Johansson Projects In The Press:

"A brief visit to Oakland recently yielded some interesting emerging work. Starting with Diedrick Brackens and Blaise Rosenthal at Johansson Projects." - Art source consulting 2015 Link

"Oakland, a fresh face on the art scene, continues to be a growing force. Take Johansson Projects, a small, hip venue on Telegraph Avenue whose reliable track record of ingeniously devised, contemporary art exhibitions delivers the unexpected." - Sura Wood for The Bay Area Reporter Link

"...Johansson Projects Gallery is the gateway to the neighborhood's art spaces — hip enough to draw fashionable grad students and host rocking parties, professional enough to garner national press. Expect fresh, meticulously well-installed artwork that's experimental but not obtuse, intellectually engaging but not impaled on ivory-tower exclusivity, often local but never provincial. The facade is inconspicuous, so look for the old-Hollywood-style spotlight..." - Kris Vagner Link

Anna Fidler in the Press:
"...With the vampire cresting in pop culture, the creepy congregation at Johansson Projects is not only emotionally transfixing, but delivers Fidler's recurring statements about portrait representation and implied narrative, icon and spectacle, with clarity and verve..." - Alex Bigman for East Bay Express Link

Jennie Ottinger in the Press:

“Ottinger’s work humorously examines the dark side of social grouping. Signifiers such as pins, uniforms, suits, and bonding activities like sitting in circles and holding hands seem to train youngsters for corporate futures featuring salesmanship, retreats, and trust falls.” - Kelly Inouye for SFAQ Link

"...these subjects don't look at you — only in your general direction. This is what renders the paintings so ghostly — not a characteristic of the subjects, but of the displaced viewer. The vagueness of the subjects' faces severs the possibility of a connective gaze, leaving the viewer with the spooky sensation of sharing perhaps a space but not a reality." - Alex Bigman for East Bay Express Link

"...If Ottinger's own childhood experiences do not lie behind these quietly creepy images, then a juvenile insecurity that burdens most of us - and evidently her - into adulthood does.The low definition of Ottinger's images, juiced with color but vague as to details, may be truer to the nature of our visual memories than anything that passes for realism..." - Kenneth Baker for SF Chronicle Link

"In her upcoming exhibition "What To Do With Your Orphan: A Manual," Ottinger helps plotting godparents figure out the most effective ways to manipulate and exploit their wards while feigning parental love when others are looking. There is something a bit off about Ottinger's orphans..." - Priscilla Frank for Huffington Post Link

"...Study Jennie Ottinger’s paintings closely enough and the melancholy bubbles right to the surface. Gray, tan, beige and school-uniform blue permeate quotidian scenes of people in places where they truly do not wish to be... It’s an aesthetic of disquietude, and it’s magnificent, tender, honest without being brutally so. This is why Johansson Projects consistently scores as our favorite gallery in Oakland..." - Peter Kane for MSN Postbox Link

"...Jennie Ottinger has a knack for editing a situation down to its most poignant essentials. In her bountiful solo exhibition Due By at Johansson Projects in Oakland, she continues to apply this talent to painting, both in gouache and oil and also extends into literature and book art. She's successful throughout... Ottinger delivers a seriously fun cultural romp with just the right dose of neurosis-inducing discomfort. This is a show that lingers long after you've departed from the ghostly images and time-honored texts." -Cherie Louise Turner for the Huffington Post Link

"...Her sparse painting style with its isolated blocks of color and unfinished details is a natural fit for the moments she chooses to illustrate: funerals, court hearings, soldiers at war. I like that she doesn't necessarily paint the most famous parts of the books either, and instead the images acquire a sort of universality only heightened if like me you've read only a smattering of the Great Novels. In addition to her paintings Ottinger has also repurposed a series of hardbacks, wrapping them in painted jackets and excavating the pages so to insert her own blunt, laugh-out-loud synopses of the stories..." - Heidi DeVries for Engineer's Daughter Blog Link

"...Jennie’s paintings grab you and don’t let go. There is something so honest and human about her work – the crude and sometimes uglier side of people, peppered with a heavy dose of wit. She is one of my favorite contemporary artists..." - Kate Singleton of Art Hound
"...Johansson Projects, has quietly but quickly won a reputation as one of the Bay Area venues to watch for new art..." Link - Kenneth Baker SF Chronicle

"Jennie Ottinger was definitely the standout at Nada and the red dots by nearly every one of her painting confirmed we were not alone in feeling this way. We love the gesture of her brush, the soft color palette and their unfinished nature." Kiss and Tell Link


Christina Corfield in the Press:
KQED Review by Marion Anthonisen: "Corfield's creative process in developing the work was steeped in extensive research into the late 19th century, and her drawing and writing styles in this show mirror the styles of the era she's exploring." Read more.



New Document in The Press:
Ceci Moss for ARTFORUM Critic's Pick: Link "Hunter Longe and Matthew Draving's floor-bound sculpture Open Screen Unit grounds many of the ideas afoot in this concise group show... The title indicates that this "screen" is not a surface for the serial, filmic play of images, but a site that responds to the simultaneous, software-enabled production of images. Indeed, throughout the exhibition screens are employed not as spaces of fixity or one-way transmission, but as sites open to fluidity and mutation by their environment and the user..."


Johansson Projects voted Best Gallery two years in a row:
Review 2008Review 2009

Gift Certificates Available To Order: T- 510-444-9140 E- info@johanssonprojects.com