2021 Catalogue Archive

Detroit-based, self-taught artist Johnny Floyd began painting several years ago when he realized he had no choice but to make art that imagines “a future in which Blackness in The United States of America is a sustainable condition.” In his striking painting The Young Bol is an Alchemy, Floyd covers the top half of the young man’s face with goldleaf that he offsets with fluorescent pink lines and electric green hair. The figure appears heroic, casting a dramatic shadow as he stares off, while the “alchemy” of transforming into gold takes place in front of the viewer. “I strive to allow my practice to be one of reclamation, resistance, and reparation,” says Floyd.