The installations pictured here are site specific, created for the architectural, lighting, and other characteristics of a location. Materials are unaltered bed sheets and pillowcases, unless otherwise noted.
2021-2022
Confluence. 2022. Created in response to the architecture and context of the Bendix Building, downtown Los Angeles, as part of Infrastructure Lovers at Monte Vista Projects.
Actions Between the Columns. Created at the end of 2021 in response to columns in the artist’s studio and a reexamination of previously used materials and dormant methodologies.
Still from Backyard Sublime: Meadow Project / Movement 2
Keep Everything, 2016 solo exhibition
My great aunt Inez Pitts passed away just after Thanksgiving last year. She never married and lived for most of her 94 years in a house at 302 Richard Street in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Like other people in my family, she was a person who saved things. Every kind of thing: rags, spools, fruits and vegetables put up in jars, worn out socks, cookie tins, buttons, motel soaps, paper envelopes, plastic margarine tubs. Just in case they might be useful, someday, somehow. She was one of my last living links to my grandparents’ generation, those people whose young lives were shaped by the Depression, World Wars, and our country’s media and consumer explosions. Her house was a kind of archive of this history.
The work in this exhibition is a meditation on that lost world of stuffed-to-the-brim houses and their elderly keepers. It represents my thinking about my own propensities in this direction, my artist’s instinct to keep things, just in case. I’ll have a use for that someday, somehow. It is a return to old interests and ways of working. It is a collaboration between my aunt and me, as I have taken her fabric remnants, cut-out quilt pieces, assorted leftovers, and my memories of her and her house and fashioned them into new things to mark this passing. With a sense of loss comes a sense of freedom. Make what you will of these scraps. Someday is now.
Foreground: Raise Your Own Flag, polyester fabric and thread, 5’x16’.
Background: When the Dew is Still on the Roses, bed sheet and mixed media installation with paintings on paper.Foreground: Night Quilt, polyester pieced quilt top with gallery chair.
Background: Sunrise Service, polyester fabric with thread, 4’x6’.Foreground: Night Quilt, polyester pieced quilt top with gallery chair.
Background: When the Dew is Still on the Roses, bed sheet and mixed media installation with paintings on paper.Foreground: Night Quilt, polyester pieced quilt top with gallery chair.
Background: When the Dew is Still on the Roses, bed sheet and mixed media installation with paintings on paper.Keep Everything, mixed media in glass jars, dimensions variable.Foreground: Night Quilt, polyester pieced quilt top with gallery chair.
Background: Raise Your Own Flag, polyester fabric and thread, 5’x16’. When the Dew is Still on the Roses, bed sheet and mixed media installation with paintings on paper.Overview of solo exhibition Keep Everything, BlackRock Center for the Arts, Germantown, MD, January 7-30, 2016. All works 2015.Foreground: Raise Your Own Flag, polyester fabric and thread, 5’x16’.
Background: When the Dew is Still on the Roses, bed sheet and mixed media installation with paintings on paper.When the Dew is Still on the Roses, bed sheet and mixed media installation with paintings on paper. Painting pictured is Lakeview Road.Detail image, When the Dew is Still on the Roses, bed sheet and mixed media installation with paintings on paper.Detail image, When the Dew is Still on the Roses, bed sheet and mixed media installation with paintings on paper.Detail image, When the Dew is Still on the Roses, bed sheet and mixed media installation with paintings on paper.Foreground: Raise Your Own Flag, polyester fabric and thread, 5’x16’.
Background: When the Dew is Still on the Roses, bed sheet and mixed media installation with paintings on paper.Detail image, Raise Your Own Flag, polyester fabric and thread, 5’x16’.When the Dew is Still on the Roses, bed sheet and mixed media installation with paintings on paper. Painting pictured is 302 Richard Living Room.When the Dew is Still on the Roses, bed sheet and mixed media installation with paintings on paper. Painting pictured is 302 Richard Front Porch.When the Dew is Still on the Roses, bed sheet and mixed media installation with paintings on paper. Paintings pictured are 302 Richard Front Porch and Buick Interior.When the Dew is Still on the Roses, bed sheet and mixed media installation with paintings on paper. Paintings pictured are Amana Magic (lower) and Leotard (upper), along with Keep Everything, mixed media in glass jars.Foreground: Sunrise Service, polyester fabric and thread, 4’x6’.
Background: When the Dew is Still on the Roses, bed sheet and mixed media installation with paintings on paper.
2015
And Time for all the Work and Days of Hands 5, Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VAAnd Time for all the Work and Days of Hands 5, Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VAAnd Time for all the Work and Days of Hands 5, Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VAAnd Time for all the Work and Days of Hands 5, Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VAOf a Port in Air, Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VAOf a Port in Air, Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VAOf a Port in Air, Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VAOf a Port in Air, Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VAOf a Port in Air, Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VARoot Day, Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VARoot Day, Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VARoot Day, Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VARoot Day, Arlington Arts Center, Arlington, VA
2014
The following images are documentation of large-scale installations in the King Street Gallery at Montgomery College in Silver Spring, Maryland, created in fall 2014. Titled Daydream Believer and Believer 2, these works were part of a two person exhibition with Mei Mei Chang, whose wall-based installations also appear in some photographs. The works were an exploration of the large-scale windows and intricate architecture of the gallery space.
Mei Mei Chang & Mariah Anne Johnson, exterior of galleryMei Mei Chang & Mariah Anne Johnson, exterior of galleryDaydream Believer with works on paperDaydream BelieverDaydream BelieverDaydream BelieverDaydream BelieverDaydream Believer with painting on paperDaydream BelieverBeliever 2 with painting on paperBeliever 2 with painting on paperBeliever 2 with painting on paperBeliever 2 (detail)Believer 2 with Daydream Believer in background
2014, continued
There Isn’t a Number, Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Library, Washington, DCThere Isn’t a Number, Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Library, Washington, DCThere Isn’t a Number, Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Library, Washington, DCThere Isn’t a Number, Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Library, Washington, DCThere Isn’t a Number, Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Library, Washington, DCThere Isn’t a Number, Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Library, Washington, DCStone, polyethylene tarps with mylar emergency blankets, spray adhesive, bungee cords, and concrete bench, Foggy Bottom Historic District, Washington, DCStone, polyethylene tarps with mylar emergency blankets, spray adhesive, bungee cords, and concrete bench, Foggy Bottom Historic District, Washington, DCStone, polyethylene tarps with mylar emergency blankets, spray adhesive, bungee cords, and concrete bench, Foggy Bottom Historic District, Washington, DCStone, polyethylene tarps with mylar emergency blankets, spray adhesive, bungee cords, and concrete bench, Foggy Bottom Historic District, Washington, DC
The following images are documentation of In the Pines, a large-scale installation at Flashpoint Gallery in Washington, DC, created in fall 2012. This work was an exploration of the connections between painting and installation. Materials included bed sheets, twine, mothballs, and acrylic, latex, and watercolor paints on paper and wall.
The following images are documentation of Forest of Correction, a large scale exhibition at the Arlington Arts Center in Arlington, VA, created in spring 2011. This work marked a shift to room sized works that could be entered by, and engulf, viewers. Materials included bed sheets, pillowcases, and gallery furniture.
The following images are documentation of Studio, a large-scale installation at Harmon Art Lab in Washington, DC, created in fall 2011. This work was an exploration of the connections between painting and installation. Materials included bed sheets, pillowcases, and acrylic and latex paints on wall.
2009
Lattice, Artist Curated Projects, Los AngelesLattice, Artist Curated Projects, Los AngelesLattice, Artist Curated Projects, Los AngelesCabinet, Artist Curated Projects, Los Angeles, private collectionQuick, UT San Antonio Satellite SpaceQuick, UT San Antonio Satellite SpaceQuick, UT San Antonio Satellite SpaceQuick, UT San Antonio Satellite SpaceTornaduh, bed sheets with gallery chair, UT San Antonio Satellite Space
2008
Kudzu Queen, Transformer, Washington, DCKudzu Queen, Transformer, Washington, DCKudzu Queen, Transformer, Washington, DCKudzu Queen, Transformer, Washington, DCGeode, Brand Library Art Gallery, Glendale, CAGeode, Brand Library Art Gallery, Glendale, CAGeode, Brand Library Art Gallery, Glendale, CABeulah, Brand Library Art Gallery, Glendale, CAKudzu 2, Brand Library Art Gallery, Glendale, CAKudzu 2, Brand Library Art Gallery, Glendale, CAKudzu 2, Brand Library Art Gallery, Glendale, CALet Down Your NuGrape, Brand Library Art Gallery, Glendale, CALet Down Your NuGrape, Brand Library Art Gallery, Glendale, CAHow Lovely on the Mountain, The Lab, San FranciscoCrystal Ship, LittleBird Gallery, Los AngelesBougainvillea, with Crystal Ship, LittleBird Gallery, Los AngelesBougainvillea, LittleBird Gallery, Los AngelesBougainvillea, LittleBird Gallery, Los AngelesBougainvillea, LittleBird Gallery, Los Angeles
2007
Pleasant Hill (with wall painting Gone Out with the Wind Out West), studio view, Los AngelesPleasant Hill, studio view, Los AngelesPleasant Hill, studio view, Los AngelesKudzu, Phantom Galleries LA, Los AngelesKudzu, Phantom Galleries LA, Los AngelesKudzu, Phantom Galleries LA, Los AngelesNice Wave, Phantom Galleries LA, Los AngelesNice Wave, Phantom Galleries LA, Los AngelesNice Wave, Phantom Galleries LA, Los Angeles
2006
Yoakum, bed sheets and pillowcases with wooden chair, Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TXLive Oak Leaves, pillowcases, Lawndale Art Center, Houston, TXThin One, pillowcases and metal chair, studio view, Champaign, ILThin One, pillowcases and metal chair, studio view, Champaign, ILThin One and Fat One, bed sheets and pillowcases with metal chairs, Ruby Green Contemporary Art Center, Nashville, TNDrink 3 (with wall painting When the Dew is Still on the Roses), bed sheets and pillowcases with museum bench, thesis exhibition, Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, ILDrink 3 (with wall painting When the Dew is Still on the Roses), bed sheets and pillowcases with museum bench, thesis exhibition, Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, ILDrink 3, bed sheets and pillowcases with museum bench, thesis exhibition, Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, ILDrink 3, bed sheets and pillowcases with museum bench, thesis exhibition, Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, ILDrink 3, bed sheets and pillowcases with museum bench, thesis exhibition, Krannert Art Museum, Champaign, IL
2004-2005
Rainbow Baseboard Stack, studio view, Champaign, IL, 2004Rainbow Baseboard Stack, studio view, Champaign, IL, 2004Conduit Stripe Stack, studio view, Champaign, IL, 2004Conduit Stripe Stack, studio view, Champaign, IL, 2004I-beam Garden Stack, studio view, Champaign, IL, 2004I-beam Garden Stack, studio view, Champaign, IL, 2004Big Muddy, studio view, Champaign, IL, 2005Big Muddy, studio view, Champaign, IL, 2005Big Muddy, studio view, Champaign, IL, 2005Drink 1, bed sheets and pillowcases with metal stool, studio view, Champaign, IL, 2005Drink 1, bed sheets and pillowcases with metal stool, studio view, Champaign, IL, 2005Drink 1, bed sheets and pillowcases with metal stool, studio view, Champaign, IL, 2005