Bowman Hal presents We All Shine On, the new exhibition by American artist Aaron Johnson, organized in collaboration with Almine Rech Gallery. The exhibition can be visited at SOLO CSV from September 10 to November 15, 2025. This is the second exhibition at the space, which opened in June 2025, and reflects Bowman Hal’s international and collaborative vision.
“Star Light”. Aaron Johnson (2022).
Between the Figurative and the Abstract
We All Shine On brings together a selection of Johnson’s recent works, in which the gestural, the figurative, and the exuberant intersect, inviting contemplation of color as a form of spiritual exploration. Taking its name from John Lennon’s single Instant Karma! (We All Shine On), the exhibition shows how Johnson combines the figurative and the abstract, creating compositions in which the silhouettes appear as ethereal beings, made more of spheres and light than of physical bodies. The works aim to generate a visual and emotional encounter that opens a space for potentially spiritual experience.
The Intuition of Paint: Vibrations in Light and Form
The paintings are created using Johnson’s signature technique of poured acrylics on wet canvas, manipulated with brushes attached to poles, water sprayers, and bodily movements, allowing the paint to retain traces of the physical gesture while producing autonomous chromatic transitions. In these works, the multiplicity of figures gives way to compositions centered on two beings and luminous spheres, as seen in Moon Monks (2025) and Earth Angel (2025). Other canvases, such as The Light Within Me Sees The Light Within You (2025) or Walking In Your Light (2025), depict encounters between two beings as a metaphor for mutual recognition, while some works even link the figures to natural elements, like River Spirit and Tree Spirit (2025), connecting to animist traditions.
Johnson’s work is distinguished by its luminosity and chromatic energy, with combinations of magentas, intense blues, greens, and yellows, alongside darker areas that suggest depth or a nighttime atmosphere. Influenced by color field painters such as Helen Frankenthaler and Morris Louis, Johnson maintains that “paint has its own intuition,” giving rise to diaphanous figures that appear to vibrate and radiate light.
The journey of Aaron Johnson
Born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1975, Johnson initially studied Cell and Molecular Biology before earning an MFA at Hunter College, New York. His work has been exhibited at MASS MoCA, American University Art Museum, Gana Art Gallery (Seoul and Los Angeles), and Almine Rech (Shanghai and Brussels), and is part of collections including the MoMA in New York, the Frederick R. Weisman Foundation (Los Angeles), and the Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art. In 2024, he presented his first major institutional solo exhibition at La Térmica, Málaga.
We All Shine On is a visual and emotional experience that celebrates interconnectedness and the environment, reflecting Johnson’s ongoing search for artistic languages capable of moving and surprising. The exhibition can be visited until November 15 at Bowman Hal, Madrid.