John Somppi was born in 1990 in northern California. He moved to Provo, Utah in 2013 where he’s lived ever since. Somppi earned his BFA in Art from Brigham Young University in 2022. His work has been shown in a number of exhibitions including “Vectors” at the NMSA Gallery in Santa Fe, NM in 2022, “All Shapes and Sizes” at the JKR Gallery in Provo, UT in 2023, and the solo show “STRATACHROME” at the Weight Room Gallery in Provo, UT in 2022. Somppi currently lives and works in Provo, UT.
ARTIST STATEMENT
For the past few years, I’ve been really interested in a specific color pallet and experimenting with what that pallet can do. I created this palette as I learned more about modern CYMK color theory and combined it with traditional red/yellow/blue color theory, while also learning about warm/cool compliments. The result is a 9 color palette of magenta, red, orange, goldenrod yellow, lemon yellow, green, cyan, blue, and purple. With this limited palette, I have been able to experiment with dozens of iterations using different techniques, layers, textures, patterns, and mediums. With my most recent pieces, painting and drawing have been my most used avenues of creation, however, I have hundreds of different ideas for future work in my head and notebooks just using this color palette. While the visual beauty of the final works is important, and while creating I do make some aesthetic choices, my main focus is to trust in both the cohesiveness of this color palette and the process and steps I’ve predetermined to follow. Using these processes, I prefer to create in series of multiples of 9, one for each color.
LINKS
https://www.instagram.com/john.somppi/
IMAGES
John Somppi, “Circles #1,” 2022, oil on panel, 26 x 20 in.
John Somppi, “Circles #5,” 2022, oil on panel, 26 x 20 in.
John Somppi, “Circles #7,” 2022, oil on panel, 26 x 20 in.
John Somppi, “Half Circles #3,” 2022, oil on panel, 26 x 20 in.
John Somppi, “Half Circles #7,” 2022, oil on panel, 26 x 20 in.
John Somppi, “Circles #9,” 2022, oil on panel, 26 x 20 in.
John Somppi, “Triangles Interior #1,” 2023, ink on grey paper, 22 x 15 in.
John Somppi, “Triangles Exterior #1,” 2023, ink on grey paper, 22 x 15 in.
John Somppi, “Repeated Circles #1,” 2023, ink on grey paper, 22 x 15 in.
John Somppi, “Line Squares #1,” 2023, ink on grey paper, 22 x 15 in.
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Categories: Painting | Utah Artists - S
