This content was published: February 22, 2021. Phone numbers, email addresses, and other information may have changed.
George Johanson
Rock Creek Helzer Gallery
George Johanson is a Portland, Oregon based painter, printmaker, and ceramic tile muralist. As our featured artist, Johanson will be meeting with PCC Rock Creek’s Life Drawing and Life Painting classes to discuss a subject central to his work: the human figure and its environment. The featured video is an excerpt from a longer video, In The Studio with George Johanson, produced at PCC Rock Creek in 2009.
Johanson was born in Seattle in 1928. He studied at the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland with further study in New York and London. Johanson taught painting, drawing, and printmaking at the Pacific Northwest College of Art in Portland, OR from 1955 to 1980.
He has had solo exhibitions at Augen Gallery, Portland, OR; Hallie Ford Museum of Art, Salem, OR; Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR; Pulliam Deffenbaugh Gallery, Portland, OR; Lynn McAllister Gallery, Seattle, WA; Elizabeth Leach Gallery, Portland, OR; University of Oregon Museum of Art, Eugene, OR; PNCA, Portland OR; and Mark Woolley Gallery, Portland OR. Public collections include: The National Collection, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.; Chicago Art Institute, Chicago, IL; Victoria & Albert Museum, London, England; Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA; and Portland Public Library, Portland, OR. He was also honored with the Oregon Governor’s Award for the Arts in 1992.
The Helzer Gallery Featured Artist Program is a virtual programming series created to introduce our audience to the work and creative practice of various artists. While nothing can replace the physical act of engaging with artworks in the gallery setting, the short “studio visit” videos produced by our artists can open the door to a different side of the creative process. Our artists also engage with PCC Rock Creek art classes through virtual events. The Helzer Gallery will return to regular gallery programming once we are safely able to open PCC campuses.