artist note

Akosua Johnson

Akosua Johnson is a multidisciplinary artist working across several mediums including charcoal, graphite, paint, pastels, poetry, and digital media. She specializes in abstract realism, with a particular focus on the intrapersonal and interior lives of Afro-diasporic people. Her work examines themes such as identity, grief, and liberation through layered visual and poetic forms. Through these forms, Johnson is able to relate the vulnerable, mental and emotional states within Black people that frequently go unnoticed.

Her practice is shaped by an analytical, system-oriented way of thinking developed through a long academic career that culminated in a Ph.D. (all but dissertation) in biomedical engineering. In turn, Johnson approaches art as a method of visual problem solving, using composition, form, and technique to navigate these complex mental and emotional states. Texture, color, and lighting are all individual yet interdependent languages in her work—each capable of conveying memory, tension, and other subtleties.

Alongside her studio practice, Johnson works as the lead creative strategist at Boof Ave, a branding, design, and marketing firm. Her experience in that regard has sharpened her awareness of symbolism as a bridge between the intention of the designer and the perception of the audience. This duality allows her work to exist simultaneously as a personal record and a collective reflection. Through both analog and digital methods, Johnson creates translational work rooted in the subjective experiences of an objective reality.