Lanning Gallery To Feature Paintings by David Johns

Written by Liz Boykin Saturday, 29 May 2010 21:34

SEDONA, AZ: Award-winning artist David Johns will unveil new works at Lanning Gallery during Sedona’s “1^st Friday Gallery Tour” on June 4, from 5-8 pm. The acclaimed artist will give a rare talk at 6 pm. For visitors to Hozho Center that evening, a rich experience awaits: after Johns’s talk, sculptor Larry Yazzie speaks at sister gallery Turquoise Tortoise and Grammy-nominated flute player Kel Mockingbird will play at both galleries throughout the evening.

Johns is much heralded for his figurative paintings but it has always been his abstract paintings that allow him the freedom to capture on canvas the elements of his Diné (Navajo) heritage that would, to a lesser artist, be unattainable. As a result, Johns’s paintings are rich with the stories, prayers, dance, ceremony, place and presence of the Diné.

One of his new works, “Manifestation – Landscape,” a large acrylic painting measuring 72” high by 60” wide, represents “the manifestation of the Holy People through stellular mystery,” Johns explains. He goes on to note that in Diné history there are events that tell of how things came into the way they are today, even as the modern world has seemed to lose sight of the fact that, as a manifestation of the creator, all life is sacred.

For Johns this particular painting reflects the stories he grew up with: “I walk the land, looking down at the ground for not to disturb any living species with my steps. This reflects in the painting, the memories, the space, the cleanness, horizon with mirages; but my focus is my walking and observed nature with a rich understanding.”

Johns earned a BFA from Northern Arizona University's School of Fine Arts and was awarded an honorary Doctorate from the university in 1997.   In the foreword of “David Johns, On the Trail of Beauty,” published in 1991, Pulitzer Prize-winning author N. Scott Momaday writes: “David Johns is a seer, and he comes very honestly by that gift. In his remarkable artwork, he enables us to see as well.” It is a world-view held by Native American people that Johns expresses on canvas. “You can see all kinds of forms, lines and shapes; it's out there," Johns says, in speaking of all that contributes to the realization of beauty. "All you have to do is look around you."

For further information: Lanning Gallery, Hozho Center, 431 S.R. 179, Sedona, AZ. 928-282-6865 or www.lanninggallery.com . Open daily: 10-6:00 Mon-Sat, 11-5 Sun.