Sue Johnson, professor of art, is exhibiting her work in a solo exhibition now on view at the Workhouse Art Center in Lorton, Virginia, through June 6, with the virtual opening taking place Saturday, March 27, via Facebook Live: https://www.facebook.com/WorkhouseArts.
The exhibition, featuring new works from Hall of Portraits from The History of Machines, is guest curated by Jaynelle Hazard, presented in partnership with the Lucy Burns Museum, and will be on view in the McGuireWoods Gallery.
Hall of Portraits from The History of Machines proposes an alternate pictorial history rooted in the mid-20th century where Johnson explores the evolution of the modern woman. Her work exposes parallels in the cornerstone moment when women began to be idealized for machine-like efficiency and when industrial progress envisioned domestic machines, such as vacuum cleaners, sewing machines, dishwashers, and telephones to provide labor-saving solutions. Drawing on a collection of vintage advertisements and editorial fashion pages, Johnson merges commodification with objectification by melding household convenience objects with the emergent female form; in result, creating a dream-like experience that transports the viewer into a world full of hybrid women provocatively suspended in mid-transformation.
“Mining the archive is like building a time machine; I look at the material culture of the past as a way of understanding what has come into being in our contemporary times,” said Johnson.
For more information on her exhibition, visit: https://www.workhousearts.org/exhibitions/hall-of-portraits/
Image caption: Sue Johnson, “Self-Erasing Woman,” Hall of Portraits from The History of Machines, acrylic over print on canvas from artists original image with imprinting from daisy-pattern fabric, 2020
