Miles Johnston: Graphite Realism and the Folded Body in a New Profile
Born in the UK in 1993, Miles Johnston spent his formative years in Brunei and Hampshire, which influenced his perception of "normal." He specializes in graphite and oils, creating distorted human figures based on his own imaginative physical principles. At the age of eighteen, he relocated to Sweden to attend the Swedish Academy of Realist Art, where he later taught for seven years. His Transformation series features works titled Deform, Divide, Attract, and Recur. Inspired by M. C. Escher among others, he engaged in online art communities for five years before becoming a professional artist at seventeen. In 2018, his inaugural solo exhibition, Interoception, took place at Last Rites Gallery in New York. He teaches a unique approach that merges imaginative drawing with classical techniques, promoting personal interpretation of his art.
Key facts
- Miles Johnston was born in the United Kingdom in 1993 and spent early years in Brunei on Borneo before living in Hampshire, England
- He works primarily in graphite and oils, using fragmentation, repetition, division, folding and distortion of the human figure
- At eighteen he enrolled at the Swedish Academy of Realist Art and later taught there for seven years
- He was working professionally by age seventeen after roughly five years in online art forums focused on drawing from imagination
- His Transformation series is structured around the concepts Deform, Divide, Attract and Recur
- Cited influences include M. C. Escher, Zdzisław Beksiński, Takato Yamamoto and Ernst Fuchs
- His first solo exhibition, Interoception, took place at Last Rites Gallery in New York in 2018
- Group exhibitions preceded it in Australia and the United States
Entities
Artists
- Miles Johnston
- M. C. Escher
- Zdzisław Beksiński
- Takato Yamamoto
- Ernst Fuchs
Institutions
- Swedish Academy of Realist Art
- Last Rites Gallery
- AATONAU
Locations
- United Kingdom
- Brunei
- Borneo
- Hampshire
- England
- Sweden
- New York
- United States
- Australia
Sources
- AATONAU —