Angela Davis Johnson facts for kids

Angela Davis Johnson (born 1981) is an American artist. She creates art based on her community and uses many different art forms. She often travels between Philadelphia, Atlanta, New Orleans, and Arkansas.

Her art is inspired by the traditions of Black people in the Southern United States. It also connects to the shared memories of the entire African Diaspora (people of African descent around the world). Angela uses old photos, paint, everyday objects, fabric, beads, and even sounds and movements in her art. She uses these to connect the past, present, and future. Her work has been shown in New York Times and in major museums. These include the Crystal Bridges Museum of Art and the Mississippi Museum of Art.

Growing Up

Angela Davis Johnson was born in Orlando, Florida. Later, her family moved to Virginia. There, she went to the Governor's School for the Arts. This was a special school for talented art students in Norfolk, Virginia.

Angela loved art from a young age. Her mother, who was studying fashion design, first inspired her. Angela's mom would share what she learned with Angela and her siblings. She also encouraged them to be creative through singing, reading, and carving wood. Her mother often bought them art supplies.

Angela remembers her mother saying, "My mother was an artist who would take everything that she learned and bring it back to us." She also said her mother wouldn't let them use black or white paint. Angela continued this idea at her art school. But when her family moved to rural Arkansas, she started using colors to tell stories. She found that each brushstroke could hold a lot of meaning. She felt that creating art was very healing for her.

When Angela was 14, her family moved to Lambrook, Arkansas. Angela has said she is "from a lot of spaces" because her father was in the military. But she feels most connected to East Arkansas. This is where her family is from and where her grandmother last lived. Living in Lambrook helped Angela feel closer to her ancestors. She also learned about the land and the power of community. This time helped her truly see herself as an artist. She would visit the library in Helena, 30 minutes away, to borrow art books. She learned about famous artists like Romare Bearden and Elizabeth Catlett.

However, Angela's biggest inspirations were her family. Her great-grandmother was a midwife and healer. People from different areas would come to her for homemade medicines. One special treatment was "blue baths." These baths used blue tabs, salts, and herbs for spiritual cleansing and protection. Angela's mother continued this tradition with her children. Angela's mother also taught her how to create things using different materials. This included clearing land, gardening, building fences, and quilting. Angela was also inspired by her family's amazing storytellers. They would share tales passed down from their elders.

Her Art Style

Angela Davis Johnson comes from a family of healers and midwives. She uses these traditions in her artwork. She explores how Black people have faced and overcome challenges and unfairness. She explains that her art shows "the ways that we've been able to withstand, the ways that we've been able to become our own water, become our own rain." It shows how Black people have navigated life through their songs and by caring for each other.

When asked what she hopes people feel from her art, she said:

I want people to feel the many layers of what it's like to be a Black person in this world. We are not just superheroes. We are everything. We are souls living this life. I want people to experience that in my work. I want people to recognize and feel their own soul. To see the light beyond what we usually see. To me, the past, present, and future are all happening right now. I want people to feel that when they see my work.

One of her pieces, "'An open mouth creek'," shows a Black girl with sad eyes and blue hair. Her mouth is closed, but she looks like she wants to speak. This artwork shows how Black women have been silenced throughout history. When you first see Angela's art, you notice the wide scenes and the people she paints.

She often adds small pieces of paper and fabric to her oil paintings. This is a way to honor her mother, who was a pattern maker. It also helps bring simple, everyday materials into the world of fine art.

Selected Work

Exhibitions

• 2023 sweet smoke and the intimacy of forgetting (LUXradio channel) Lambrook, AR
• 2023 tuning hush harbor fragments is…(LUXradio channel) Haugabrooks Gallery, Atlanta, GA
• 2022 Open Studio: New Freedom Project, MINT Gallery, Atlanta, GA
• 2020 Hotfoot Dancing the Canebrake Blues, Potter Gallery, Watertown, CT
• 2019 WEATHERIN BETWEEN CANEBRAKE BLUES, Sumter County Art Gallery, Sumter, South Carolina
• 2018 Magenta Portraits, Bradbury Art Museum, Jonesboro, AR
• 2018 Blu Blak: Angela Davis Johnson rendering and hollerin sketches, or Blue Hole Scraps from the Archives, MINT Gallery, Atlanta, GA
• 2017 Ritual || Reasoning + Codes, The Butler Center, Little Rock, AR
• 2016 Wondrous Possibilities of Falling and Flying, THEA Foundation, North Little Rock, AR
• 2015 Ashes on the Fruit Trees, Argenta Art Gallery, North Little Rock, AR
• 2015 black. lace arrangements, University of Fayetteville, Fayetteville, AR

Group Exhibitions and Collaborations

• 2021 Spectrum, Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga, TN
• 2021 Staying Power, Hollerin Space, Philadelphia, PA
• 2020 Super Blues, Hollerin Space, digital soundbath
• 2020 Jubilee 11213, Weeksville Collaboration Ebony Noelle Golden
• 2019 Personal Space, Canebrake Blues, Art Ventures, Fayetteville, AR
• 2019 ArtintheATL, Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, Atlanta, GA
• 2019 Notions of Saintly Flesh, Living Melody Collective, Tampa, FL
• 2018 Center for Civic and Human Rights, Living Melody Collective, Atlanta, GA
• 2018 Identity at Arms Length, Still Point, Atlanta, GA
• 2018 Gasping Whiteness, Ensemble, Amherst, MA
• 2018 O Freedom, My Beloved, Zucot Gallery, Atlanta, GA
• 2018 Ain’t I a Woman, TILA Studios, Atlanta, GA
• 2017 red roots x black tones ̖ 40 hollerin remix: ....folk still dreaming? Hollerin Space collaborative performance with Alternate Roots members at 2016 ROOTS Week, Lutheridge, NC
• 2017 Living Letters, Hollerin Space, Detroit, MI
• 2017 A Sense of Place, Fayetteville Underground, Fayetteville, AR
• 2016 Haints & Healing: the Hollerin Space, Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS

Performances

• 2019 HOT FOOT THEORIZING, Phillips County, AR (filmed by muthi reed)
• 2019 Black n’ da Blues, Remember 2019, Arkansas tour: Crystal Bridges Museum, Arkansas Repertory Theatre, Elaine Legacy Center  
• 2018 Blu BLAK live dream live mix (Hollerin Space with muthi reed), MINT Gallery, Atlanta, GA  
• 2017 #3everyday, Atlanta, GA
• 2017 Looking for Sister, Alternate ROOTS, Arden, North Carolina
• 2016 “I”is not a Song Alone, Emory University, Atlanta, GA
• 2015 Procession: A Walk with Ancestors, Atlanta, GA
• 2015 When the Sun and Moon Stood Still, I Witnessed, Little Rock, AR

Permanent Collections

• Mosaic Templars Cultural Center, Little Rock, AR
• Central Arkansas Library System, McMath Library Branch Little Rock, AR
• Brooks Co., Wabash, AR

Awards and Residencies

Awards and Fellowships

• 2020/21 Intercultural Leadership Institute Fellowship
• 2018 MINT ATL Leap Year Fellowship
• 2017 Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant Nominee
• 2017 Ensemble Theater Grant Awardee
• 2016 Joan Mitchell Emerging Artist Nominee
• 2015 Alternate Roots/Joan Mitchell Visual Art Scholar

Residencies

• 2022 Fountainhead Residency
• 2022 The New Freedom Project/ BAIA, Atlanta, GA
• 2019 Tempus Project, Tampa, FL
• 2019 Hampshire College, Amherst, Massachusetts
• 2019 Fallawayinto Intensive, Philadelphia, PA
• 2018 Hambidge Arts Center Residency, Rabun County, GA
• 2018 MINT Leap Year, Atlanta, GA