“Mitchell Johnson: A Retrospective of Paintings from Truro, 1989-2025”
Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill in Massachusetts is showcasing an evocative solo exhibition titled Twenty Years in Truro (Selected Paintings 1989-2025), featuring works by acclaimed San Francisco Bay Area artist Mitchell Johnson. This exhibition, running from September 3 to September 14, 2025, marks Johnson’s fifth exhibition at Castle Hill, where he also teaches a sought-after master color class every September.
Johnson reflects on three pivotal moments that have significantly shaped his 45-year painting journey. The first moment was in 1989, when he took a bold step to leave graduate school and pursue painting alone in France. The second was his relocation in 1990 from New York City to Palo Alto, California, spurred by an offer to work in the studio of Sam Francis, a move he was initially reluctant to make. Finally, in 2005, an invitation from art dealer Sally Munson to Chatham, MA, led him to his first transformative painting session in Cape Cod, an experience that would become central to his artistic narrative. Johnson’s reflection captures the serendipitous nature of his career: “Life, especially life in the art world, is an interesting combination of the things you pursue and the things that come your way. California fell into my lap. Truro fell into my lap.”
Since May 2005, Johnson has made annual painting trips to Cape Cod, a practice that began shortly after he was profoundly influenced by an exhibit of Giorgio Morandi and Josef Albers in Bologna, Italy. This exhibition comes at a significant moment as his work shifted focus toward exploring large flat color fields and iconic motifs, enhancing the perception of color relativity. The 2025 survey at Castle Hill showcases this evolution, displaying early Truro works such as “Truro n. 6” (2005), borrowed from the Cape Cod Museum of Art, and featured in films like The Holiday (2009) and Crazy Stupid Love (2011). Additionally, the exhibition features pieces from various locations—New York, Europe, California, New England, and Newfoundland—highlighting Johnson’s geographical and thematic diversity.
Esteemed art critic Donald Kuspit has reviewed Johnson’s work on multiple occasions, including a 2023 article in Whitehot Magazine where he praised the artist’s mastery of abstraction and his unique ability to blend abstraction and realism, stating: “Johnson is a master of abstraction, as his oddly constructivist paintings show, but of unconscious feeling, for his geometry serves to contain and with that control the strong feelings implicit in his strong colors. Apart from that, his paintings are art historically important, because they seamlessly fuse abstraction and realism, which Kandinsky tore apart to the detriment of both even as he recognized that they were implicitly inseparable, tied together in a Gordian knot, as they masterfully are in Johnson’s paintings.”
About the Artist
Mitchell Johnson began his painting career as a teenager in the late 1970s at Staten Island Academy. He went on to receive an MFA from Parsons School of Design in 1990 and pursued studies in painting, drawing, and art history at the Washington Studio School and Randolph-Macon College. His works are part of over 35 museum collections. Johnson has made appearances on television programs in France, Italy, and Monaco. Moreover, his esteemed role as a visiting artist has taken him to reputable institutions like the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, the American Academy in Rome, Borgo Finocchieto, and the LeWitt House in Praiano, Italy.
About the Exhibition
The exhibition Twenty Years in Truro (Selected Paintings 1989-2025) will be open from September 3–14 at the Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill in Cape Cod, Massachusetts.
- Artist Reception: Thursday, September 4, 4–6pm (ET)
- Artist Talk: Friday, September 5, 3:00–3:30pm (ET)
For more information, visit mitchelljohnson.com and follow him on Instagram at @mitchell_johnson_artist.
Additionally, Johnson’s exhibition of Paris paintings at Flea Street