Barry Johnson: never leave without saying goodbye

Winston Wächter Fine Art Seattle is pleased to announce our second solo exhibition with Seattle-based artist Barry Johnson. Continuing Johnson’s yearlong series’ which explores portraiture through strikingly different contexts, the paintings in never leave without saying goodbye examine the weight of grief. Following a series of hardships and death over the last year, these works build on the artist’s existing themes of personal discovery, healing, and creative expression. They commemorate deeply introspective moments in time, while simultaneously serving as intimate reminders to confront the pain and push toward growth. 

never leave without saying goodbye is a devotion to creating autobiographical landscape works. In exploring life and loss, these paintings express vulnerability and help process repressed emotion. Johnson celebrates both joy and sorrow, and those moments when both run parallel. In this series he reveals a capacity to unapologetically engage with more grand and complicated topics in new, understated manners. 

Barry Johnson has received awards including the Edwin T. Pratt Award, smART Ventures Award, and the GAP Award. He was also a finalist for the Betty Bowen Award, the Neddy and Conductive Garboil Grant. Johnson’s work has been shown and collected throughout the nation. He has also created multiple permanent artworks regionally, including an immersive mural for Facebook’s Bellevue Office, a bronze sculpture of advocate multi-dimensional artist Dr. James Washington, and a permanent fabrication for Midtown Square. Johnson has also held residencies at Amazon, Facebook, and the Seattle Hebrew Academy.