Oliver Johnson was born in 1948 in Jacksonville, FL. He showed an early talent for drawing, but never received formal training. His break came in 1977, when Johnson participated in an exhibition at the Bedford Stuyvesant Restoration Art and Cultural Center in Brooklyn. The show was covered by a local television station, where Johnson’s work was spotted by Felice Traylor, a dealer and graphics publisher, and Roland Balay, former president of the Knoedler Gallery in New York City. Of their first encounter, Balay recalls, “All of a sudden I saw this picture. My God, I said to myself, this is a man who has talent…I was astonished to learn he never had any formal training”. Balay and Traylor immediately signed him and the self-taught artist had his first solo show at the prestigious Wildenstein & Co, a gallery which ordinarily handles works by the likes of Renoir and Cezanne. Johnson’s striking still lifes and portraits have become much sought-after, and in recent years have been included in exhibitions at the Studio Museum in Harlem and Foxglove Gallery, Stroudsberg, PA. Johnson’s works have been acquired by several notable collectors, including Bill Cosby, Malcolm Forbes, David Rockefeller and the Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture, New York.