Paris Exhibit Opening Reminder
Mitchell Johnson "Personal Color" at Galerie Mercier opens Feb 28, 2026
I bumped into a few people lately who are interested in my work and they asked why I never exhibit anymore. This post goes out to them. There are two exhibits of my large paintings in San Francisco and my exhibit in Paris called, “Personal Color (Selected Paintings 1988-2026)”, opens this Saturday, February 28, 2026. You can preview the show, 2-7pm, both Thursday and Friday, at Galerie Mercier, 40 Rue de L’universite, Paris 7th.
There are ads for the exhibit in WSJ Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, The New Yorker and Architectural Digest.
From the Hyperallergic exhibition announcement:
“In his continued exploration of color, shape, and scale, American painter Mitchell Johnson presents 25 intimate paintings in a solo exhibition at Galerie Mercier in Paris, only a five-minute walk from painter Edward Hopper’s former residence at 48 Rue de Lille in the 7th arrondissement.
Influenced by the works of Hopper and Hans Hofmann, Mitchell Johnson: Personal Color (Selected Small Paintings 1988–2026) is shaped by decades of visits to Paris and Cape Cod, two places that have anchored and evolved Johnson’s painting over the course of his career.
Hofmann, through his teaching, transported the aesthetics and concerns of the School of Paris across the Atlantic, eventually creating a group atelier curriculum that would expand the breadth of American Modernism through his theory of push and pull. While pursuing his MFA at Parsons School of Design in the 1980s, Johnson studied under many of Hofmann’s former students, including Paul Resika, Jane Freilicher, Leland Bell, Robert De Niro, Sr., and Larry Rivers, which informed his personal work and painting style. Through this exhibition, Johnson seeks to bridge the connection between Hofmann’s teaching legacy and its impact on contemporary American painting.”
Please follow my son Luca’s amazing new Substack, Umbra Paris. His latest essay is about Maurice Denis.