On view November 10 – December 6, 2022

Johnny DeFeo (b. 1985) creates vibrant and layered acrylic paintings that focus on the landscape, its history, and the creatures that inhabit it. The local fauna become storytellers revealing their own passions and dramas normally unseen by humans. In his compositions natural beauty coexists with the threat of human desolation. He imagines a timeless rewilding that can’t quite escape from the hand of man. In his landscapes time is fluid but with a wary eye to the future.

DeFeo is based in Taos, NM. He received an MFA in painting from the University of Colorado in 2017. Shortly after graduating he co-founded Adventure Painting, a traveling artist residency alongside painter Aaron Zulpo. The Adventure Painting residency takes artists out of their studios and into America’s most beautiful locations with the goal to expand the visual lexicon of landscape painting. Adventure Painting was selected as an Armory Show off-site project in 2021, and featured in the New York Times. His 2021 solo exhibition Soft Eye was presented at Visions West Contemporary in Denver, CO. His paintings have been included in recent exhibitions at 1969 Gallery, New York, NY; The Valley, Taos, NM; Van Rensburg Gallery Milton, AUS; The University of Denver Museum of Art, Denver, CO; Claremont Art Museum, CA; and The AR Mitchell Museum of Western Art, Trinidad, CO. His work is included in many permanent collections including the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection, West Palm Beach, FL.