Artist Mitchell Johnson’s paintings on display at Flea Street in July and August

Bay Area artist Mitchell Johnson’s color- and shape-driven works are on display at Flea Street restaurant in Menlo Park (3607 Alameda de las Pulgas) from July 8 through August 29.

Titled New Paintings from California, New England and Europe, the show features small paintings completed in Paris in June as well as recent paintings from Cape Porpoise, Maine and Truro on Cape Cod. The diverse range of compositions evidence the artist’s fundamental concerns with color, perception and scale.

Mitchell currently works between the San Francisco Bay Area, Paris and North Truro in order to compare changes in topography, color and light. He uses architecture, landscapes, boats, chimneys, windows, flowers, chairs and figures to make what art historian Peter Selz described in a 2009 Smithsonian Archives of American Art interview as “realist paintings that are basically abstract paintings and abstract paintings that are figurative”.

His paintings are in 700 private collections and the permanent collections of 40 museums and have also appeared in numerous feature films, including The Holiday (2006), It’s Complicated (2009), Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011), and The Family McMullen (2025). He received his MFA in Painting from Parsons School of Design in 1990, where he studied with many former students of Hans Hofmann: Paul Resika, Robert De Niro, Sr., Jane Freilicher, Nell Blaine and Leland Bell.

From September 9-20, he will have a solo exhibition, “Twenty-One Years in Truro” at Truro Center for the Arts on Cape Cod where he teaches a master color class once a year.

For more information, visit mitchelljohnson.com and follow him on Instagram @mitchell_johnson_artist. Request a digital catalog by emailing: mitchell.catalog@gmail.com

Shown is “Rue Gustave Zede,” 2026 16×24 inches, oil/canvas