Stephen Johnston's Nocturnal Series Shortlisted for 2025 Aesthetica Art Prize, Exhibiting at York Art Gallery

Contemporary artist Stephen Johnston, born in 1987, has been shortlisted for the 2025 Aesthetica Art Prize with his series Nocturnal, currently on view at York Art Gallery until 25 January. Johnston's paintings depict fragile flowers in glass jars at various stages of decay, continuing the vanitas tradition of 16th- and 17th-century Dutch Old Masters who paired luxury with mortality symbols like skulls and candles. His work explores themes of memory, impermanence, and the tension between beauty and decay, using flowers as shorthand for transience. Johnston graduated from the University of Ulster in 2010, where his artistic calling became deliberate. His creative process involves staging and photographing still lifes, then painting intuitively while allowing time to collaborate through layers. He views tradition as a scaffold, with the jar serving as both vessel and coffin, reflecting contemporary unease about image consumption. Johnston hopes viewers feel the tremor beneath beauty and rediscover gentleness through contemplation of fragility. The exhibition includes works like Flowers in a Jar (no. 11) and others from the series.