Ervin A. Johnson: #InHonor
“Joshua,” 1/1 by Ervin A. Johnson, Unique, Photo Based Mixed Media Print
Ervin A. Johnson, a native Chicagoan artist, has mounted a solo show at Candela Books in Richmond, Virginia that demonstrates the effects of police brutality in America. A series of large-scale photographic portraits of young black men and women take center stage. The images are distorted, having decolorized facial features and painted over to alter the pigmentation. Johnson describes this process as a meticulous reconstruction of the canvas. Each portrait is evocative images of possible victims of traumatic and deadly policy brutality that is seen on social media; hence the title of the exhibit is #InHonor. A continuation of the series is exhibited in an adjacent room, showing Johnson’s experimentation with an exceptionally smaller canvas, using a collage-like reconstruction of portraits.
Johnson's series pushes the viewer to recognize the physical and mental scarring police brutality has inflicted on today’s African American community.
