Alan Johnston

Born in Edinburgh, UK, 1945

Lives and works in Edinburgh, UK

“My work explores spatial contexts and relations through drawing and architectural construction, reflecting on the spatial and tactual implications in architecture where perceptual notions are rendered as common factors in sight and touch. This field is closely related to the work of Patrick Geddes, ‘Philosophical Generalism’, and ‘Gesamtkunstwerk’. This is a comparative context which has its roots in the practice of art, architecture and visual thinking in the West and the East, and relates to concepts and practices such as Wabi Sabi. I engage in collaborative initiatives in art and architecture with Professor Shinichi Ogawa, Tokyo, and Neil Gillespie, Edinburgh.”

Biography

Alan Johnston was born in Edinburgh in 1945 and lives and works there. He studied at Edinburgh College of Art from 1964 to 1969, at the Royal College of Art in London from 1969 to 1972, and at the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf from 1972 to 1973. His practice centres on drawing, wall drawing, and installation, engaging with questions of space, line, geometry, and the perceptual relationships between art and architecture. His work draws on traditions of visual thinking in both Western and Eastern contexts, and he has developed collaborative projects in art and architecture with Professor Shinichi Ogawa in Tokyo and Neil Gillespie in Edinburgh.

Johnston's exhibition history spans five decades and extends across Europe, North America, Asia, and Australia. Solo presentations have been held at institutions including Tate Britain, London; the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds; the Museum of Fine Art, Houston; the Mies van der Rohe Haus, Berlin; and the Pier Arts Centre, Stromness. He has shown with Bartha Contemporary in London and at Art Cologne, including retrospective exhibitions in 2017. Group exhibitions have included participation at the Gwangju Biennale in 2002 and at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, in 1997. His work is held in public collections including the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh, and the National Gallery of Scotland.