EIRIK JOHNSON | PINE
ZOO, archival pigment print, 40 x 96 inches
Koplin Del Rio presents PINE, a solo exhibition by Seattle-born photographer Eirik Johnson. This summer residency, hosted by Foster/White Gallery, marks an exciting collaboration between the two longstanding Seattle galleries.
SAVE, backlit light box, 40 x 32 inches
Deeply rooted in the Pacific Northwest, PINE offers an atmospheric and emotionally resonant encounter with the region’s landscape, music history, and spirit of youthful longing. The exhibition features Johnson’s nocturnal, long-exposure photographs of carved trees—works that transform acts of inscription into luminous monuments of memory. Presented as backlit lightboxes, traditional photographic prints, and a singular neon work, PINE considers the tree as both witness and archive: a keeper of secrets.
Grounded in the intimate act of carving names, initials, song lyrics, and private declarations into trees, PINE explores the impulse to leave a mark—to declare, “I was here.” In Johnson’s photographs, these carvings are illuminated at night with fire, moonlight, sparklers, and prismatic light. Through long exposure, the surfaces of the trees are transformed, appearing at once as lunar landscapes, prehistoric cave walls, or the worn skin of an elephant.
The photographs record my own performative response to these markings and the sentiments they hold. — Eirik Johnson
THE SMITHS, archival pigment print, 50 x 40 inches
Eirik Johnson (b. 1974, Seattle, WA) is a photographic artist whose conceptually driven work examines the intersections of environmental, social, and economic systems in the United States and abroad. Working across photobooks and immersive, sound-based installations, Johnson explores the marks and relationships formed through these complex entanglements.
Johnson received his BFA and BA from the University of Washington and his MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. His work has been exhibited at institutions including the Aperture Foundation (New York), the Institute of Contemporary Art (Boston), and the Henry Art Gallery (Seattle). His monographs include Road to Nowhere, Barrow Cabins (Ice Fog Press), PINE (Minor Matters Books), Sawdust Mountain (Aperture), and BORDERLANDS (Twin Palms Publishers). His work is held in the permanent collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the International Center of Photography (New York), and the Nevada Museum of Art (Reno). Editorial clients include Travel + Leisure, The New York Times Magazine, Dwell, and Metropolis.