Larry Johnson: On Location
11 June to 9 August 2015
Larry Johnson
Untitled (Perino’s Front, Perino’s Rear), 1998
Colour photographs, 2 panels, edition of 3
Ringier Collection, Switzerland
Right:
Larry Johnson
Flaming Big Top (For Charles Nelson Reilly), 2015
Wallpaper
Unlimited Edition
Courtesy of the artist
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Larry Johnson’s first major survey in Europe, On Location brings together a selection of works by the artist (born 1959 in Long Beach, California) from the early 1990s to the present.
The show’s uncontested star is Los Angeles, the city in which Johnson has lived and worked all his life. For over thirty years, L.A.’s physical and imaginary landscape has served as the set for the artist’s photo-based investigations of the glamour industry, replete with fading stars and premature deaths.
Johnson's work bears the marks of a generation of artists sampling readymade images and texts to create seductively laconic pictures. Yet the colourful sheen of Johnson’s photo-based works is also a foil for sexual, political and semantic tensions. The artist’s pictures are encryptions of a Hollywood demi-monde, referring to the cultures from which his work emerges – queer, political, filmic and theoretical.
The exhibition is curated by Los Angeles-based writer Bruce Hainley, and by Antony Hudek, Curator and Deputy Director of Raven Row. Commie Pinko Guy, a publication edited by Hainley with new essays by Morgan Fisher, Lisa Lapinski, Hainley, Hudek and Wayne Koestenbaum, as well as reprints of classic underground queer writing, accompanies the exhibition.
Larry Johnson
Untitled (Cinema Moralia), 2010
Colour photograph
Edition of 3
Collection of David Kordansky and Mindy Shapero, Los Angeles
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Larry Johnson: On Location
Exhibition view, Raven Row, 2015, showing from left to right:
Untitled (The Thinking Man’s Judy Garland), 1999-2000
Colour photograph
Edition of 3
Property of a lady, Los Angeles
Untitled (Moved to Tears), 2010
Colour photograph
Edition of 3
Collection of David Kordansky and Mindy Shapero, Los Angeles
Untitled (Perino’s Front, Perino’s Rear), 1998
Colour photographs, 2 panels, edition of 3
Ringier Collection, Switzerland
Flaming Big Top (For Charles Nelson Reilly), 2015
Wallpaper
Unlimited Edition
Courtesy of the artist
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Larry Johnson
Untitled (Ovation), 2001
Colour photographs, 8 panels
Edition of 2
Courtesy of the artist
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Larry Johnson: On Location
Exhibition view, Raven Row, 2015, showing from left to right:
Untitled (Albatross Nest), 1995
Colour photograph
Edition of 3
Courtesy of Patrick Painter Gallery, Los Angeles
Untitled (Ovation), 2001 (detail)
Colour photographs, 1 of 8 panels
Edition of 2
Courtesy of the artist
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Larry Johnson
Untitled (Perino’s Front, Perino’s Rear), 1998
Colour photographs, 2 panels, edition of 3
Ringier Collection, Switzerland
Right:
Larry Johnson
Flaming Big Top (For Charles Nelson Reilly), 2015
Wallpaper
Unlimited Edition
Courtesy of the artist
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Larry Johnson: On Location
Exhibition view, Raven Row, 2015, showing from left to right:
Untitled (Ice Breaker), 2010
Colour photographs, 2 panels
Edition of 3
Collection of Pleasant Gehman
Untitled (Projector), 2007
Colour photograph
Edition of 2
Collection of c. nichols project
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Larry Johnson
Untitled (Raven Row Giraffe), 2015
Colour photograph
Made for the exhibition, Larry Johnson: On Location
Courtesy of the artist and Raven Row
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Larry Johnson
Untitled (Achievement: SW Corner, Glendale + Silverlake Blvds), 2009
Colour photograph
Edition of 3
Property of a lady, Los Angeles
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Larry Johnson: On Location
Exhibition view, Raven Row, London, 2015, showing:
Untitled (The Two Economies), 1999-2000
Colour photographs, 2 panels
Edition of 3
Collection of Lisa Melamed
Flaming Big Top (For Charles Nelson Reilly), 2015
Wallpaper
Unlimited Edition
Courtesy of the artist
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Larry Johnson: On Location
Exhibition view, Raven Row, London, 2015, showing:
Untitled (Jesus + I), 1990
Colour photograph
Edition of 3
Collection of Wendy and Robert Brandow
Flaming Big Top (For Charles Nelson Reilly), 2015
Wallpaper
Unlimited Edition
Courtesy of the artist
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Larry Johnson: On Location
Exhibition view, Raven Row, London, 2015, showing from left to right:
Untitled (Nathan Lane), 1998
Colour photograph
Edition of 3
Collection of Dr Leigh Silverton
Untitled (The Study), 1998
Colour photograph
Edition of 3
Collection of David Kordansky and Mindy Shapero, Los Angeles
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Larry Johnson: On Location
Exhibition view, Raven Row, London, 2015, showing from left to right:
Untitled (Moviegoer Type), 2010
Inkjet print
Edition of 3
Courtesy of the artist and 303 Gallery, New York
Untitled (Ovation), 2001 [detail]
Colour photographs, 8 panels
Edition of 2
Courtesy of the artist
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Larry Johnson: On Location
Exhibition view, Raven Row, London, 2015, showing:
Untitled (Ovation), 2001 [detail]
Colour photographs, 8 panels
Edition of 2
Courtesy of the artist
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Larry Johnson: On Location
Exhibition view, Raven Row, London, 2015, showing:
Untitled (Ovation), 2001 [detail]
Colour photographs, 8 panels
Edition of 2
Courtesy of the artist
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Larry Johnson: On Location
Exhibition view, Raven Row, London, 2015, showing from left to right:
Untitled (Leo Ford), 1999-2000
Colour photograph
Edition of 3
Courtesy of the artist and David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles
Untitled (Some Details with Dandruff Circled), 1995; printed in 2013
Colour photograph
Edition of 3
Courtesy of the artist and 303 Gallery, New York
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Larry Johnson
Untitled (Ass), 2007
Colour photograph
Edition of 2
Collection of Alex Israel
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Larry Johnson: On Location
Exhibition view, Raven Row, London, 2015, showing from left to right:
Untitled (Copier), 2007
Colour photograph
Edition of 2
Collection of Edward Israel
Untitled (Jesus + I), 1990
Colour photograph
Edition of 3
Collection of Wendy and Robert Brandow
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Larry Johnson: On Location
Exhibition view, Raven Row, London, 2015, showing from left to right:
Untitled (Storyboard), 1995 (detail)
Colour photographs, 3 panels
Edition of 3
Courtesy of the artist and 303 Gallery, New York
Untitled (Some Details with Dandruff Circled), 1995; printed in 2013
Colour photograph
Edition of 3
Courtesy of the artist and 303 Gallery, New York
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Larry Johnson
Untitled (Ovation), 2001 (detail)
Colour photographs, 8 panels
Edition of 2
Courtesy of the artist
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Larry Johnson
Untitled (Ovation), 2001 (detail)
Colour photographs, 8 panels
Edition of 2
Courtesy of the artist
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Larry Johnson
Untitled (John Sex), 1999-2000
Colour photograph
Edition of 3
Collection of David Kordansky and Mindy Shapero, Los Angeles
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Larry Johnson
Untitled (PIX PIX PIX PIX), 2010
Colour photograph
Edition of 3
Collection of Lisa Melamed
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Larry Johnson
Untitled (HMR), 1998
Colour photograph
Edition of 3
Ringier Collection, Switzerland
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Larry Johnson
Untitled (Land w/o Bread), 1999-2000
Colour photographs, 4 panels
Edition of 3
Collection of David Kordansky and Mindy Shapero, Los Angeles
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Larry Johnson: On Location
Exhibition view, Raven Row, London, 2015, showing from left to right:
Untitled (HMR), 1998
Colour photograph
Edition of 3
Ringier Collection, Switzerland
Untitled (Location I), 2001
Colour photograph
Edition of 3
Courtesy of the artist and 303 Gallery, New York
Untitled (Land w/o Bread), 1999-2000 (detail)
Colour photographs, 4 panels
Edition of 3
Collection of David Kordansky and Mindy Shapero, Los Angeles
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Larry Johnson: On Location
Exhibition view, Raven Row, London, 2015, showing from left to right:
Untitled (Location III), 2001
Colour photograph
Edition of 3
Courtesy of the artist and David Kordansky Gallery, Los Angeles
Untitled (Location I), 2001
Colour photograph
Edition of 3
Courtesy of the artist and 303 Gallery, New York
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Larry Johnson
Untitled (Landscape), 1998
Colour photograph
Edition of 3
Collection of Ed Ruscha
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith
Larry Johnson
Untitled (Kangaroo), 2007
Colour photograph
Edition of 2
Collection of Hanh Dam
Photograph by Marcus J. Leith