Artist of the day: Artist of the Day, April 15, 2022: Johnny Floyd, an American emerging artist, painter (#1546)

Friday, April 15, 2022

Artist of the Day, April 15, 2022: Johnny Floyd, an American emerging artist, painter (#1546)

Johnny Floyd is a self-taught African American painter in Detroit, MI. He started painting 2 years ago when it became clear that creating was the only thing that made any sense to him.
While not restricted to a specific medium, Floyd has found painting in oils to be the most enjoyable.

His work both examines and reimagines the African American experience through the melding of figurative, surrealistic, and abstracted practices that lend a broad lens through which to view his world.

What are some of the best things about art in Detroit/ being an artist in Detroit?
Detroit is a complicated place with a complicated history; so too goes the story of it’s Art community. There are a lot of beautiful aspects of it. It is fairly insular so there are a lot of opportunities to meet artists, expand your network, and find space to truly express ideas. That being said, just as most places, the galleries and institutions seem to be mostly homogeneous places. This is not to say there aren’t instances in which diversity exists, but as is the case in the Art scene across the world, Detroit has a lot of work to do. The beautiful thing about this is that it is an opportunity. We can still address these issues and facilitate meaningful dialogue and precipitate change.

How has your practice shifted over the last 6 months?
Outside of having a lot more time to focus on painting, the last 6 months have been an extended moment of reflection and personal inventory. My practice has shifted significantly toward abstraction. Perhaps that has been a reaction to the violently amoebic nature of the moment? I have tried to allow the work to be what it wants to be. I’m not skilled or experienced enough to fully articulate my thoughts and render them directly, so I’m learning more and more to give myself to make mistakes and learn from them.

What are you working on at the moment?
I’m mostly working on establishing myself as a working artist in this weird world. For a long time I was so hesitant but now I know this is my purpose. That was a huge and scary realization for me. As far as painting is concerned, I’m working on a series of larger pieces dealing with navigating this moment in history as a black man through abstraction.

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