Jason Wallis-Johnson is a British artist who studied sculpture at the Royal College of Art and has since developed a very diverse practice which includes sculpture, drawing and map-related lightboxes. He has exhibited widely in Europe and also in New York. He has been exhibiting with England & Co since 2001 and is represented by the gallery. He lives and works in London.

Wallis-Johnson's mesmerisingly fine drawings use manual techniques to produce what seem to be mechanically-made abstract designs and devices on paper. He obsessively draws line after line by hand with a ruler or compass, using self-imposed mathematical 'rules' to decide the frequency and distance between each applied line. As the lines are copied and re-applied, they change and mutate as the drawing progresses.

These are 'carbon' drawings - the pressure of drawn lines is transferred on to a sheet of paper placed below the carbon paper that is the actual drawn surface. The manual origins of the drawings are indicated by measurement and plotting guides; by the punctures made by pinning both the carbon and final underlying paper to a drawing board; and by the appearance of occasional irregularities and pressure marks. The resulting drawings are extraordinarily delicate and subtle, and have a serene, uncannily calm presence.

His lightbox illuminations of maps are made by meticulously pin-pricking black carbon paper; the resulting pierced surfaces shimmering against the light-boxes behind. As Simon Morley wrote about one of these works, 'drawing here becomes an exercise in attention and even endurance.' Sarah Kent, in a Time Out review commented that: 'Jason Wallis-Johnson's obsessive drawings are remarkable. Using population statistics, he compiles detailed maps of islands and cities with minute dots that inhabit paper or Perspex to create ghostely landscapes resembling places seen from the air - exquisitely beautiful and utterly convincing.'

A new series of sculptural works are multi-coloured marbled-silicone figures that have been cast from the interiors or fused with found porcelain figurines. Wallis-Johnson uses these antique or reproduction china and porcelain figurines as a mould, pouring silicone inside them using his technique of mixing coloured pigments with the silicone in layers to make colourful marble-like swirling patterns. The resulting casts have the recognisable form of the original period figures. With some works in the series he leaves fragments of the original porcelain attached to the silicone so that faces and body parts remain with the colourful interiors emerging from them - although abstracted, they are anchored to their 'human' beginnings.

Drawings by Jason Wallis-Johnson have been acquired from England & Co by the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum, and the Victoria and Albert Museum acquired his London lightbox in 2004.

In his England & Co exhibition catalogue (2002), Jason Wallis-Johnson writes about his work: 

'The map drawings use population statistics (1 dot = 3 persons) that are aligned to correspond to built-up areas. These statistics line the roads, build streets and mark coastlines - they indicate a leaning towards compulsive obsessive disorder. Facts and figures are contrasted and compared: How big is Town A on Island One compared to Town A on Island Two? Motorway is contrasted against motorway, city against city, island against island. I choose my side and start a statistics conflict. To twist and manipulate the information to suit my favoured island, a fiction is built from facts.
    'I blame my home village - it was smaller than the village next door. I had to re-align the scattered houses to a denser configuration, re-draw the skyline, and re-name lanes to streets, so my village would become a town. I have grown up since then, and now have thousands of maps to expand my scope for conflict. Indeed, there are so many on-going battles that I frequently forget them, only to rediscover them as they fall from the folds of a map. I then start again armed with the latest Whittaker's Almanac.'

Illustrated catalogue available.

SELECTED EXHIBITIONS

2019	Draw Art Fair London (England & Co).
2013	Gallery Artists, England & Co, London.
2012	Wandering Lines ii: Automatic Drawing to Abstraction, 20th & 21st Century Drawings, England & Co, London.
2011	Wandering Lines: Automatic Drawing to Abstraction, 20th & 21st Century Drawings, England & Co, London Gallery Artists, England & Co, London. London Art Fair (England & Co).
2010	Gallery Artists, England & Co, London. London Art Fair (England & Co).
2009	Zoo Art Fair, London (England & Co). City X, England & Co, London. London Art Fair (England & Co).
2008	Persistent Obsessions, England & Co, London. Is There Anybody Out There?, England & Co, London. Form Art and Design Fair (England & Co), Olympia, London. London Art Fair (England & Co), BDC, London.
2007-08	Mapping the Imagination, display at the Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
2007	Chris Kenny, Georgia Russell, Jason Wallis-Johnson, Project Space (curated by Jane England), London. Contemporary Art Fair, . Re:formed: New works by Chris Kenny + Georgia Russell + Jason Wallis-Johnson, England & Co, London. Culture Bound: Courtauld Institute of Art's East Wing Collection VII, biennial exhibition displayed in the Institute's East Wing, Somerset House, London.
2006	Summer Exhibition, England & Co, London. London Contemporary Art Fair (England & Co), BDC, London.
2005	After a Fashion, England & Co, London. Jason Wallis-Johnson, Project Space (curated by Jane England), London Contemporary Art Fair. London Contemporary Art Fair (England & Co), BDC, London.
2004	Jason Wallis-Johnson: Recent Work, concurrent with Jonathan Parsons: Recent Work, England & Co, London. Gallery Play - Cock Blok, collaboration with Cees Krijnen, Studio 1.1 & Willem de Wolf, Toneelshur, Haarlem; Frascati, Amsterdam and touring Paris, Rome and London. Cock Blok - A Six Step Programme, collaboration with Cees Krijnen, Zoo Art Fair, Regents Park, London. Group exhibition, Studio 1.1, London. Visual Rhythms, Bury St Edmunds Art Gallery. 'An exhibition of fluidity in colour, space and light; painting, drawing and sculpture which takes its form or inspiration from mathematical rules or laws'. With Rebecca Coates, Tess Jaray, Kate Mills, Bridget Riley, Anna Sweatman, Jason Wallis-Johnson, Chris Wood. Art 2004 (with England & Co), London Contemporary Art Fair.
2003	The Map Is Not the Territory iii, James Hockey Gallery, Surrey Institute of Art and Design Farnham. Modern Collection, Black Block, Palais de Tokyo, Paris. Art 2003 (England & Co), London Contemporary Art Fair.
2002	The Map Is Not the Territory ii, England & Co, London. Jason Wallis-Johnson: Recent Drawings & Lightboxes, England & Co, London. Art 2002 (England & Co), London Contemporary Art Fair.
2001	The Map Is Not the Territory i, England & Co, London.
2000	The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Debs & Co, New York. Incorporate 2, Arts and Business, London.
1999	Victorya, Contemporary artists' collaborative publication.
1998	Summer Show, Debs & Co, New York. Superstore Austria, Vienna. Sarah Staton's Supastore, Arnolfini, Bristol.
1997	Ideas For Sale, Cornerhouse Gallery, Manchester. Supastore Deluxe (No.2), Up & Co, New York. Supastore Deluxe (No.1), Up & Co, New York. Truly Supastore, Norwich Gallery, Norfolk. Braziers International Artists Workshop, Oxfordshire. Absolut Secret, Royal College of Art, London. Sarah Staton's Supastore, Arnolfini, Bristol.
1996	Braziers International Artists Workshop, Oxfordshire. Geopony, Adam gallery, Bath.
1995	Car 2, Hales Gallery, London.    Ciot, London Artforms, London.
1994	Comment Raser un Donjon qui Derange?, Ateliers à L'Ecart, Paris.    Art d'Europe, Galeria de l'Esplanade, La Défence, Paris. Galeria Gerulata, Bratislava, Slovakia.
1993	Drawing Towards Sculpture, Isis Gallery, Southend. Sunday Times Singer and Friedlander Prize Exhibition, Mall Galleries, London. Malvern Open Drawing Exhibition 93, Malvern, Worcs.
1992	Malvern Open Drawing Exhibition 92, Malvern, Worcs.
1990-91	British Telecom New Contemporaries, touring to Arnolfini (Bristol); John Hansard Gallery (Southampton); Ikon Gallery (Birmingham); Third Eye Gallery (Glasgow); Northern Institute of Contemporary Art (Dean Clough, Halifax); and ICA, London.

PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

British Museum - Department of Prints & Drawings (four drawings).
Victoria and Albert Museum - Word & Image Department (London lightbox).

AWARDS

1992	Robson Miller Award for Drawing Maurice Singer Scholarship

STUDY

1990-92	Royal College of Art, MA (Sculpture)
1985-88	Brighton Polytechnic:  BA (Hons) Fine Art
1983-85	Great Yarmouth College of Art

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Gabriel Coxhead, 'Kenny/Russell/Wallis-Johnson', exhibition review, Time Out, London November 14-20, 2007.

Wallpaper Magazine 2005.

Roam: Reader on the Aesthetics of Mobility, edited by Anthony Hoete (in chapter The Map Is Not the Territory by Jane England), Black Dog Publishing, London & New York 2003.

Exhibition catalogue, The Map Is Not the Territory iii, published by the James Hockey Gallery, Surrey Institute of Art and Design, Farnham (in association with England & Co, London) 2003

Exhibition catalogue, The Map Is Not the Territory ii, published by England & Co, London 2002 (lightbox illustrated).

Pryle Behman, ReDrawing the Map, exhibition review, Galleries, Vol xx, No 2, July 2002.

Paul Hedges, article in Arts Review December-January 2002.

Exhibition catalogue, Jason Wallis Johnson, Recent Drawings & Lightboxes, published by England & Co, London, 2002 (drawings and light-boxes illustrated).

Exhibition catalogue, The Map Is Not the Territory i, published by England & Co, London 2001 (lightbox illustrated).

Sarah Kent, Time Out review of exhibition at England & Co: The Map Is Not the Territory, August 8-15, 2000.

Simon Morley, exhibition review of Drawing at Percy Miller Gallery, London, Independent on Sunday, 13 August 2000.

Exhibition review of The Hissing of Summer Lawns, Time Out New York, July 20-27, 2000 (drawing illustrated).

Victorya (Fold - The Newspaper of the Unconscious), printed at Goldsmith College,1999, curated by Grant Watson and edited by Jane Millar (work illustrated).

Exhibition review of Sarah Staton's Supastore, Time Out New York, December 18-25, 1997.

Exhibition catalogue, Braziers Workshop 97, published by Braziers International Artists Workshop, Oxfordshire, 1997 (works illustrated).

Exhibition catalogue, Braziers Workshop, published by Braziers International Artists Workshop, Oxfordshire, 1995 (works illustrated).

Exhibition catalogue (used for three exhibitions), Jean-Francois Courtilat, Jason Wallis-Johnson, Jean-Francois Guillon, Galeria Gerulata, Bratislava, Slovakia, 1994, (cover plus 9 drawings and sculptures illustrated).

Exhibition catalogue, Comment Raser un Donjon qui Derange?, Ateliers à L'Ecart, Paris, 1994 (work illustrated).

Exhibition catalogue, Art(s) d'Europe? (67 Artistes Européens), Galerie de l'Esplanade, La Défence, Paris; published by the Association Pépinières Européennes pour Jeunes Artistes, 1994 (pages from drawing book illustrated)

Professor Barry Hirst, exhibition review of The Malvern Drawing Competition, Leisure Painter, January 1993 (pages from drawing book illustrated).

Exhibition catalogue, Drawing Towards Sculpture, Isis Gallery & Arts Institute, Leigh-on-Sea, Essex, 1993 (drawing illustrated).

William Feaver, 'Relentlessly Stylish and the catalogue is a must', exhibition review of British Telecom New Contemporaries, The Observer, 23 December 1990.

Exhibition catalogue, British Telecom New Contemporaries1990-09, published by The New Contemporaries (1988) Ltd, London (pages from drawing book illustrated).