INTERVIEW | Johanna Arganbright

10 Questions with Johanna Arganbright

Born in 2003 in a small town in rural Montana, Johanna Arganbright is a figure painter in Missoula, Montana. Much of her work is centred around intimate and lonesome activities and feelings; she is inspired by the small moments that are often overlooked and shines a spotlight on them. Arganbright's first love for art was her grandmother's watercolour paintings in her childhood home, which inspired her to start painting and motivated her to become an artist. Her work has been exhibited in multiple juried art shows at the University of Montana, as well as shown in a large-scale exterior exhibition in downtown Missoula, Montana, in 2024. She recently earned her BFA from the University of Montana, with a concentration in painting and double minors in art history and business administration.

www.jarganbright.com | @josie.arganbright

Johanna Arganbright - Portrait

ARTIST STATEMENT

Johanna has always been drawn to the human experience: the small, quiet moments that often go unnoticed. Her work focuses on self-portraiture in mundane, introspective poses that are ordinary at first glance. Through her paintings, she turns inward, seeking to separate the seen from the unseen and depict the invisible mental struggles through surrealist entities interacting with the human form.

Just as we experience a multitude of emotions at any given moment, the surreal beings that appear floating alongside the figure in her work are not representative of a single emotion. Each piece is sparked by a specific journal entry or life event, often from a place of confusion, frustration, or emotional low points. Johanna's artistic process starts with painting the figure. As she works, she uncovers aspects of herself that she needs to confront or understand to navigate life. The original intention of each piece evolves throughout the process, often diverging from its initial meaning to reveal solutions or ways to help her own mental and emotional state. The surrealist entity is added intuitively as she works, based on how her mental state is impacting how she interacts with the world.

The main goal of Johanna's work is to connect people through the shared emotional experiences of life and relate to the paintings to feel less alone. Though she has an intense connection with all of the paintings, she intentionally leaves the faces of the figures out of frame or obscured. This invites viewers to see themselves in the work, allowing them to project themselves onto the figure. The figures are all herself, but they are simultaneously everyone else. She sees the figure in my work much like a mother sees her child; it's not Johanna, but an extension of herself that she holds dear.

There is beauty in the simple, lonely moments; she wishes to emphasise that with her work and make unspoken connections between people.

Full Yet, oil on canvas, 24x48 in, 2025 © Johanna Arganbright


INTERVIEW

Let's start from the basics. Can you tell us a bit about how you first became interested in art?

I first became interested in art very early in my childhood. My home was filled with my grandmother's watercolour paintings, which had a huge impact on how I came to see and appreciate art. Her work focused on the ageing, weathered buildings of rural Montana, and through her paintings, she captured their quiet beauty and the stories that they were able to tell. Although my parents often joke that the artistic gene "skipped" their generation, I was fortunate to grow up in a home that supported creativity and encouraged my passion for art. 

Growing up in rural Montana, how has your environment influenced your work as a painter?

Growing up in rural Montana deeply shaped the way I see the world and, in turn, the way I approach painting. The flatlands have a quiet, open stillness that gives you the space to think and focus on the details that can get lost in more dramatic landscapes. I grew up on a farm that was a 40-minute drive to any town around, so I spent a lot of time wandering around the farm by myself, observing, reflecting, and letting my mind wander. I live in a larger town now, but the comfort of being alone and the tendency to overanalyse myself and the world never went away. I still go on drives outside of town to clear my head and reconnect with that sense of quiet introspection, which often sparks new ideas or emotional clarity that makes its way into my work.

Acceptance, oil on canvas, 30x40 in, 2024 © Johanna Arganbright

Something to Care For, oil on canvas, 45x35 in, 2025 © Johanna Arganbright

What drew you specifically to figure painting and self-portraiture?

I have always loved how the human body looks and moves, how effortlessly expressive it is. People have a kind of inner glow, an energy that I haven't been able to find in inanimate objects. I have explored other subjects like buildings and animals to get the life that people bring by painting other scenes, but nothing resonates with me as much as painting the human figure. There's an intimacy and connection that comes through when I paint people that allows me to pour more of myself into the work.
When it comes to self-portraiture, it feels like the most honest way for me to express difficult emotions. The moments I portray are often painful or complicated, and it's hard for me to project that kind of vulnerability onto someone else. My figures always feel alive, and placing an imagined or unfamiliar person into that emotional space feels uncomfortable, like I'm assigning them an experience they didn't choose. But when I use myself, I'm reflecting my reality. This makes the painting experience therapeutic; I'm able to give shape to what I'm feeling by building a scene around this extension of myself.

Your paintings often focus on small, quiet moments of everyday life. Why are these moments so meaningful to you?

I love to portray real life in my work, which is most often found in the quiet, mundane moments we often overlook. We live in a world of distractions and tools for suppressing our emotions, constant noise, endless scrolling, and so many ways to avoid sitting with our own thoughts. It is in the still, uneventful times, when there's no stimulation, no pressure to perform, that I feel most like myself. This confrontation of self and emotion is sometimes uncomfortable, but they are so necessary. These moments remind me that feeling deeply, even when it is difficult, is part of myself and part of being human, which is what I want my work to reflect.

You include surrealist figures in your work that seem to float alongside the human form. What do these figures represent?

While I work, I try to separate the body from the mind because that is how I tend to process my emotions. The surreal, floating forms in my paintings represent aspects of my world that I'm having difficulties with at the time. They often take the shape of anxiety, intrusive thoughts, or waves of depression, things that feel separate from the physical self but are still very present. By painting them disconnected from the human form, I'm trying to visualise the tension between the seen and the unseen, the grounded and the emotional.

So Self-sufficient!, oil on canvas, 36x48 in, 2025 © Johanna Arganbright

Can you describe your creative process from the first idea to the finished painting?

My creative process always begins with a specific feeling, usually one I don't fully understand but know I need to confront. This emotion often emerges from a journal entry or a brief experience that stuck with me. From there, I start with the figure first, placing my body in familiar poses that I find myself falling into naturally. While painting the figure, I am looking inward and processing the emotional weight of whatever I'm working through, which can make the process feel mentally and emotionally exhausting.
The surrealist blob comes later in the process, often after having an emotional realisation or shift in perspective. For example, in my piece Something to Care For, I had been struggling with anxiety surrounding my social life and how I interact with other people, and was feeling frustrated with my inability to act "normal". During this time, I found a slight parallel between how I cared for my fish and was scared for his safety, and how the anxiety I was experiencing, while destructive, was also rooted in a desire to protect and care. That protective element of anxiety became the form and intention behind the surrealist figure in the painting.

How do you hope people feel when they see your work?

For a long time, I didn't think much about who would view my work; I create for the sole reason of translating my emotional experiences into something physical and real to understand myself better. But over time, I've realised that the personal nature of my work can also resonate with others. I hope that by seeing my work, people can feel understood. While I am deeply emotionally connected to each painting I create, I don't want the meaning to be limited to my own experience. My hope is that people can bring their own emotions and interpretations to the work and see a part of themselves reflected in it.

You mentioned that you intentionally obscure the faces of the figures. Why is that important to you?

Psychologically, our eyes are trained to seek out faces in everything, often becoming the first thing we focus on. In my work, the face isn't the most important part. Obscuring the face on the figure removes the fixed emotional expression, opening up the figure to a broader interpretation. This allows viewers to bring their own feelings and experiences into the piece, rather than being directed by a specific facial cue. It's important to me that people can assign their own meaning to my work, and leaving the face ambiguous helps create that space for personal connection.

Shade 892, oil on canvas, 40x30 in, 2024 © Johanna Arganbright

Indifference, oil on canvas, 36x24 in, 2024 © Johanna Arganbright

What was it like seeing your work shown in public spaces, like the large-scale exterior exhibition in Missoula?

Seeing my work so publicly and on such a large scale as it was in the Allez exhibition was a very exposing experience initially. My work is so personal to me, and having it out in the world, beyond my control, felt deeply vulnerable. But as people started reacting to it and sharing their experience, it was extremely validating. Hearing that others felt seen or connected to the piece inspired me to keep creating and continue transforming that vulnerability into something meaningful.

Lastly, looking ahead, are there new ideas, themes, or projects you're excited to explore next?

In the future, I want to extend my work to include more complex emotions. Up to this point, I've often focused on negative emotions because painting has been a tool for processing those kinds of emotions in myself. It has been very therapeutic, which I value, but lately I have been toying with how healing can also come from honouring the positive aspects of my life, not just my struggles. I want to challenge myself to capture the same level of emotion in a happy scene that I have reached in my other paintings. I have been exploring nostalgia and how moments of joy shape us alongside our struggles, which is something that I am excited to pursue. I am interested to see how my paintings will change as I let more light into them.


Artist’s Talk

Al-Tiba9 Interviews is a promotional platform for artists to articulate their vision and engage them with our diverse readership through a published art dialogue. The artists are interviewed by Mohamed Benhadj, the founder & curator of Al-Tiba9, to highlight their artistic careers and introduce them to the international contemporary art scene across our vast network of museums, galleries, art professionals, art dealers, collectors, and art lovers across the globe.