James Johnson

James Johnson (born Syracuse, New York, 1976) received an MFA from the Rochester Institute of Technology (2002) and a BFA from Marywood University (1999). He is a multidisciplinary artist who works with photography, but his work has also encompassed sculpture, installation and live activity. He is interested in architecture, issues surrounding representation and pictorial conventions. He is influenced by conceptual art, minimalism and paintings from the renaissance. Johnson is currently thinking about how race, gender/sexuality, ability and other aspects of identity shape how we see and understand the world—as well as the cultural contributions we are capable of making.

Recognitions include an Independence Foundation Fellowship and two Pennsylvania Council of the Arts Fellowships. He was an Acquisition Finalist for the West Prize and has completed residencies at the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts (Omaha, NE) and Officina Stamperia Del Notaio (Tusa, Italy). Exhibitions include: Fleisher/Ollman Gallery (Philadelphia), Vox Populi (Philadelphia), Humble Arts Foundation (New York, NY), Bryn Mawr College (Bryn Mawr), The Print Center (Philadelphia), ThreeWalls (Chicago, Il) and Guest Spot (Baltimore, MD). He participated in No Soul For Sale with Vox Populi at Tate Modern in London. His work was included in the book HUMBLE CATS: New Cats in Art Photography, published by Yoffy Press. Johnson lives and works in Philadelphia, where he is program head and associate professor of Photography at Moore College of Art & Design.