Johnny DeFeo lives and works in Denver, Colorado. He earned his MFA in painting from CU Boulder in 2017. During his graduate studies he exhibited in national juried MFA exhibitions in New York and Chicago, and organized exhibitions and collaborative curatorial projects with artists and curators in Boulder and Denver. He is a co-founder of Adventure Painting, a traveling artist residency organized along with painter Aaron Zulpo and Andrea Heimer. DeFeo creates artworks, textiles, and tufted yarn wall hangings, all of which belong to the concept of souvenir, attempting to capture the experiences he has in the natural world, where he feels free and most at home.
Statement
“I make artwork that illustrates that our relationship to the land is not a simplistic tale of good vs. evil or man vs. nature, but a complex and layered one. These works ask the viewer to listen to the call of the wild, and look for balance in the way they consume, interact, and participate in the dually robust and fragile ecosystems of America. My rainbow paintings are part of a larger body of work about animal legends, illustrating moments of grandeur and drama in a land long before or long after humans have come and gone. They are half hope and half dream. Rainbows will outlive us all.” – Johnny DeFeo