John Denniston
Behind
oil on canvas. 60” x 48”. 2021
Execution of Progress
graphite, acrylic and oil on canvas. 120” x 96”. 2022
Fiction, Faith and Fact
acrylic, oil, chalk pastel and charcoal on canvas. 48” x 60”. 2022
Headless Manhorse
acrylic, oil, charcoal, chalk pastel, oil based clay on canvas. 50” x 50”. 2021
Artist Statement
Through imagination, observation, and memory, John Denniston improvises physically realistic scenes with a sensitivity to the structures of picture making and its ideological implications. Linear perspective and color temperature are manipulated to depict spatial contradictions and narrative chaos as allegories for the United States. By composing paintings out of chaotic abstraction, Denniston opens a surreal sphere of figurative possibilities where introspection meets his anthropological context. Taking on historical problems, such as the pitfalls of the enlightenment and the catastrophes of the twentieth century, challenges the abilities of paint and the structures of picture-making. Denniston’s paintings are not as instrumentalizable as hard science or life-changing philosophy; in fact, their merit is in their attempt to take on these topics and yet remain color on a surface. It is only in the location of art that one may actually work through such heavy concepts as if they were weightless. Art is to philosophy as philosophy is to science, and it is from this perspective that Denniston pressures the structure of painting to generate meaning beyond the depicted. In this space the formal is conceptual, allowing for technical narratives to coordinate with dramatic narratives to form paintings that are dense with historical commentary and intimate with Denniston’s head and hand.
John Denniston II is a painter and sculptor born in the San Fernando Valley of Los Angeles, California (b. 1999). Being raised by a family of dancers encouraged Denniston to become creative, which remained internal as a result of childhood introversion. Drawing became a way to release images conceptualized in his mind, while a passion for physics and philosophy deepened the purpose and content in his images. Denniston received his BFA in painting and a minor in art history from Pratt Institute in 2022 which was immediately followed by a solo exhibition at the inaugural opening of Swivel Gallery's second location in Saugerties, New York.