Born in 1937, African American artist Leroy Johnson spent the entirety of his life in the Eastwick neighbourhood of Philadelphia in the United States, deeply influenced by the joys, struggles and paradoxes within the built environments of the Philadelphian communities. Committed to serving the people of the city, Johnson worked a variety of jobs, including rehabilitation counsellor, social worker, school administrator and teacher. As he witnessed the repercussions of racist policies on Black communities, he began translating the stories of the neighbourhoods into art, depicting the love and care within Black communities while underlining widespread issues such as poverty, gentrification and racism. Johnson’s artworks were showcased widely across Philadelphia, where he resided until he passed away in 2022, along with recent solo exhibitions at The Clay Studio in 2022 and New Jersey’s Mercer County Community College in 2023. Art gallery Margot Samel introduced New York City to Johnson’s works for the first time through Leroy Johnson, an ongoing solo exhibition of the artist’s works, running from January 10 – February 8, 2025, honouring his lifelong contributions and distinct artistic identity.

Straddling the disciplines of art and architecture, the intent, inspiration and form of the conceptual environments make the exhibition architectonic in nature. The character of Johnson's bricolages aligns with Spanish-American architectural historian Beatriz Colomina's observations on the relationship between modern architecture and mass media. In the publication Privacy and Publicity: Modern Architecture as Mass Media, Colomina argues that architecture's perceived image can be influenced by its representation in media. Architecture is often detached from its functions and users when presented to the public, which results in its consumption as a visual product. As a commodity, it could be identified from the visually dominating media elements such as signage, advertisements and graffiti that represent distinct facets of urban reality such as visual identity, capitalism and expression, morphing into a collective experience of the built environments.

Through 16 mixed media exhibits, Johnson represents the city as an ‘accretion of marks’, expanding, compounding and continuously transforming as layers of urban realities accumulate over time. The American artist creates miniature built environments, crafting conceptual design sites by compositing found objects such as photographs, graphic clippings, wood scraps, cardboard, fabric and ceramic pieces. Every component in the assemblages represents the many facets of urban life, seemingly familiar yet inherently unexplored, contributing to the broader theme of the sculpture. Though these abstract art pieces mostly feature photographs of people and places, texts in the forms of graffiti art, newspaper clippings, magazine excerpts, labels and signages encourage viewers to decipher the artist’s intent and influences behind the pieces.

“They hold such multiplicities of interpretation that to define them simply is a futile task—better to let oneself be tossed into this vibrant fray,” says Philadelphia-based artist Olivia Jia on the complexities of the design exhibition in the press release. For example, the sculptural design 4Given depicts the legend of renowned musician Robert Johnson’s dealings with the devil, which fascinated the artist so much that he named an exhibition after it. The bricolage of mixed media features symbolic elements such as birds sitting atop an abandoned building, mysterious portraits and signage, along with 1 cross+ 3 nails=4 given graffiti on a wall.

The exhibits are 'labyrinths of referent and possibility', where one speculates and explores Philadelphia’s urbanity through the eyes of a multi-faceted creative individual who dedicated his entire life to art and the community that he loved. No two interpretations of the works would coincide; they are not meant to. As the visitors familiarise themselves with the city through various themes, perhaps they ponder upon their own cities and built environments they inhabit—its history, character and possibilities. The series of raw, unabridged and abstract 3D illustrations by Johnson represent his life’s work and dissolve the boundaries between art and architecture, synthesising decades of Philadelphia's cultural and political history with the stories of its people.

'Leroy Johnson' is on view from January 10 – February 8, 2025, at the Margot Samel art gallery in New York City.