‘Where is everybody?’

“North Truro Red” (oil), by Mitchell Johnson, in his show “Nothing and Change, 1990-2022,” at Truro (Mass) Center for the Arts.

From Jesse Nathan’s commentary on the show:

"Fewer human figures populate Johnson’s spare but vibrant art than do {Edward} Hopper’s — and in this exhibition, you can almost count them on one hand — and Johnson’s often have their backs to us, or their faces blurred.

“Where is everybody? Where are the cars and their drivers? The beach houses and benches and lifeguard chairs are empty, as if the occupants are swimming or walking or long gone. Where did the lifeguards go? Where did any of us go? Because they seem almost peaceful, the weight of the sadness in these paintings didn’t hit me until later: humans are a mess.”