The Leroy Johnson exhibition at Margot Samel—the artist’s first solo in New York City—looks like a curious little neighborhood or city street. Little “houses” lined up, each wholly unique, with recognizable hallmarks that could be found in any number of communities: signs for restaurants, images of storefronts, stoops, people, and patchwork architecture.
Installation view of “Leroy Johnson” (2025). Photo: Matthew Sherman. Courtesy of Margot Samel, New York.
These modestly sized sculptures up close, however, don’t offer any viable, inhabitable space for the mind’s eye to occupy as a dollhouse or diorama might. Each work instead appears more as composites of artifacts: photos and clippings; scraps of wood, cardboard, and fabric; pieces of pottery; even gum wrappers. And, upon up-close inspection, the heart of Johnson’s practice can be found, revealed through symbolic and material clues that are both explicit and oblique.
Johnson was born in 1937 in the Eastwick neighborhood of Philadelphia, the city where he ultimately lived his entire life until his death in 2022. Eschewing art school and traditional arts training (beyond attending some classes at Fleisher Art Memorial), Johnson’s position as an outsider artist was a conscious decision. Fueled by what he saw as art world hegemony, he chose instead to forge his own path.
Leroy Johnson. Photo: Matthew Bender. Courtesy of the Estate of Leroy Johnson, Margot Samel, New York and The Center for Emerging Visual Artists.
Though Johnson first began making art while still in high school, over the course of his adult life he simultaneously held a wide range of jobs, including as a social worker, rehab counselor, and teacher to disabled youth, to name a few. He completed his M.A. in human services in 1988, and was deeply committed to the city and communities of Philadelphia—which can be traced throughout his artistic practice.
Johnson’s houses are largely comprised of found materials sourced from across Philadelphia, complemented by photos taken and printed by the artist as well as the addition of “graffiti” and painted surfaces. Some of these houses feature portions of fired ceramic, made from clay that the artist excavated from the ground in the city.
Leroy Johnson, (ca. 2000–2005). Courtesy of Margot Samel, New York.
Adding to the complexity of Johnson’s work are references to Black life and history, urban lived realities, art, and the effects of poverty, racism, and gentrification, with each work holding space for multiple truths and interpretations.
On (ca. 2000–2005), the white outline of a crown adorns the front side of a gable, alluding to the iconic signature of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Below, a series of shadowy silhouettes feature on the corner and within an inset porch; along the roof, a row of tiny, modeled pigeons quietly looks on. The details are simultaneously specific and common. Rather than lean into the exact representation of a singular building or site, it is a visceral portrait of a collection of places, pieced together through a psychological lens.
Leroy Johnson, recto: Who Is Eligible (ca. 2010–2015). Photo: Claire Iltis. Courtesy of Margot Samel, New York.
Elsewhere, images of corner stores, references to the civil rights movement—whether an image of Malcolm X or Cecil B. Moore’s name scribbled on a wall—and idiosyncratically reproduced figuration reflect the cultural and physical fabric of the city, acting as both a tender homage and unyielding record of the place Johnson lived for 85 years.
Notably, each of the houses is fully circumventable, with the details and compositions wrapping the entirety of the work, adding depth to this parallel world. In (ca. 2010), the proverbial exterior resembles any number of row houses or apartments, but on the reverse side is a wide open blue sky above a collage of more building facades.
Leroy Johnson, Who Is Eligible (ca. 2010–2015. Photo: Claire Iltis. Courtesy of Margot Samel, New York.
Through his distinctive approach to construction and medium, Johnson situates himself as an architect of memory and archivist of materials; where the city of Philly ends and his work begins is undefinable, a testament to the artist’s commitment to depicting through poetic means the true scope of life in the City of Brotherly Love.
Source: Exhibition - news.artnet.com
