Ben Johnson, Alan Cristea Gallery

Exploring a recent fascination in the geometry of Islamic architecture, London-based Ben Johnson's latest set of crystal clear, photographically precise acrylic painintings seem decidedly ‘realist’. But as this new solo show at Alan Cristea Gallery will reveal, Johnson is more concerned with another reality – one positioned between the real and the imaginary. 

Stylistically they might be far apart but, in terms of their central philosophy, Johnson’s work can perhaps be aligned with famed surrealists such as Salvador Dalì. These experimental painters desired a strange and uncanny beauty in a painting, depicting neither what they saw in the real world, or their desired fantasy, but a totally different plane of imagination. Johnson’s admits that he is drawn to strange, sterile places, which one “could mistake for a dream”. Like the surrealists, his work is about escaping the here and now: “finding a moment of peace and equilibrium in a chaotic world.”

But coming from a different end of art history, Johnson’s paintings might also evoke the Genre paintings of the Northern Renaissance, when inventions such as the Camera Obscura and strict geometry were utilised to turn paintings into a ‘window onto the world’. Johnson’s dogmatic use of linear perspective conjures up the physical sense of a real room, compelling us into its depths before we are reminded it is a flat surface. Leaving human figures absent in his work, the viewer looks into the painted room and feels they have found a private space of their own.

Vanquishing the myth of the elusive artist genius, Johnson is one who is keen to reveal his painterly process to the public. Recently, he painted his work The Stonemason’s Yard over a six-week period in an 'open studio' which attracted 73,000 visitors. Johnson’s work is meant to be a shared meditative experience, immersing his audience. Critics have even gone so far as to claim there is a religious monumentality contained in Johnson’s panoramic paintings, which unusually snapshot the rare stillness of vast metropolitan centres. His past cityscapes have included Hong Kong, Jerusalem and Zurich. According to sources, Johnson is a follower of Buddhism, although he doesn’t willingly inform the public of this fact.

Either way, the grand-scale and astounding detail of these skilled works is enough to inspire a little awe amongst any viewer. His projects take on the enormity of an architectural project and, most interestingly, he is the only British painter to become an Honorary Fellow of the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA).  Catch this show to see Johnson make an interesting transition from the stilled cityscape to the  spiritual sanctum.