Nature’s Course: An Interview with John Newsom (Part 1)

March 12, 2022

Posted by  Nathalie Martin

Combining realistic representations of animals and vegetation, Abstract Expressionism, and hard-edge geometry, John Newsom’s paintings explore our intricate and complicated relationship with nature. I spoke with John about his origins, his practice, and his upcoming exhibitions – a mid-career retrospective at the Oklahoma Contemporary Museum and a two-person show with Raymond Pettibon in Palm Beach.

John Newsom: Nature's Course

March 24 - Aug. 15, 2022
Eleanor Kirkpatrick Main Gallery

“With each painting, John Newsom creates a universe of extended metaphors and multivalent narratives,” said Jeremiah Matthew Davis, Oklahoma Contemporary’s artistic director. “With a unique combination of exquisite painterly technique, art historical allusions and rich storytelling, Newsom invites us not just to view his works, but to inhabit them. We’re thrilled to welcome the artist back to Oklahoma for his first mid-career retrospective.”

John Newsom

Nature’s Course

Oklahoma Contemporary

“With each painting, John Newsom creates a universe of extended metaphors and multivalent narratives,” said Jeremiah Matthew Davis, Oklahoma Contemporary’s director. “With a unique combination of exquisite painterly technique, art historical allusions and rich storytelling, Newsom invites us not just to view his works, but to inhabit them.”

The late Hamburg-based painter Norbert Fleischer’s Think in Pictures—a moody image of a man’s face overlaid with swirling text—is the curatorial inspiration behind a new exhibition in New York’s Lower East Side of the same name organized by dealer Tara Amelchenko, painter John Newsom, artist André Butzer, and Matt Dillon, best-known as as actor, but who is also a practicing artist.