Menlo Park artist Mitchell Johnson is presenting his largest show yet on the Peninsula. “It Takes Time” at the former Pace gallery space, shows 35 paintings, many highlighting Palo Alto’s role in the artist’s life and career. Johnson moved to the area in 1990 from New York City to work for Bay Area painter Sam Francis.
This new show includes the debut of 15 large paintings created between 2019-2023. Johnson said he frequently works on paintings “for months, if not years, carefully tuning and adjusting color relationships to achieve unique and unexpected commentary on our day-to-day surroundings.” The exhibition will also include a selection of earlier, small paintings from his 40-year practice.
Johnson will also be the subject of a retrospective at Villa les Camélias in Cap d’Ail, France, in the summer of 2024.