Sarah Anne Johnson’s work has been featured in numerous prestigious group exhibitions, including the New York Public Library, New York, NY; Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art, North Adams, MA; Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, CT; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Cananda; Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, Canada; Musée International des Arts Modestes, Sète, France, and National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia, among many others. Following its acquisition by the National Gallery of Canada this year, the artist’s large-scale triptych “MBFR”(2021), from her Woodland series, was presented in the museum’s recent group exhibition Home: A Space of Sharing and Strength. Johnson’s work is held in permanent collections across the globe, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, NC; Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa, Canada, and Musée départemental d’art contemporain de Rochechouart, France, among others. Acquired by the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden of the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. the artist’s monumental six-channel video installation “The Kitchen” (2016) recently joined the permanent collection. This past year, “TFH” (2019) by Johnson was prominently featured in the film “The Idea of You,” starring Anne Hathaway and directed by Michael Showalter. The artist received her BFA from the University of Manitoba and her MFA from Yale University. Johnson lives and works in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.
Sarah Anne Johnson (Canadian, b. 1976)
Sarah Anne Johnson (b. 1976; Canada) creates images that aim to capture not just a moment in time, but the experience and emotion of a place. In her series Woodland, Johnson takes photos of the Manitoba woods near her home, then alters them digitally and manually, using Photoshop, paint, and foil to add bright spots of color and shine between tree branches and tangles of foliage. The resulting kaleidoscopic images are dreamy, psychedelic, and whimsical. Johnson's work rejects the notion that photographs capture reality, suggesting instead, with a child-like innocence, that there is a world beyond what can be seen through a lens.
To achieve this sense of transcendence, Johnson incorporates indigenous knowledge, plant biology, and the impacts of nature on ancient architecture. The artist's works are spiritual and utopian, drawing influence from Canada's Group of Seven painters and the Hudson River School, both of whom depicted North America's landscapes as akin to the cathedrals of Europe. The artist presents a dichotomy between reality and perception, evoking feelings of tranquility and happiness, pleasure and calm, as well as a connection to the landscape and a sense of belonging in nature.