jokes through the juxtaposition of material and subject matter. The artist has created faces in Wonder Bread, rendered the Pietà—the traditional depiction of Mary holding a dead Christ in Christian Art—out of bronze pipes, and transformed a basketball into a Jack-O-Lantern. Johnson’s jokes often have double meanings. In Puzzleman (2008), the artist assembled wooden puzzle pieces to create a replica of Auguste Rodin's The Thinker. A closer observation reveals that the sculpture contains another puzzle: Johnson replaced the figure’s head with a portrait of Symbolist painter Paul Gauguin.
