P-Nut: 65 Years of Unity & Community

“65 Years of Unity & Community”: Paintings, Videos, (please inquire) & Poetry Virtual Exhibition. Dog and Horse Fine Art is pleased to present this virtual exhibition with Joseph, P-NUT, Johnson. Come visit P-Nut’s neighborhood to learn about his community’s camaraderie and to hear some anecdotes via Gullah-Geechee art. The paintings include an audio video (please inquire to hear) of P-Nut explaining the significance of the painting “Holy Rain,” as well as Uncle Dan in “Pure Love,” the greatest love story ever told. His poetry books, republished in 2019 with the National Endowment for the Arts and the John and Susan Bennett Memorial Art Fund grants, are available for purchase.

Joseph “P-Nut” Johnson was born in Charleston, S.C., in 1955. At age sixteen, he began writing poems on napkins at local watering holes like Cumberland’s Bar and Horse & Court. He captured people instantly with his humor and insight and, soon enough, had visitors stopping by the bars just to get a poem from the ‘Lowcountry Poet.’ With the encouragement of dedicated patrons, he compiled these thoughtful poems into two publications. His first book was registered with the Library of Congress in 1996 and his second was recently published in 2018.

In 2017, P-Nut discovered visual arts as a medium through which to tell his stories. His folk-poetry seamlessly translates into narrative paintings full of spontaneity and life. They read as light-hearted and playful, while tackling heavy subject matter of African American suppression in the Lowcountry and dwindling Gullah-Geechee art and culture. In a city dominated by naturalistically rendered landscapes, P-Nut offers an alternative voice of Southern culture, one that is deeply rooted and often overlooked.