Yossi Milo Gallery 245 Tenth Avenue 10001 New York États-Unis
In his ongoing series Until the Kingdom Comes, begun in 2004 and first shown at the gallery in 2006, Simen Johan depicts a natural world hovering between reality, fantasy and nightmare. Merging traditional photographic techniques with digital methods, Johan's images are crafted over time and may include a synthesis of landscapes from various geographical locations and animals photographed in captivity or in the wild. Three of Johan's recent sculptures incorporating taxidermy, insects and foliage into miniature ecosystems will also be included in the show. In his work, Johan confounds the boundaries between the real and the unreal, re-imagining worlds that, much like our own, are forever a mystery, layered with meaning.
Simen Johan's work is included in the permanent collections of institutions such as the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Brooklyn Museum of Art; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art and the Cleveland Art Museum. In 2010-11, work from the series Until the Kingdom Comes will be presented in a solo exhibition at the Frist Center of Art in Nashville, TN. His work has been featured in solo museum exhibitions at the Kunstnernes Hus in Oslo, Norway, and the National Art Museum of Lithuania. In 2003, Twin Palms published his monograph, Room to Play. Simen Johan was born in Kirkenes, Norway in 1973. He was raised in Sweden and has resided in New York City since 1992.