Black Dragon Society is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new work by Elisa Johns.

Elisa Johns’ new work fantasizes about a wistful symbiosis between bourgeois leisure and the untamed wilds. She paints beautiful people, animals, and architecture within lushly rendered landscapes. These elements of beauty and desire become equated by their comparison—animals are as fashionable as models are natural in a simultaneously tempting and disquieting twist on cultural daydreams.

Johns’ brushwork offers the same nonchalance as her subjects’ poses. With economical brushstrokes, she depicts contemporary, West Coast decadence. In places, the narrative she creates appears secondary, as Johns’ manipulation of color and paint rival the modeling muses for attention.

In Elisa Johns' new series of paintings, the pristine depictions of beauty take on a more ominous tone. The fantastical and narcissistic carry a sense of urgency intertwined with an unapologetic fascination. The paintings explore both sides of a love affair with a glamour-driven culture.

Born in Los Angeles, CA, Elisa Johns received her MFA from Claremont Graduate University in 2004 and continues to live and work in Los Angeles.