Andrew Catanese: I Watched Your Leaves Grow Silver in the Wind @ Johansson Projects

Johansson Projects presents I Watched Your Leaves Grow Silver in the Wind, an exhibition featuring paintings by Andrew Catanese. The exhibition explores ecologies of recollection, as Catanese channels connections among places and individuals, particularly those who linger only in memory. 

For Catanese, painting is a narrative medium that moves across time and space, reshaping how we see the everyday world. Their canvases feature landscapes, shifting weather, animals, and spectral figures, each serving as a portal to distinct moments and memories the artist calls “slips” in time and place. Painting becomes a bridge to people and environs that have been lost, abandoned, or rediscovered. Gazes, where they appear, are slant, unfocused. Animals sulk through forests, searching, unaware that they are being watched. Full figures, with backs turned, are ensconced in brambles, alienating them from the viewer. Imbued with distance and uncertainty, Catanese’s lush compositions swim in windswept, haunting ambiguity. 

A mysterious and quiet spirituality permeates the work, suggesting something just beyond reach. Catanese’s expressive use of color deepens the atmosphere, intensifying the sense of connection and longing throughout the exhibition. Amid today’s uncertainty and division, Catanese’s paintings remind us of our deep-rooted desire for kinship. These poetic works encourage reflection and uncover the bonds that persist, even in the most turbulent times.