Erin Johnson (1985, US) is a visual artist based in New York whom Filmmaker Magazine named one of 2022's "25 New Faces of Film."
Her short films and immersive installations interlace documentary, experimental, and narrative filmmaking devices to interrogate notions of collectivity, dissent, and queer identity. In her shape-shifting videos, site-specific performances by artists, biologists, and film extras address ongoing legacies of scientific research and nationalism.
Erin Johnson (1985, US) is a visual artist based in New York whom Filmmaker Magazine named one of 2022's "25 New Faces of Film."
Her short films and immersive installations interlace documentary, experimental, and narrative filmmaking devices to interrogate notions of collectivity, dissent, and queer identity. In her shape-shifting videos, site-specific performances by artists, biologists, and film extras address ongoing legacies of scientific research and nationalism.
Johnson received an MFA and Certificate in New Media from UC Berkeley in 2013, attended Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in 2019 and recently completed residencies at Pioneer Works (Brooklyn, NY), Jan van Eyck Academie (Maastricht, NL), Lower Manhattan Community Council (LMCC, NY), Hidrante (San Juan, PR), and Lighthouse Works (Fishers Island, NY). She is Chair of the Department of Film and Video at the Maryland Institute College of Art.
Her work has recently been exhibited or screened at MOCA Toronto (Toronto), Munchmuseet (Oslo), Times Square Arts (New York), deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum (Boston), Billytown (The Hague), and Telfair Museums (Savannah).
ERIN JOHNSON
erinjohnson.online
Education
2019 Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Skowhegan, ME
2013 MFA, Art Practice, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
2008 BA, Warren Wilson College, Asheville, NC
Professional Appointments
2021-Present Assistant Professor and Chair, Film & Video, MICA, Baltimore, MD
2015-2020 Visiting Assistant Professor of Art + Digital and Computational Studies,
Bowdoin College, Brunswick, ME
2013-2015 Assistant Professor, Visual Arts, University of West Georgia, Carrollton, GA
2013-2011 Lecturer, Visual Arts, UC Berkeley, Berkeley, CA
Awards
25 New Faces of Film 2022, Filmmaker Magazine
Residencies
2022 Lighthouse Works, Fishers Island, NY
2022 Hidrante, San Juan, PR
2021 Jan van Eyck Academie, Maastricht, Netherlands
2021 LMCC Arts Center, NYC, NY
2021 Ankara Queer Art Program, Turkey
2021 Surf Point Foundation, York, ME
2020 Pioneer Works, Red Hook, NY
2017 Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts, El Paso, TX
2015 Wave Pool Residency, Wave Pool, Cincinnati, OH
2015 Serenbe Residency, Palmetto, GA
2013 Central School Project, Bisbee, AZ
2012 Elsewhere Collaborative Residency, Greensboro, NC
2011 Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2023 Rompecabezas, MUNTREF-Centre of Contemporary Art, BIENALSUR, Buenos Aires
2023 To be Sound is to be Solid, Instituto Bardi/Casa de Vidro, São Paulo, Brazil
2023 Daisy Chain, Galleria Eugenia Delfini, Rome, Italy
2021 Lake, Midnight Moment, Times Square Arts
2020 Unnamed for Decades, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, ME
2020 NIGHTSHADE, Iris Project/Samuel Freeman Gallery, Los Angeles
2020 Both Players Move, SPACE Gallery, Portland, ME
2019 Salidas y Entradas Exits and Entrances, Vox Populi, Philadelphia, PA
2018 Heavy Water, Telfair Museums, Savannah, GA (curated by Rachel Reese)
2018 It Was a Warm Day and Everyone Was in Bad, Bad Shape, Lawrence Arts Center
2018 Salidas y Entradas Exits and Entrances, Rubin Center for the Visual Arts, University of Texas, El Paso, TX (collaborative project with Jessica Hankey) (curated by Kerry Doyle)
2017 The Way Things Can Happen, Power Plant Gallery, Duke University, Durham, NC
2016 Of Moving and Being Moved, Pelican Bomb, New Orleans, LA
2015 Providence Canyon, Wave Pool Gallery, Cincinnati, OH (curated by Calcagno Cullen)
2015 Tell Me All About It, Alexander Breast Gallery, Jacksonville University, Jacksonville, FL
2015 Waiting Theater Presents, Bench Projects, Oakland, CA
2014 Hole, Vox Populi, Philadelphia, PA
2014 Seek You, Sella Granata Gallery, University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, AL
2014 Tulle/Tool, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY (performance with Ashley Ferro-Murray)
2013 CWR, Central School Project, Bisbee, AZ
2012 Tulle/Tool, ZERO1 Biennial, San Jose, CA (performance with Ashley Ferro-Murray)
Selected Group Exhibitions
2023 Rompecabezas, BIENALSUR, MUNTREF Centro de Arte Contemporáneo, Buenos Aires
2023 Betwixt and Between, Sanatorium, Istanbul, Turkey
2023 Leakier Gardens, Images Festival Summer Exhibition, Toronto
2022 Light, Colby Museum of Art, Waterville, ME
2022 The View from Here, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, ME
2022 At First Light, Bowdoin Art Museum, Brunswick, ME
2021 Skroderider, Billytown, The Hague, NL
2021 A future unknown to me except as a plea, Ellen de Bruijne Projects, Amsterdam, NL
2021 CADS: Queer Desires, Munchmuseet, Oslo, Norway
2020 Visionary New England, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA
2020 Shift Key, MOCA Toronto, Toronto (curated by Daisy Desrosiers)
2019 deCordova New England Biennial, deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, Lincoln, MA
2018 PMA Biennial, Portland Museum of Art, Portland, ME (curated by Nat May)
2017 Animal Magnetism, Wave Pool Gallery, Cincinnati, OH (curated by Kim Paice)
2016 An Ocean Trapped Behind a Wall, New Mexico State University Gallery
2015 Prime Time, Asheville Art Museum, Asheville, NC
2014 Vestiges, HERE, New York City, NY
2014 Erin Johnson and Jessica Hankey, Adobe Books Gallery, SF, CA
2014 InLight Richmond, 1708 Gallery, Richmond (curated by Denise Markonish, MASS MoCA)
2014 Magical Thinking, Root Division, San Francisco, CA
2013 The Making is a Re-Making, Kala Art Institute, Berkeley, CA
Selected Screenings
2023 Leakier Gardens, Images Festival, Toronto
2023 Erin Johnson: Holding Water, e-flux Screening Room
2023 Sight/Geist, The Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation / The 8th Floor, NYC, NY
2023 Cassandra with a Flood in Her Mouth, REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA
2023 Companion Pieces, Images Festival, Toronto, CA
Collections
Farnsworth Art Museum, Bowdoin Art Museum
Artist Talks and Lectures
2023 Artist Talk, California Institute of Technology
2023 Artist Talk, Williams College
2022 Artist Talk, University of Maine + Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture Series
2021 Artist Talk, Visual Arts Department, Harvard University
2021 Artist Talk and Book Launch, Pioneer Works
2021 Artist Talk for Utopia Now: Contemporary New England Artists, deCordova Museum
2019 Artist Talk, School of Creative Media, City University of Hong Kong
2018 Panelist, “A Long Wait: artistic inquiry at Fort Gorges," Build It and They Will Come,
College Art Association Conference
2018 Discussant, Taking it to the Streets, CAA
2018 Visiting Artist Lecture, Kunstraum Tapir Gallery, Berlin, Germany
2018 Visiting Artist Lecture, Bikalpa Art Center, Kathmandu, Nepal
2017 Visiting Artist Lecture, Wave Pool Gallery, Cincinnati, OH
2017 Visiting Artist Lecture, Telfair Museums, Savannah, GA
2017 Panelist, “Queering Mobile Network Infrastructures and the Data-Driven Body,” Bad
Bodies: Inscriptions of Fatigue, Instability, and Resistance, CAA
2016 Visiting Artist, STUDIO for Creative Inquiry, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA
2016 Moderator, Nomadic Spaces, Common Field, Miami, Florida
2016 Visiting Artist Lecture, Texas State University, San Marcos, Texas
2016 Visiting Artist, University of Texas at Austin School of Information, UT Austin
2016 Panelist, “Providence,” Ecologies of Creative Activism, CAA
2014 Panelist, “The Expanded Studio: Facilitating Hybrid Practices in Fine Arts Courses,” Merging Media: Hybrid Practices in the Studio, Southeastern College Art Conference
2014 Panelist, “Cross-Curricular Experience and Social Practice in the Urban and Rural Fine Arts
Classroom,” Cleveland Art Institute, Cleveland, Ohio
Jury Participation
2023 Juror, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture
2022 Juror, Pioneer Works residency 2021 Juror, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture2017 Grant Panel, Kindling Fund, SPACE Gallery, Portland, Maine
Selected Bibliography
Vadim Rizov, 25 New Faces of Film 2022, Filmmaker Magazine, 2022
Sophia Larigakis, Erin Johnson’s Queer Ecosystems, Public Parking, 2022
Kate Green, Critics’ Picks, Artforum, June, 2018
Alana Dao, “An Artist ‘From Away,” VICE, March 29, 2017
Jenna Crowder, “In Maine, If There’s an Artistic Will, Artists Find a Way,” VICE, March 29, 2017
Jenna Crowder, “Predicting Future Weather: an interview with Anna Wolfe-Pauly & Erin Colleen Johnson,” The Chart, June/July 2016
David Carkhuff, “Fort Gorges dips its toe in the artistic waters: ‘A Long Wait’ previews what a master plan could mean for Hog Island,” The Portland Phoenix, April 10, 2016
Bob Keyes, Performance art series slated for July at Fort Gorges, Maine Today, July 5, 2016
Alex Mak, “Artists Taking Over Bus Benches in Oakland,” Broke Ass Stewart, March 17, 2016
Ellen Tani, “Spectacular Black Death at Fort Gorges,” Temporary Art Review, July 28 2016
Steven Rosen, “Camp Washington’s Art Is Growing From Its Soil,” City Beat, May 20, 2016
“Many Thousand Miles Behind Us Many Thousand Miles Before,” Pelican Bomb, May 20, 2016
Meredith Kooi, “Erin Colleen Johnson at Sella-Granata Art Gallery,” Temporary Art Review, 2015
Brett Levine, “Erin Colleen Johnson’s Videos Mesmerize in Tuscaloosa,” Burnaway, 2015
“Artworks,” InVisible Culture: An Electronic Journal of Visual Culture, University of Rochester, 2014
Christa DiMarco, “The story of stories,” Broad Street Review, 2014
“We Had Nothing to Do and We Did It,” SF Art Enthusiast, 2013
Selected Artworks
