News

Holly Johnson Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of Otis Jones + Bret Slater, an exhibition of twenty recent paintings by the artists. An opening reception will be held on Saturday, May 17, from 6:00 to 8:00 p.m. A catalogue with an essay by San Francisco-based art historian E. Luanne McKinnon will be available for sale. The exhibition continues through Saturday, July 26, 2014.

Otis Jones + Bret Slater, is a continuing investigation of abstraction by both artists and is the first time their works will be seen together. Walking a fine line between painting and sculpture, and balancing composition and materials with natural, everyday shapes - the paintings exude a physicality that is more than just a little object-like.

Otis Jones’ paintings are deceivingly simple and monochromatic - with small geometric additions and subtractions that play with symmetry - creating a delicate tension between the works’ crude textures and formal appearance. Bret Slater’s small, bright paintings command our attention. By combining simple forms and colors manufactured in a day to day environment, Slater offers a twist of modern design and conceptual thought.

The artist’s choice of palette is where the more distinct differences are evident. It has been said that Slater’s color choice is ‘toxic punk’ where Jones’ choices are refined and understated. There is obvious energy and conversation between the work and the artists have a personal history of camaraderie as well. Slater was Jones’ studio assistant while finishing his studies at S.M.U. several years ago. For more of this dynamic duo stay tuned for Otis Jones + Bret Slater on view in New York City (June 2014) and Zurich (August 2014).

Otis Jones was born in Galveston, Texas in 1946. He received a B.F.A. (1969) from Kansas State University, Pittsburg, KS, and a M.F.A. (1972) from the University of Oklahoma, Norman, OK. In 1982, he was awarded a National Endowment for the Arts–Visual Artists Fellowship Grant. His work is in numerous private collections and in the permanent collections of the Dallas Museum of Art, MIT List Visual Arts Center in Cambridge, Massachusetts, the Tyler Museum of Art in Tyler, Neiman-Marcus in Dallas and Plano, the Springfield Art Museum in Springfield, Missouri and Four Seasons Resort in Scottsdale, Arizona. Articles and reviews about his work have appeared in publications such as; The Dallas Morning News, NY Arts, THE Magazine DFW, D Magazine, and D Home among others. Jones currently resides in Dallas.

Bret Slater was born in Bronx, New York in 1987. He received a B.F.A. (2009) from the School of Art + Design at Purchase College, SUNY, Purchase, NY, and a M.F.A. (2011) from the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University, Dallas, TX. His work is in numerous private collections and in the permanent collections of the Dallas Museum of Art and the Indianapolis Museum of Art. Articles and Reviews about his work have appeared in publications such as; The New Yorker, The New York Observer, Modern Painters, D Magazine, NPR, F/D Luxe: The Dallas Morning News, Glasstire, Modern Luxury, and The Huffington Post among others. Slater currently resides in Queens, NY.