# Rae Johnson
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{{Short description|Canadian painter (1953–2020)}}
{{Infobox artist
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| image = Rae Johnson Headshot.jpg
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| caption = Johnson at her studio in 2018
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| birth_date = {{birth date|1953|03|28|mf=yes}}
| birth_place = [Winnipeg](/source/Winnipeg), [Manitoba](/source/Manitoba), Canada
| death_date = {{death date and age|2020|05|18|1953|03|28|mf=yes}}
| death_place = [Toronto](/source/Toronto), [Ontario](/source/Ontario), Canada
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| education = [Ontario College of Art](/source/Ontario_College_of_Art) (1980)
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| known_for = Cofounder, ChromaZone Gallery, Toronto 1980s[{{cite web |title=ChromaZone / Chromatique: A Brief History 1981-1986 |url=http://ccca.concordia.ca/chromazone/chromazone_history.html |website=ccca.concordia.ca |access-date=May 29, 2020}}]
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| movement = Figurative Painting Movement, Toronto 1980s
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| website = {{URL|https://www2.ocadu.ca/bio/rae-johnson|OCAD profile}}
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'''Rae Johnson''' (March 28, 1953 – May 18, 2020) was a Canadian painter based in Toronto.[{{Cite web|title=Looking Back On The 40 Year Career Of Toronto Artist, Rae Johnson|url=https://www.forbes.com/sites/nadjasayej/2020/03/13/looking-back-on-the-40-year-career-of-toronto-artist-rae-johnson/|last=Sayej|first=Nadja|website=Forbes|language=en|access-date=2020-05-21}}][{{cite web|url=https://nowtoronto.com/culture/art-and-design/in-memoriam-rae-johnson-1953-2020/|title=In memoriam: Rae Johnson, 1953–2020|author=Glenn Sumi|date=25 May 2020|website=nowtoronto.com|access-date=1 June 2020}}]
== Early life ==
Originally from [Winnipeg](/source/Winnipeg), [Manitoba](/source/Manitoba), Johnson studied at the New School of Art in Toronto from 1975 to 1976 and at the [Ontario College of Art](/source/Ontario_College_of_Art) from 1977 to 1980. In 1981 she became a founding member of the [ChromaZone/ Chromatique Collective](/source/ChromaZone%2F_Chromatique_Collective) gallery,[{{Cite web|title='Johnson, Rae, 1953- -- Portraits' Search Results for Toronto Public Library|url=https://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/search.jsp;jsessionid=ca8jF7hYNWTtWr+e2P9yZpQa.tplapp-p-2a?Ntt=Johnson,+Rae,+1953-+--+Portraits&Ntk=Subject_Search_Interface|website=Toronto Public Library|language=en|access-date=2020-05-21}}][{{Cite web|title=Toronto Art Then, Now, and Tomorrow in This is Paradise|url=https://torontoist.com/2011/07/this_is_paradise_still/|date=2011-07-06|website=Torontoist|access-date=2020-05-21}}] dedicated to reintroducing [figurative painting](/source/figurative_painting) to Toronto.[{{Cite web|title=Paradise Lost: This is Paradise Exhibition & Cameron Culture Essay, 1987 By Donna Lypchuk|url=https://www.yyzartistsoutlet.org/2011/09/paradise-lost-this-is-paradise-exhibition-cameron-culture-essay-1987-by-donna-lypchuk/|date=2011-09-14|website=YYZ Artists' Outlet|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-21}}] In 1987 she moved to [Flesherton](/source/Flesherton) in northern Ontario; the landscapes which she since produced are reminiscent of the work of the [Tom Thomson](/source/Tom_Thomson) and the [Group of Seven](/source/Group_of_Seven_(artists)), whose work she had seen at the [National Gallery of Canada](/source/National_Gallery_of_Canada) when she was still a student.[{{cite book |last1=Murray |first1=Joan |title=Tom Thomson:The Last Spring |date=1994 |publisher=Dundurn Press |location=Toronto |page=85|url=https://librarysearch.library.utoronto.ca/discovery/search?query=any,contains,joan%20murray,%20tom%20thomson:%20the%20Last%20spring&tab=Everything&search_scope=UTL_AND_CI&vid=01UTORONTO_INST:UTORONTO&offset=0 |access-date=2021-02-19}}][{{cite book|author1=Jules Heller|author2=Nancy G. Heller|title=North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AYxmAgAAQBAJ&pg=PR11|date=19 December 2013|publisher=Routledge|isbn=978-1-135-63882-5}}]
== Artwork ==
Primarily a painter, Johnson's work dealt with dreams and imagination, providing enough detail to recognize figures and spaces but "encourages us to contemplate endings, meanings and loss."[{{Cite book|title=Rae Johnson: Interiors|last=Whyte|first=Ewan|publisher=Christopher Cutts Gallery|year=2015|isbn=978-1-927376-12-6|location=Toronto}}] Themes in her artwork ranged from Madonna figures to sexuality, pornography, archetypes and Jungian psychology.[{{Cite web|title=Rae Johnson at Christopher Cutts – ARTORONTO|url=https://www.artoronto.ca/?p=45254|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-21}}] With a feminist outlook, and using domestic interiors and natural landscapes as starting points for her paintings,[{{Cite web|title=Ewan Whyte - Rae Johnson's Dream-Like Spaces|url=https://www.polskacanada.com/ewan-whyte-rae-johnsons-dream-like-spaces/|date=2018-04-19|website=Polska Canada|language=en-CA|access-date=2020-05-21}}] her works have been noted for their diary-like quality, being "like notations in a journal," of simple memories.[{{Cite web|title=Rae Johnson|url=https://www.tusslemagazine.com/rae-johnson|website=tusslemagazine|language=en|access-date=2020-05-21}}] She painted [guardian angel](/source/guardian_angel)s and claimed her favorite angel was [Archangel Michael](/source/Michael_(archangel))."I want my paintings to offer a space for the imagination and an affirmation of inner life."[{{Cite news|title=Rae Johnson: The City press release|date=September 2018}}]
In 2020, the [Art Gallery of Ontario](/source/Art_Gallery_of_Ontario) acquired Johnson's monumental painting ''Night Games at the Paradise'', 1984.[{{cite web |title=Indigenous & Canadian |url=https://ago.ca/gallery/indigenous-canadian |website=Art Gallery of Ontario |access-date=20 December 2020 |language=en}}]
== Exhibitions ==
Johnson showed extensively throughout Toronto and Canada, including yearly solo exhibitions at the Carmen Lamanna Gallery from 1983 to 1991. She was represented by Christopher Cutts Gallery in Toronto,[{{Cite web|url=http://cuttsgallery.com/artists/rae-johnson/#/cv|title=Christopher Cutts Gallery - Rae Johnson CV|website=cuttsgallery.com|access-date=2018-09-26}}] which is where she held her last exhibition before her death, entitled ''Angels and Monsters''.[{{Cite web|title=Rae Johnson: Angels and Monsters|url=https://canadianart.ca/agenda/rae-johnson-angels-and-monsters/|website=Canadian Art|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-21}}]
== Curating work ==
From 2009 to 2011 she acted as guest curator for the [Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art](/source/Museum_of_Contemporary_Art_Toronto_Canada), and National Gallery @ MOCCA, providing research for the 2011 historical exhibition, "This is Paradise," [{{Cite web|title=Archiving the '80s: The launch of Paradise Now|url=https://www.thestar.com/entertainment/2011/06/09/archiving_the_80s_the_launch_of_paradise_now.html|date=2011-06-09|website=thestar.com|language=en|access-date=2020-05-21}}] where Johnson said: “This exhibition is a celebration of this era, marked by triumph and tragedy, and the reclamation of an important part of Toronto history. Works for this multidisciplinary exhibition have been borrowed from collections across Canada, to once again return to their origins, on Queen Street West.”[{{Cite web|title=MOCCA Launches Sizzling Summer Exhibitions Program|url=https://moca.ca/paradise/|date=2011-06-23|website=Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto Canada|language=en-CA|access-date=2020-05-21}}]
In 2012, she curated and organized an exhibition of 32 artists from Canada titled TORONTO/BERLIN 1982–2012, hosted by the Zweigstelle Berlin Gallery in Berlin. In 2017, she was selected to be the visual editor of the [Theatre Passe Muraille](/source/Theatre_Passe_Muraille) 50th anniversary book, and was recently included in ''A Concise History of Canadian Painting'' third edition.[{{Cite book|title=A Concise History of Canadian Painting|last=Reid|first=Dennis|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2012|isbn=9780195444568}}] She was included in ''Intervention: 31 Women Painters'' exhibition in Montreal, curated by [Harold Klunder](/source/Harold_Klunder).[{{Cite web|title=Intervention 31 Women Painters|url=https://www2.ocadu.ca/keyword/intervention-31-women-painters|website=OCAD University|language=en|access-date=2020-05-21}}]
== Teaching ==
Johnson was a professor at OCADU since 1987,[{{Cite web|title=Rae Johnson|url=https://www2.ocadu.ca/bio/rae-johnson|date=2017-02-15|website=OCAD University|access-date=2020-05-21}}] and lectured at various institutions, including the Zweigstelle Berlin Gallery, the [University of Toronto](/source/University_of_Toronto), [York University (Toronto)](/source/York_University), the [Banff Center](/source/Banff_Centre), [University of Guelph](/source/University_of_Guelph), Ontario, and the [Toronto School of Art](/source/Toronto_School_of_Art), among others.[{{Cite web|title=Rae Johnson|url=https://artattack.buddiesinbadtimes.com/works/rae-johnson/|website=Artattack!|language=en-US|access-date=2020-05-21}}]
== Death ==
Rae Johnson lived in Toronto until her death on May 18, 2020.