Fredric Snitzer Gallery is pleased to present Dreamscapes, a solo exhibition by Los Angeles-based artist Kelley Johnson. His third exhibition with the gallery features new abstract paintings that explore recurring themes in the artist’s practice: a space in between landscape, abstraction, and dreamscape.

In Dreamscapes, Johnson continues his exploration of painting as a vessel for memory, time, and atmosphere. His compositions unfold through layered gestures—each mark a record of thought, hesitation, and feeling. Some works radiate with dense, saturated color reminiscent of rainforests, while others breathe with the spare stillness of desert light. Together, they evoke emotional and environmental shifts that blur the line between waking life and reverie. Johnson’s expansion of his process has taken the form of veiled layers of physical material applied to the panel's surface, where burlap and pulled mediums through mesh fabrics act as veils, diffusing the hard-edged linear grids and layered lines he is known for. These layers are then disrupted by intuitive mark-making and gesture, pushing paint beyond representation into an experiential and spiritual realm.

Influenced by Color Field painting, Abstract Impressionism, and the emotive use of light in Impressionism, Johnson’s works transform paint into experience. The surfaces shimmer between wet and dry, matte and gloss, precision and blur—offering an optical and emotional depth that invites reflection.

There is an ineffable quality to Johnson’s practice, a kind of visual alchemy that channels painting’s enduring ability to conjure presence. His works invite viewers into the liminal space “between walking and dreaming,” where time slips and sensations linger—where feeling becomes form.