Born in London, England, and raised in Cheyenne, Wyoming, Ann Johnson graduated from Prairie View A&M University in Texas, with a BS in home economics. She later earned an MA in humanities from the University of Houston-Clear Lake and an MFA from The Academy of Art University in San Francisco, with a concentration in printmaking. As a professor at Prairie View A&M, she has received the distinguished Presidents Faculty of the Year award and repeatedly been recognized as “Art Teacher of the Year.”
An interdisciplinary artist, Johnson has a passion for exploring issues, particularly within the Black community, which has led to engaging works such as The Hoop Dreamin Collection, a series that explores the social issue of a hoop dream. Her installation, Converse: Real Talk, has been exhibited in Texas, Missouri, and New York. She’s been an artist resident at the Kala Art Institute in Berkeley, CA; at Project Row Houses in, Houston, TX; and at the Plains Art Museum in Fargo, ND. In 2013 and 2021, she exhibited in the Texas Biennial. She has been acknowledged as an “Artist to Watch” by the International Review of African American Art and was listed as one of the 10 most transformative artists of 2022 by Black Art in America.
To learn more about Ann Johnson’s work, visit https://www.solesisterart.com/home
Photo courtesy of the artist.
Sarah Knight (they/them) is a queer and trans ceramic artist and educator from Saint Louis, Missouri. Knight’s use of experimental ceramic techniques and materials allows them to question whether all matter is intrinsically queer, in a state of transformation. They fuse clay sculptures with melted stone and a wide range of non-clay additives to create sculptures that blend the artificial with the natural. Their extensive rock collection from the Ozarks, Wyoming, and their community allows them to connect queerness, the transmutation of matter, and the unseen values that dictate how one categorizes physical and internal worlds.
Qiqing (pronounced Chi-Ching) Lin is a textile artist based in New York. She explores feminism, immigration, language, accessibility, and politics through materials and weaving. Her experience growing up and working as a journalist in China had a profound impact on her practice. Switching her medium from text to textiles, weaving has become her new language. Through spinning paper yarn and painting with threads, she looks into the complexities of family, mother-daughter relationship, class divides, and political depression.
Originally from Shizuoka, Japan, Terumi Saito is a textile artist and designer based in New York. Growing up in a traditional Japanese farmer’s household informed Saito’s focus on creating mixed-media sculpture with iconic jute ropes. Her ropes are inspired by the sacred, Japanese twisted rope, shimenawa, which symbolizes a boundary that separates the realm of the gods from the world and prevents impurities from entering the shrines.