Until August 26, 2025, Mitchell Johnson is showcasing his captivating paintings of Paris at Flea Street in Menlo Park, California. Since 1989, when he was a graduate student at Parsons School of Design in New York City, Johnson has made numerous trips to the city, immersing himself in its rich artistic culture. Following a successful retrospective at Musée Villa Les Camélias in Cap D’Ail, France, last summer, he embarked on an exciting new series inspired by the city’s stunning views and architecture.
In his own words:
“During an interview with MonacoInfo while in Cap d’Ail, I spontaneously mentioned, ‘I think I’m going to rent an apartment in Paris.’ We found a charming spot in the 11th arrondissement on Rue de Nice, offering stunning light and expansive windows showcasing iconic Parisian rooftops and chimney pots, along with views of a park and contemporary architecture.
The façade of the building near our kitchen continually shifted with the varying soft and harsh lights of Paris. This unique light had already been a recurring theme in my paintings from 2020 to 2024. My daily strolls to the Seine, crossing the Pont de Sully, enabled me to witness the river change from a green hue matching the iron railing one day to a deep black the next. I often looped through the Luxembourg Gardens and returned through the Marais, discovering potential paintings in previously unnoticed places. I captured scenes with photographs and sketches. I even melded different times of day into single paintings to achieve the desired colors and a sense of calm that balanced my initial overwhelm with the city’s vibrancy.
In March, I held a pop-up exhibit in the Marais, and just before leaving the apartment in June, I had a solo exhibit at Galerie Mercier in the 7th, just a couple of blocks from where Edward Hopper lived in 1906 on Rue de Lille. I frequently took the metro from Charonne to Saint Germain des Prés, carrying my paintings of Paris, as well as works from San Francisco, Truro, New York City, and Newfoundland, all created in Paris. This deeper connection with the city sparked new color possibilities across all my undertakings. It was a transformative year where I dedicated myself to exploring my own artistic responses to the city rather than frequenting the museums.”
Johnson’s artwork is part of the permanent collections in over 35 museums and has been featured multiple times in The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker, and WSJ Magazine. His pieces have also appeared in various films, including The Holiday (2006), Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011), and It’s Complicated (2009). An upcoming exhibition titled Twenty Years in Truro will be on display at the Truro Center for the Arts in Massachusetts from September 3–14, 2025. Additionally, one of his paintings is showcased in the Recent Acquisitions exhibition at the Cape Cod Museum of Art until July 23, 2025.
For more details, visit mitchelljohnson.com and follow him on Instagram at @mitchell_johnson_artist.
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