Dylan Johnston: Mild Mild West by "Dunce"

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Dylan Johnston, "Mild Mild West by "Dunce," 2022

MILD MILD WEST by "Dunce"

Dylan Johnston is an emerging artist from Vernon who goes by the moniker DUNCE.  With a background in street art, his primary mediums include spray paint, hand cut stencils and wheat pasted images.  His most recent work has been an experimentation in redefining his street art style to bring it into a gallery setting.  His recent work showcases vintage pop images exploring Hollywood's version of the Wild West. 

Dylan states, "The goal of my ongoing series is to blur the lines between street art and fine art.  I want to bring the medium of street art, which is regularly dismissed and viewed as a lesser form or art, into a gallery for its '237 seconds' of consideration."

Personally, Dunce has always been infatuated with country music and old western movies which are recurring themes in his artwork. This planted the seed for the ‘Mild Mild West’, a collection of pop and urban art pieces using wild western comic books, pages from cowboy novels, vintage movie photographs and a lot of spray paint.

Dunce recontextualizes these images creating new stories within the individual pieces and the exhibition as a whole. He is inspired by pop art themes of reproduction, repetition and consumption which influence his work.

His artwork both romanticizes and critiques the wild west cliches. By removing the subject from its original context, the audience will have the opportunity to see the sentimental images in a new light. The individual works showcase an era of western cliches from damsels in distress and saloon girls to whiskey drinking outlaws who save the day and ride off into the sunset.

An opening reception will be held on August 4, 2022 from 6:00 - 8:00 p.m. when Dylan will talk about his inspiration and process.