Kysa Johnson represents nebula, neutron stars, and star clouds using the spiraling paths of the tiniest particles.
LOS ANGELES — Legend has it that King Solomon once ordered his wise man to find him something that would make a sad man happy and a happy man sad. The wise man searched for many years before he finally returned, presenting Solomon with a plain silver ring bearing a four-word inscription: this too shall pass.
Kysa Johnson’s paintings work similarly, but by different means. As Above So Below, Johnson’s first solo show with Von Lintel Gallery and her first in Los Angeles, consists of 12 colorful ink-on-board works representing cosmic phenomena like nebula, neutron stars, and star clouds, anchored by an installation in the back room. Johnson does not portray the universe as we see it in photographs from the Hubble Telescope, though those pictures are clearly among her points of departure. Rather, she creates her images by building up a palimpsest of subatomic decay patterns: the straight, curvilinear, and spiraling paths of these tiniest of particles, which scientists study using accelerators and electronic detectors. Like Solomon’s ring, these pictures are emblems of constant change. Atoms decay, stars die.
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