The Truro Center for the Arts at Castle Hill in Massachusetts is presenting "Twenty Years in Truro (Selected Paintings 1989-2025)," a comprehensive solo exhibition showcasing the work of San Francisco Bay Area artist Mitchell Johnson. The exhibition runs from September 3-14, 2025, marking Johnson's fifth show at Castle Hill, where he has been teaching a master color class every September.
Johnson's remarkable 45-year painting career has been shaped by three pivotal moments that fundamentally altered his artistic trajectory. The first watershed moment came in 1989 with a transformative work trip to France, followed by his relocation from New York City to Palo Alto, California in 1990, and culminating with his initial painting expedition to Cape Cod in 2005.
Reflecting on these career-defining experiences, Johnson explains: "I followed a very strong hunch that what I needed in 1989 was to leave graduate school and paint alone in France. It was all my idea, all my doing. In 1990, I was offered a chance to work in the studio of Sam Francis in Palo Alto, California. I didn't want to leave NYC. I called Sol LeWitt on the phone, hoping he would say that I could join the Wall Drawing Team and stay in NYC. Instead he convinced me that I should move to California."
The artist's connection to Cape Cod began through an unexpected invitation in 2005. "In 2005, the art dealer Sally Munson invited me to visit Chatham, MA, to produce local work for a show she was curating of my European landscapes. My first paintings of Truro, paintings which changed my trajectory, were made because of Sally," Johnson recalls. He philosophically adds, "Life, especially life in the art world, is an interesting combination of the things you pursue and the things that come your way. California fell into my lap. Truro fell into my lap."
Johnson's two decades of annual painting trips to Cape Cod began in May 2005, immediately following his visit to the historic Giorgio Morandi and Josef Albers exhibition in Bologna, Italy. His arrival on the Cape coincided with a crucial evolution in his artistic style, as his paintings were transitioning from brushy, impressionistic works to compositions featuring large areas of flat color that used familiar, even iconic motifs to explore color relativity.
The 2025 survey exhibition at Castle Hill demonstrates the profound impact of Johnson's first Cape Cod residency, examining how North Truro motifs influenced his entire body of work. The show features early Truro pieces on loan from the Cape Cod Museum of Art, including the notable "Truro n. 6" (2005), which gained widespread recognition after appearing in two feature films directed by Nancy Meyers: "The Holiday" (2009) and "Crazy Stupid Love" (2011). The exhibition also encompasses paintings created in New York, Europe, California, New England, and Newfoundland, showcasing the breadth of Johnson's geographic inspiration.
Art critic Donald Kuspit has reviewed Johnson's work on three separate occasions, including a 2023 analysis in Whitehot Magazine. Kuspit wrote: "Johnson is a master of abstraction, as his oddly constructivist paintings show, but of unconscious feeling, for his geometry serves to contain and with that control the strong feelings implicit in his strong colors. Apart from that, his paintings are art historically important, because they seamlessly fuse abstraction and realism, which Kandinsky tore apart to the detriment of both even as he recognized that they were implicitly inseparable, tied together in a Gordian knot, as they masterfully are in Johnson's paintings."
Johnson's artistic journey began in the late 1970s as a teenager at Staten Island Academy. He earned his Master of Fine Arts degree from Parsons School of Design in 1990 and also studied painting, drawing, and art history at the Washington Studio School and Randolph-Macon College. His work has achieved significant institutional recognition, with paintings held in the permanent collections of over 35 museums worldwide. Johnson has appeared on television programs in France (BFM Nice), Italy (Generazione Bellezza), and Monaco (Monaco InfoTV), and has served as a visiting artist at prestigious institutions including the Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, the American Academy in Rome, Borgo Finocchieto, and the LeWitt House in Praiano, Italy.
The exhibition will feature special events for art enthusiasts and collectors. An Artist Reception is scheduled for Thursday, September 4, from 4-6 PM Eastern Time, followed by an Artist Talk on Friday, September 5, from 3:00-3:30 PM Eastern Time. Visitors can find additional information at mitchelljohnson.com and follow the artist's work on Instagram at mitchell_johnson_artist. Concurrently, Johnson's exhibition of Paris paintings at Flea Street in Menlo Park, California, has been extended through September 18, offering West Coast audiences another opportunity to experience his work.
