Leroy Johnson: Leroy Johnson: The Urban Expressionist

Over the course of several decades, Leroy Johnson (1937 – 2022) developed a distinctive artistic practice closely tied to the urban life of his hometown, Philadelphia. Before devoting himself entirely to art, Johnson worked as a teacher, social worker, rehabilitation counselor, and school administrator, among other occupations. His artistic work emerged outside of academic and institutional structures and stemmed from a direct engagement with the city’s streets, neighborhoods, and social changes.

Johnson worked with materials from his immediate surroundings: wood, cardboard, photographs, packaging, ceramics, and other found objects. To him, these items were never merely trash, but rather vessels of preexisting stories. In collages, paintings, and sculptures, he rearranged them, condensed them, and linked them to personal memories and social experiences.

Views

Leroy Johnson, *Nails*, ca. 2005 – 2010
Mixed media, found objects, collage
54.6 x 27.9 x 15.2 cm
Courtesy: the estate of the artist, Philadelphia and Margot Samel, New York

Text

His house sculptures form a central body of work. In them, Johnson links the city together through individual architectural forms. The houses are not models of specific buildings, but repositories of memory and lived experience. In their materials, surfaces, and details, notions of neighborhood and family intertwine with traces of change, displacement, and social inequality. The individual house thus becomes the starting point for a larger history of the city.

Johnson drew inspiration from, among others, African American artists such as Thornton Dial and Romare Bearden, as well as from the unique history of Philadelphia and artists from his hometown. His work combines improvisational processes with a precise compositional practice and occupies a wide-ranging field spanning assemblage, folk art, jazz, and urban art.

Johnson described himself as an “urban expressionist.” The term refers to art that does not view the city from a distance but rather emerges from direct experience of it. For Johnson, Philadelphia serves simultaneously as material, an archive, and the subject of a decades-long artistic exploration.

With The Urban Expressionist, HALLE FÜR KUNST Steiermark presents the artist’s first institutional solo exhibition outside the United States.

Curated by Jan Tappe

Artists

Participating artists

Soloshows (Selection): Margot Samel, New York (2025), Mercer County Community College – The Gallery, West Windsor (2023), The Clay Studio, Philadelphia (2022), Philadelphia´s Magic Gardens, Philadelphia (2011), The Center for Emerging Visual Artists, Philadelphia (2021) List Gallery, Swarthmore College, Swarthmore (2004), African Jazz Museum, Kansas City (2002), Art Gallery at City Hall, Philadelphia (2019, 2017, 2015, 1998), Gloucester County College, Sewell (1998), Cheltenham Center for the Arts, Cheltenham (1996), Camden County Historical Society, Camden (1990), Villanova University Art Gallery, Villanova (1983).

Groupshows (Selection): Tyler Temple University, Philadelphia (2025), Michener Art Museum, Doylestown (2025, 2024, 1995), The Clay Studio, Philadelphia (2022), Gallery CA, Baltimore (2020), Dupree Gallery, Philadelphia (2018), Woodmere Art Museum, Philadelphia (2015), Hearne Fine Art, Little Rock (2009), Villanova University Art Gallery, Villanova (1983), Philadelphia Civic Center, Philadelphia (1969).