A Passing Resemblance Johnny Thornton April 12 – May 23rd, 2019 Opening Reception: Friday, April 12th from 7:00–9:00pm

 

Established Gallery is pleased to present A Passing Resemblance, a solo exhibition by Johnny Thornton. This is the artist’s first solo exhibition at the gallery. The exhibition will be on view from April 12th through May 10th with an opening reception on Friday, April 12th from 7:00–9:00pm.

 

We are the ephemeral remnants.

We are an artifact of a past simulacrum.

We are homogenized collective memory.

We were once here.

We were once something else.

Now only a passing resemblance.

 

A Passing Resemblance is a group of one of a kind vintage photographs and painted portraits by Thornton that are used as a raw material to which he introduces blind contour drawings that dramatically alter the original. Thornton’s quick, cathartic and mostly uncontrolled interventions leave these “precious” surfaces permanently transformed and stripped of their original context. These works explore preciousness, socially constructed memory, beauty, ephemerality and the artists own subjectivity.

 

Johnny Thornton is an artist that lives and works in New York City. Born in Connecticut, he spent his childhood in Johannesburg, South Africa, before moving to Tucson, Arizona, where he studied Fine Arts at the University of Arizona. He received his Master of Fine Arts from Parsons the New School for Design in New York City. Thornton has had work exhibited throughout the United States and is part of several collections. Currently, Thornton works out of his studio in Brooklyn, NY and is the Gallery Director at La Bodega Gallery in Brooklyn and the Program Director of Arts Gowanus, a nonprofit organization based in Brooklyn.