NO ROSES IN DECEMBER
DAVID EDWARD JOHNSON • 9 WEEK SOLO SHOW • THE EVERSON MUSEUM
A POWERFUL SERIES IN A CELEBRATED LOCATION
I am BEYOND thrilled to invite you to a 9 week solo museum exhibition at the esteemed Everson Museum of Art in Syracuse, New York — NOW OPEN. The museum’s permanent collection of over 11,000 works contains so many of my true heroes from the art world :: Rauschenberg... Frankenthaler... Held... Warhol... Kruger... Sherman... Wyeth... Trova... Spero... Guston... Basquiat... And SO many more. All housed in a brutalist classic building designed by legend I.M. Pei. It’s a HUGE honor to show there for me and I am very grateful to the museum for the opportunity.
I am exhibiting my series NO ROSES IN DECEMBER, exploring memory and loss — the 8 original works, plus a brand new, large-scale 5 foot by 6.5 foot assemblage creation on wood-cradled panel entitled “DIVISION.”
"This was such a deeply personal series for me. I am so very gratified to see it find an audience at a historic museum like The Everson. To have the work in a setting created by legendary architectural master I.M. Pei is the icing on the cake. Honored and chuffed is an understatement."
DAVID EDWARD JOHNSON, ARTIST
Always wonderful to capture real, visceral reactions to the work.
Shout out to the Morris Louis, Helen Frankenthaler, and Al Held works visible in the opening frames of the video -- gorgeous work.
ABOUT NO ROSES IN DECEMBER
My father entered full time memory care this fall. It’s been strange and difficult. Dementia is a plague upon our modern society, shattering lives in its wake. Those suffering have their identities and dignity torn from them, leaving a ghostlike echo of the person that was there before. I am exploring what I have personally observed about that process with my father and the haunting result of a mind in free fall. The works center around a group of photographs of abandoned adobes and lost vistas in the West Texas desert that I took this summer in preparation for these paintings. In those photos, where life was, only shells remain. What life is there is often solitary and hard-won. Those photos are then paired with abstract, mixed media painting and an array of vintage papers, found objects and other ephemera in an attempt to express fragmented shards of memory.
The series title is a reference to a poem by Geoffrey Anketell Studdert-Kennedy. Scottish "Peter Pan” author JM Barrie quoted that poem in a 1922 speech about courage, “God gave us memory so that we might have roses in December.” But no memory means no remembered blooms in the chill of the December of life. I can only hope to express in some small way the harrowing, lonely, and wistful process of memory loss through this emotional series.
No Roses In December • The Short Film
DEBUTING AT THE SHOW
DIVISION • 2024 • Custom Photography, Found Objects, Acrylic, Graphite, Spray Paint, Crayon, Paper, Cardboard, and Household on Cradled Wood Panel
ARTIST TALK
I was so thrilled to be able to share insights about this emotional series directly in the gallery with the show at The Everson Museum. We had a wonderful turnout. I spoke for about 30 minutes, played the short film from the series, and was asked some really amazing questions.
Artist insights, delivered honestly.
THANK YOU EVERSON MUSEUM
I want to send out a HUGE THANK YOU to the Everson Museum for this amazing opportunity. Their investment in emerging and mid-career artists is nothing short of transformative. I feel so very lucky to have had this experience.
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