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About The Series


The Catalogue of Imaginary Beings is an ongoing series of work begun in 2016 that sprung from over twenty years of portraiture and collage work.  Now at over 400 plates the body of work seeks to explore a range of themes in popular culture including the role of the individual in fashion, in history, in the artistic imagination and more broadly, the collective consciousness.  The body of work draws its inspiration from a wide spectrum of sources including Magical Realism, Surrealism, and Symbolism.  And more specifically references such cultural artifacts as talismans, idols, totems and all of the material detritus that surrounds all of us all the time.  These characters are composites embodying notions of “the warrior”, vulnerability, industry, the universal and the personal.  They reference these identities as they’ve been depicted historically through art, literature, and commerce.

Both visually riveting and psychologically evocative, these images that exist somewhere between portraiture and iconography have resonated with a host of different entities such as magazines, galleries, and others including The Smithsonian, The Metropolitan Transit Authority of New York and West Elm.

Design Director and Author, Logan Bradley of The Frontier, New Zealand describes the work this way:

The Catalogue of Imaginary Beings is an exciting collection of fantastical collages by artist and Illustrator, Johanna Goodman. Goodman, who studied at Parsons School of Design has that remarkable ability of being able to create shockingly good work in a myriad of styles.  This is no mean feat.  Chopping and changing styles, and being successful with each of them, shows a true creative talent.  And with Goodman, a quick Google search will turn up an array of varying illustration styles including a large portfolio of painterly portraits, a technique that has landed the artist with gigs for the likes of TIME Magazine, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Esquire and The Wall Street Journal.

However it’s Goodman’s Imaginary Beings, an on-going personal series, that stands out as being wondrously refreshing. Using various textures and body parts, Goodman collages together bizarrely beautiful formations.  The costumes and figures that fill the catalogue are strangely disjointed, with cumbersome proportions and voluminous gowns made up from a selection of textures that keep surprising you at every turn.  The playfulness of it all recalls the joyous absurdity of Tim Burtons’s Alice in Wonderland, the Haute couture of COMME des GARÇONS, or dare I say it, the costumes of The Hunger Games. They’re odd, wildly imaginative and strangely beautiful, and surely they reveal a little bit of Goodman’s own whimsical nature.”

*Custom sizes are available upon request! If you would like a size that is not listed just let me know what size you would like and I will respond with a price quote.

*All print prices are for home use only.  Any commercial application may require higher fees. 

*Print purchases do not entitle buyer to any reproduction rights.  All copyrights remain with the Artist.  Art cannot be reproduced or used without the permission of the Artist. 


Johanna Goodman's website