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Tsehai Johnson

Artist Statement

Tsehai Johnson is a Colorado based artist whose interests explore the boundaries between public and private life. Driving this inquiry are several converging interests; from the clash between fantasy’s perfection and the messiness of reality, the close juxtaposition of cultivation and waste in our lives, and finally an exploration of how the logic and organizing principles of everyday life reveal the very mutability of life. Finding inspiration from careful and non-hierarchical observations of my surroundings and its inherent evolution through the cycle of growth and decay, I look at everything from the networks of places that flow onto and between each other in my home, yard, neighborhood and beyond. Recent areas of focus are on the resiliency of non-cultivated plants, consumption and its inherent waste as I consider climate change, land use and change over time and space.

Bio

Born in Ethiopia in 1966, Tsehai Johnson received a Bachelor of Arts degree in art history from Reed College in 1989, a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in ceramics from Massachusetts College of Art in 1993, and a Master of Fine Arts degree from the University of Colorado in 1999. Exhibitions include the Milwaukee Art Museum (Wisconsin), Plus Gallery (Colorado), Denver Art Museum (Colorado), Biennale Internationale de Vallauris, Magnelli Museum (France), White Columns (New York City, NY), Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art (Colorado), and the World Ceramic Biennale (Korea).  Collections include the Museum of Ceramics (New York), Museum of Outdoor Arts (Colorado), and the Reyzjanesbaer Art Museum, (Iceland).  She is the recipient of a Colorado Council of the Arts Fellowship and residencies in Germany, Spain, Iceland, The Netherlands and multiple locations in the United States.   In 2013 Johnson completed an Art in Architecture Commission for the Byron Rogers Federal Building in Denver, CO