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ANNIE JOHNS

REFLECT

23 January - 22 February 2025

Thursday, Friday 11 - 5. Saturday 11 - 4

Meet the artist:

On Saturday 1st February the artist will be present in the gallery all day

Annie Johns art is concerned not only with the intrinsic act of making, but with the materiality of her subject matter and its visual manifestations.

She works with a wide range of the most delicate and often extraordinary materials: wax, fuse wire, kapok, paper bags, gold leaf, hemp, bitumen, gesso, plant forms and ash which she skilfully transforms into an intricate web of ideas. It is important that her work is task orientated and time consuming, so that the process of her making becomes an integral expression of the finished work. Every element, from the work itself to the form of presentation is manipulated with the same care, diligence and precision.

For her solo exhibition at Ken artspace Johns presents a collection of works in which the assembled components are arranged with a material sensuality and forensic attention to detail that invite multiple readings. For Threnody, thousands of prickles plucked from rose stems are laid out alongside botanical engravings, evoking treasures discovered by chance in the cabinet of an herbarium. In Fragile Meadow, slender glass vials containing wild flower seeds are stitched into a calico sheath that has been unrolled to present its precious contents.

Her art is always more than you see, it is an amalgamation of everything that she is; from her interest in Greek mythology, to her love of literature, to her knowledge of plants. She weaves memory, history and language throughout her work as important metaphors, and as a reference back to self.

Reflections on the work of Annie Johns

Glass tubes, wild flower seeds, cork, calico, archival cloth tape, thread. 2020/2021

Entomological cases, Japanese paper, thread, kapok, printed material, prickles, wheat starch. 2023/24

Wayfarer Wisteria, clay, hemp, kapok 2024/2025

About the artist:

Annie Johns is a London based artist working with fragile and ephemeral materials; her process driven practice explores our relationship to time and the natural world. Her formative years explored painting and drawing, which still inform her work, which is now focused more within a conceptual framework. She has exhibited widely, including the Castle Museum (Nottingham), Dean Clough (Halifax), Pitzhanger Manor (London), Athens Contemporary Art Fair, Guildhall Art Gallery (London), Penwith Gallery (St Ives), Thelma Hulbert Gallery (Honiton), Bankside Gallery (London) and Quay Arts Centre (Isle of Wight). She has been a member of the London Group since 2000

Artist's CV

Ken artspace is a small new art space in the heart of Kennington.

Run by artists and founders Rob Kesseler and Agalis Manessi is

dedicated to a mix of occasional exhibitions, window installations

and pop-up events.

ken artspace

ANNIE JOHNS

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