In his latest work, Clay Johnson has interjected a new kind of energy into the formalistic aspects of his paintings. Color, texture, proportion, and spatial relationships are resolved with anger or struggle at times; at other times through the sheer beauty of space. Elements of time and memory find their way into his nonobjective, non-representational approach, where moments are lost or revealed through the intellectual enterprise of painting. The result is a new narrative that infers the artist’s personal, emotional, and intellectual history written into the process of the painting itself.

– Susan Moldenhauer
December 2019