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A new exhibition at an artist-run space shines light on an artist who died in obscurity.

In 1962, the famous abstract-expressionist portraitist Elaine de Kooning made a of an unknown, 24-year-old artist named Eddie Johnson.

Johnson was de Kooning鈥檚 studio assistant. That same year, he accompanied her to President John F. Kennedy鈥檚 鈥淲inter White House鈥� on the island of Palm Beach, Florida.

鈥淓laine de Kooning is going to Palm Beach to paint the President鈥檚 portrait (yes, JFK himself!!) and she鈥檚 taking me along as her assistant,鈥� Johnson wrote in a letter home to his family. 鈥淚 leave today in a Rambler station wagon 鈥� she is going down by train 鈥� I know that this all sounds incredible, but even Elaine can hardly believe it.鈥� Elaine decided she would want photographs & canvases stretched, etc. in Fla., and apparently decided I鈥檓 the only one she could trust.鈥�

Johnson photographed Kennedy as he sat for his portrait. Kennedy was assassinated the following year, and two of Johnson鈥檚 were subsequently published in a May 8, 1964, issue of Life magazine.

Johnson moved to sa国际传媒官网网页入口 sometime in the early 1970s, it seems, where he continued to paint until his death in 2012. In a 2013 , 鈥淎rtist Unknown: Reflections on Works by Eddie Johnson,鈥� art critic Tim Keane attempted to piece together Johnson鈥檚 life from meager scraps of evidence and expressed frustration at not being able to see more of the artist鈥檚 work. 鈥淭aken as I was by these works on paper, I wondered where Eddie Johnson鈥檚 oil paintings might be, if they were at all,鈥� he wrote.

That mystery has now been solved. Much of Johnson鈥檚 life鈥檚 work, it turns out, had been sitting in a storage unit in sa国际传媒官网网页入口 for over a decade.

Matthan Cowart, an artist who runs a gallery called Desert Mystery Center out of an sa国际传媒官网网页入口 home, said the artist鈥檚 estate could no longer afford the storage fees. So, they contacted the University of New Mexico鈥檚 art department, which put them in touch with him.

In reviewing the archive, Cowart stumbled upon a major series of bunny-themed paintings and works on paper that Johnson made between 1972 and 1995. All were based on the same, well-worn plush toy bunny, which Cowart discovered in the archive, as well.

So, he organized an exhibition, titled 鈥淗ares on the Mountain,鈥� which intersperses Johnson鈥檚 bunny-themed art with bunny art by 11 living artists.

It鈥檚 a remarkable cross-generational show. Some of the artists are well-known, including David Altmejd, who represented Canada at the 2007 Venice Biennale, and Ed Haddaway, who is famous in New Mexico for his whimsical public sculptures, including 鈥淎 Tree of Mixed Metaphors,鈥� which you can see in the sa国际传媒官网网页入口 Museum鈥檚 sculpture garden. Other artists, including Rica Maestas, Tori Nicole and Cowart himself, are emerging.

Johnson鈥檚 two largest paintings in 鈥淗ares on the Mountain鈥� measure over 5陆 feet tall, and the gargantuan bunny extends well beyond the frame. With their gestural brushwork and kinetic sense of form, these paintings bear the stylistic imprint of Johnson鈥檚 former mentor, de Kooning, while the subject matter 鈥� a maudlin object of mass-produced schlock 鈥� is about as far removed from the grand, operatic emotions of the abstract-expressionists as one can get.

Why did Johnson obsessively paint the same worn-out plush bunny for over two decades? Was it a personal totem from his childhood? A disguised self-portrait?

In 1972, Johnson was 34 years old. His art career in New York City had failed to materialize. Did he already feel as useless, neglected and worn-down as this old, stuffed bunny? Was the bunny an emblem of his perceived failure? It鈥檚 impossible to know, given the paucity of biographical material on the artist, but I wouldn鈥檛 be surprised.

What鈥檚 interesting, from an art historical standpoint, is that Johnson鈥檚 sad, stuffed bunny art predates (by a decade and a half) the installation artist Mike Kelley鈥檚 use of soiled, discarded stuffed animals in 鈥淢ore Love Hours Than Can Ever Be Repaid and The Wages of Sin鈥� (1987) and the 鈥淎rena鈥� series Kelley first exhibited in 1990. Kelley also made photographic portraits of stuffed animals, which the band Sonic Youth used as the art for their 1992 double album, 鈥淒irty.鈥� Critics at the time tended to interpret Kelley鈥檚 stuffed animals psychologically, sometimes seeing them as stand-ins for abused or neglected children.

Since then, many artists have used salvaged stuffed animals in their art 鈥� up to and including Precious Okoyomon鈥檚 installation piece, 鈥淓verything wants to kill you and you should be afraid鈥� (2026), which was included in this year鈥檚 Whitney Biennial. But in 1972, the idea of making psychologically loaded art out of mass-produced children鈥檚 toys was a radically provocative concept.

Cowart鈥檚 curation brings Johnson鈥檚 radicality to the fore by placing him in conversation with taboo-shattering contemporary artists, such as Tommy Bruce. Bruce, who received a master鈥檚 in studio art from the University of New Mexico in 2020 and now lives in Portland, Oregon, documents the local furry community using infrared cameras. Furries are members of a creative fandom who role-play as anthropomorphic animals in faux-fur suits 鈥� sometimes, but not always, as part of a sexual fetish. Bruce鈥檚 series, 鈥淲ild Night,鈥� focuses on the sexual side of the lifestyle, and the photograph in the current show depicts two furries in full-body rabbit suits getting intimate in the woods.

Cowart鈥檚 own contribution, a mixed-media wall piece, titled 鈥淧lethoric Prey,鈥� places miniature toy rabbits in a series of decaying underground chambers. Disturbing photographs are collaged into the background, including an image of a vicious dog鈥檚 open mouth and the blurry image of a person in a bunny suit who seems to be stumbling into a garbage bin on the side of the road. Cowart鈥檚 piece reminds us that a wild rabbit is a prey animal, whose daily life is a theater of anxiety. When being chased by predators, its heart rate can exceed 300 beats per minute. 

After viewing Cowart鈥檚 work, I began to perceive a greater sense of vulnerability in Johnson鈥檚 painted bunnies. The veinous red brushwork in the background of the larger pieces became visions of blood, anxious fantasies of violence, cutting into the picture plane.

The sa国际传媒官网网页入口-based artist Carlos McCord has created a disturbing sculpture of cholla cactus 鈥渂ones,鈥� barbed wire, black candles and poisonous datura seeds, all of which he has fashioned into a creepy cradle for Johnson鈥檚 actual stuffed bunny. Cowart said McCord鈥檚 ritualistic assemblage was inspired by the 鈥淏urning Man鈥�-esque sculpture seen in the 1973 folk horror film, 鈥淭he Wicker Man.鈥�

As Cowart walked me through the show, he confessed that he sometimes fears dying unknown and leaving behind a trove of unsold artworks, just as Johnson did. After all, only a very small proportion of artists ever become established enough in their lifetimes that a major gallery or museum is willing to step in and manage their estates posthumously. What happens to everyone else?

In this case, Johnson鈥檚 estate has given Cowart permission to sell or give away all of the art in the show 鈥� better, they figured, than seeing it thrown away, or having it remain locked in a vault.

鈥淎t the request of the estate, please consider taking home one or more of the Johnson bunnies at the conclusion of this exhibition,鈥� Cowart wrote at the top of the exhibition checklist. 鈥淎ny price you are willing to pay would go towards exhibition costs. Giving their work a place to live where the light shines is the greatest gift to an artist鈥檚 memory.鈥�

Desert Mystery Center is normally only open by appointment, but it will host a closing reception on Saturday, May 30, beginning at noon. This will be your last chance to see the show, and it might, in fact, be your only chance to see Johnson鈥檚 enigmatic bunny paintings and drawings at all before they get dispersed among local artists and collectors. Don鈥檛 miss it!

Anyone interested in taking home one of Johnson鈥檚 pieces is encouraged to contact Cowart ahead of time via his personal Instagram account, .

Logan Royce Beitmen is an arts writer for the sa国际传媒官网网页入口. He covers visual art, music, fashion, theater and more. Reach him at lbeitmen@abqjournal.com or on Instagram at .