About
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Mark Johnson was born in New York City in 1964 and works in New York and Portland, Maine. He holds a BA from Oberlin College and an MA from New York University.

His paintings and prints have been shown in the United States and abroad, including the 2025 Biennial at the Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Planthouse Gallery (New York, NY), Susan Maasch Fine Art (Portland, ME), and the Print Center New York. His work appears in Color: A Workshop for Artists and Designers by David Hornung.

Beyond the studio, Mark designed and built a residential house, a barn, and small cabins, reflecting his ongoing interest in material, space, and form, and he is also a guitarist in a rock band.

Artist Statement:
In 1969, two experiences were formative: watching the first human walk on the moon and moving with my family to India for a year. One took place in space, the other on Earth, but together they opened a sense of scale and possibility that continues to shape how I think about the world and about making art.

Across paintings and prints, my work considers questions of scale, perception, and presence. Whether grounded in direct experience of the sea or informed by ideas of cosmic space, materials and process are central—allowing abstract ideas and natural phenomena to take on physical form.

Unsettled Weather and Seascape Paintings:
The experience of living for extended periods of time on Pumpkin Knob, a small island in Casco Bay Maine without electricity or running water, is at the core of my paintings. I am literally surrounded by weather, tides, moon cycles, cloud formations and the play of wind, all offering a world in constant motion and flux. The physical landscape and the transient states of the sea and sky, provide endless opportunities to explore an ongoing interest in combining opposites – abstraction and representation, movement and stillness, near and far, the known and the unknown – while also underscoring my view of art as both a form of communication and a means for contemplation.

Storms and fog have been recurring subjects. What began as a way of working with a continually changing environment has gradually become a broader reflection on uncertainty and duration.

Event Horizons and Energy Field Paintings:
Recent paintings and relief panels consider how space is formed and shaped by forces that are largely unseen. Drawing on observations from the Hubble and Webb space telescopes, these works construct fields in which vast, intangible systems are made perceptible within contained, physical structures.

Prints:
My print practice includes silkscreen, etching, and digital print series developed in parallel with the paintings. The Dark Matter series of work engage ideas of cosmic scale, energy, and matter, often combining abstract structures with references to planetary systems and distant galaxies.

The Chart Series and Galaxies are intaglio prints created through a combination of digital tools, laser cutting, and traditional printmaking techniques, reflecting a long-term engagement with process and experimentation.