Rising-star artist Tyrel Johnson, who has received acclaim for his
storytelling approach with bronze-and-wood sculptures, reveals his
evolution as an artist - including creating new one-of-a-kind
multimedia works - in a TV interview. The "All About Billings" show
interviewed sculptor Johnson about his evolution as an artist and
the new, deeper level of expression in his recent artwork.
BILLINGS, Mont., Sept. 27,
2024 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- With two new sculptures,
Tyrel Johnson goes deeper in his
quest for ultimate expression – an evolution of his artwork that he
recently discussed in a TV interview with "All About Billings" host
Nancy Brook. Montana artist Johnson, who is based in
Billings, spent his twenties
honing his skills through hundreds of hours of meticulous anatomy
studies, and his thirties finding "my way to make art," he says of
his development of a distinctive style – marrying bronze sculpture
with lovingly selected and handcrafted wood – that has brought him
media acclaim and awards. Now, Johnson is "laying down my notions
of what my art 'should' be in favor of expression," he says. "My
hands know very well what to do," he adds about forgoing
calculation to find greater creative freedom and flow.
"I take great joy in creating art. The more
I embrace that side of me, the more I love what I make," Johnson
says.
Although his bronze works are offered in multiple editions, they
remain one of a kind because "the wood is always different and
always unique," as he explains to Brooks in the televised
interview. Still, part of his current artistic journey includes
branching into fully one-of-a-kind pieces "to give collectors
something that is exclusively theirs to enjoy," he says, while
allowing him to experiment in expanding mediums and concepts.
Johnson took a playful turn with his new work "Rainbow Punk," a
one-of-a-kind piece he debuted at the 2024 OutWest Art Show.
Creating the sculpture – a boldly-mohawked figure perched on a
crescent moon with bright acrylic paint dripping and pooling onto
the wooden base – was "the epitome of play for me," he says.
The new piece also offers an underlying message that resonates
with his recent evolution as an artist: "Individuality is powerful.
The more we find authenticity within – as we become less concerned
with behaviors of others – we become more rooted in who we are," he
says. That theme spoke to the psychiatrist who acquired the
sculpture for her office. "She says it has a calming effect for her
patients, who often stare at Rainbow Punk while talking to her,"
says Johnson. "I'm so delighted about that."
Some years ago, Johnson created another memorable sculpture,
"The Bird People," for a show that friend and fellow artist
Kevin Red Star was doing,
subsequently gifting it to Red Star.
Recently exploring his own connection to Native American roots that
include growing up participating in sweat lodge ceremonies – a
personal practice that continues into the present – Johnson began
to envision a new work, "Medicine Rising," as a feminine mirror to
"The Bird People," and a way to show his respect for the MMIW
(Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women) movement.
Riffing off the movement's red handprint symbol, which
evocatively brings awareness to "a very serious and difficult
problem in a peaceful yet poignant way," he says, Johnson
reimagined it in gold leaf for "Medicine Rising" to represent hope
and progress achieved. "The rawhide medicine wheel, and its colors
rising up the maple, represent the many people, and the strengths
of those who joined together," he explains. "All great causes
galvanize people from all political, racial, cultural, and social
walks. Think more about what you would lay your life down
peacefully for rather than what you would raise a saber for, and we
will all be better for it."
Growing up in and working at his family's Montana bronze foundry combined with years
working in ultra-high-end custom carpentry has produced an unusual
technical skill set that allows Johnson to successfully realize in
three dimensions anything he or a client can dream up, including
functional art. For the recent Western Design Conference Exhibit +
Sale in Jackson, Wyoming,
September 5-8, 2024, where he was
accepted as a juried artist, he created a new
burnt-and-dyed-leather and wood chair from his recently created
"Persona" series of personalized art chairs – also recognized in
Mountain Living magazine as one of the best seats in Jackson Hole this fall. And Johnson is
currently creating a monumental sculpture featuring three horses
for a Texas client. The story of
that piece was recently featured in an Elite Equestrian magazine
article that showed him at work in his Montana studio.
"I take great joy in creating art. The more I embrace that side
of me, the more I love what I make, and it sure seems like art
lovers enjoy it more as well," Johnson says of this stage of his
artistic journey. "There are a handful of artists I watch just to
see what they come up with next. I decided it was time to make
myself excited to see what I make next. I can't wait to surprise
and delight myself. I can't wait to share it with the world."
About Tyrel Johnson Fine Art
The youngest of 16 children, who grew up watching his father and
siblings sculpting and working on castings at his father's foundry,
Tyrel Johnson's destiny as a maker
now plays out in bronze, stone, wood and multimedia from his studio
in Billings, Montana, where his
passion for three-dimensional expression continues to expand in
service to his creative inspiration – from one-of-a-kind creations
to functional art to monumental work to highly sought multi-edition
bronze and wood sculptures. Whether he's sculpting a six-foot-tall
equine-themed monument or a miniature owl and rabbit conceptually
locked in the pendulum balance of nature, a sense of story and
mission informs his poetic designs. Johnson, whose work has won
Best of Show at the 2022 Out West Art Show & Sale and both Best
of Show and People's Choice awards at the 2021 Sculpture in
the Hills, has been featured in
media including Western Art & Architecture, Cowboys &
Indians, Mountain Living, Big Sky Journal and the coffee table
books Natural Elegance: Luxurious Mountain Living and Foundations:
Houses by JLF Architects. He is currently represented by FoR Fine
Art in Montana and Arizona, the R-Diamond Gallery in Steamboat Springs, Colorado, and Integral
Thread in Denver. For more
information, visit tyreljohnsonfineart.com or follow
@tyreljohnsonart on Instagram.
Media Contact
Anne Parsons, Word PR +
Marketing, 303.548.4611, anne@wordprmarketing.com
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SOURCE Tyrel Johnson Fine Art