Tanya P Johnson is a visual artist based in the Slocan Valley, British Columbia and part time in Cape Town, South Africa. She was born in Nairobi, Kenya and grew up in Cape Town. She received her Honours Degree in Fine Art from Michaelis Art School at the University of Cape Town, majoring in painting.
Her childhood was a curious dialogue between art and dance classes and the reality of apartheid and revolution. This marked her life and continues to inform her work.
After art school, Johnson left South Africa on a cargo ship, working her passage to Europe where she was drawn to the edges and underbellies of European society. She became affiliated with punks, environmentalists, anti fascists and renegades in her continued search for perspective on her identity of being a seventh generation South African with European ancestry. Traveling Europe, she made and sold art, taught art, wrote essays, performed on the streets and painted murals.
She is an adventurer, seeker, land defender, freight hopper, hitch hiker, cargo ship traveler. Political and environmental activism brought her to North America.
Johnson lives with her family rurally in British Columbia. In addition to a rigorous studio practice, her life includes growing food, collecting seeds, picking medicines in the mountains, swimming in rivers and lakes, walking in the woods with her black dog and working with indigenous people. She is drawn to the random, is fierce about justice, likes foxes and dislikes locusts, sharks and oppression.
Tanya P’s work is concerned with ideas of liminality, consciousness, and transformation. It explores her perception of death, thresholds and the afterlife.
Research includes the study of cosmology, myth, and mathematics and an interest in alchemy, history, and ecology. The work integrates study of ancient spiritual texts and a meditation and devotional practice.
She also writes, makes public and land art.
Tanya P Johnson has shown nationally and internationally at numerous public and private exhibitions and attended artist residencies in Canada, Asia, South Africa and Europe.
Education:
1991 Bachelor of Fine Arts (honours), University of Cape Town, South Africa
2016 Lithography Mentorship, Malaspina Printmakers, Vancouver, Canada
Exhibitions:
2024 Nakanojo Art Fair, Japan
2024 Samson, Teatros del Canal, Madrid, Spain
2023 Reincarnation of a Shrine, Nakanojo Biennale, Japan
2023 Samson, Nanterre, Paris, France
2023 Samson, International Theatre Festival of Kerala, India
2023 Samson, Africologne Festival, Germany
2023 Mantra Amplifier, Ras Al Khaimah Fine Arts Festival, United Arab Emirates
2022 Graphica Creativa Print Triennale, Finland
2022 International Paper Biennale, Belgium
2021 Love Thy Neighbour, Asia Triennial Manchester 21, United Kingdom
2021 Wisdom Engines, London Biennale, United Kingdom
2021 Eclipse, Anima Mundi, Primopiano Gallery, Lecce, Italy
2021 Distance, Lacuna Festivals, Spain
2021 Samson, GREC, Festival de Barcelona, Spain
2021 Samson, Festival d’Avignon, France
2021 Istanbul International Art Fair, Turkey
2020 Wisdom Engines and Evolutes, Mediations Biennale Polska, Poland
2020 Samson, Festival d’Avignon, France
2019 Afterlife of a House, Nakanajo Biennale, Japan
2019 This is a Photograph of Me, Halka Art Project, Istanbul, Turkey
2019 Conversation with my Dead Self, Arts Assembly, Vancouver, Canada
2019 Samson, performance/installation, design collaboration with Brett Bailey, Wordfees, Stellenbosch, SA.
2018 Story Keepers, Mongolia Land Art Biennale, National Modern Art Gallery, Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia
2018 DAS, Amsterdam University of the Artes, Netherlands
2018 The Seventh Hill, 4Bid Gallery, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2017 Carnival Corporation Cruise Line (Mediterranean, Caribbean, North Europe) via Artlink, Tel Aviv, Israel
2017 Sanctuary, performance/installation, collaboration with Brett Bailey, Athens, Greece
2017 Beacons, Hangar Centro de Investigacao Artistica, Lisbon, Portugal
2017 Edge of the Light, Touchstones Gallery, Nelson, BC, Canada
2016 Building a Better World: Kootenay Traditions, Kootenay Gallery, Castlegar, BC, Canada
2014 The Imaginarium, Oxygen Art Gallery, Nelson, BC, Canada
2014 Transforms and Anatomical Thought Maps, 4bid Gallery, Amsterdam, Holland
2013 Riverspines, The Langham, Kaslo, BC, Canada
2013 Riverspines, Grand Forks Art Gallery, Grand Forks, BC, Canada
2012 Supported installation of Exhibit B by Brett Bailey for Berlin Festspiele, Berlin, Germany
2012 Inner and Outer Landscapes, Kootenay Art Gallery, Nelson, BC, Canada
2012 Forest for the Trees, Touchstones Gallery, Nelson, BC, Canada
2011 Sense of Direction, Oxygen Art Gallery, Nelson, BC, Canada
2009 Reflections on Water, Touchstones Gallery, Nelson, BC, Canada
2008 Lines in Blood and Milk, Touchstones Gallery, Nelson, BC, Canada
Residencies:
2023 Nakanojo Biennale, Japan
2019 Nakanojo Biennale, Japan
2018 Land Art Mongolia Biennale, Murun, Mongolia
2017 Halka Art Project, Istanbul, Turkey
2017 Hangar Centro de Investigacao Artistica, Lisbon, Portugal
2014 0T301, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2011 Oxygen Art Gallery, Nelson, BC, Canada
2008 Infecting the City, Cape Town, South Africa
Grants and Awards:
2023 Project Travel Grant, Canada Council Council for the Arts
2021 Winner, global Music Theatre NOW! Competition
2020-22 Research and Creation Project grant, Canada Council for the Arts
2020 Samson, Best theatre production, Kyknet Fiesta, South Africa’s national theatre awards
2019 Project Travel Grant, Canada Council for the Arts
2015 Slocan Valley Arts Council, Community Program Grant, Slocan Valley, BC, Canada
2013/14 CKCA Major Project Funding, Nelson, BC, Canada
2014 CKCA Community Program Grant, Winlaw, BC, Canada
2012 CKCA Community Program Grant, Slocan, BC, Canada
2009/10 CKCA Major Project Grant Funding, Nelson, BC, Canada
Public and Corporate Collections:
Carnival Corporation Cruise Line, commissioned by Artlink, Tel Aviv, Israel
Berniece Paterson Private Collection, San Francisco
Sinixt Nation Logo & Numbered Prints, Canada (2005-2016)
FRAC Collection, Palm Springs, Calgary, Portland
Lona Fruit, Cape Town, South Africa
Selected Bibliography:
2023 Nakanojo Biennale, catalogue, Tetsuo Yamashige, director
2023 The World Social Initiative Forum
2023 Doctoral dissertation, Karen Ann Blom, Jönköping University, Sweden
2023 Wisdom Engines, Royal College of Psychiatrists, United Kingdom, Mutahira Moqueet
2023 Wisdom Engines, CAPITEL Magazine, Universidad Humanitas in Mexico.
2023 Wisdom Engines, Oldskull Magazine
2023 Wisdom Engines, Create Magazine
2023 Wisdom Engines, All She Makes Magazine
2023 Wisdom Engines, Al-Tiba9 Magazine
2022 Wisdom Engines: A Visual Meditation on Consciousness, the Elasticity of Time, and the Nature of Happiness, The Marginalian, Maria Popova
2022 Wisdom Engines: Symmetric Drawings on Antique Ledgeres Balance Energy and Consciousness, Colossal Magazine
2022 Wisdom Engines, Six Shot Magazine, Remy Dean
2022 The whimsical, symmetrical “Wisdom Engines” of Tanya Johnson, Medium, Clive Thompson
2019 Nakanojo Biennale, catalogue, Tetsuo Yamashige, director
2019 Land Art Mongolia 360, catalogue, Lewis Biggs, curator
2018 LAM360, Sohu, China, Jie Ahang
2018 Land Art Mongolia 360, Peanut Subway, China, Jie Zhang
2018 Land Art Mongolia 360, Hong Kong Hotline, Jie Zhang
2018 Land Art Mongolia 360, Artron China, Jie Zhang
2017 Tanya P Johnson: Edge of the Light, Galleries West, Maggie Shirley
2017 Edge of the Light, Exhibition catalogue, Arin Fay, curator, Touchstones Museum of Art and History
2017 Museum Origins Transmogrified, Astrid Heyerdahl, Executive Director, Touchstones Museum of Art and History
2012 Inner and Outer Landscapes, exhibition catalogue, Helen Sebelius, curator
2012 Riverspines, art catalogue essay, Deborah Thompson, curator
2012 Forest for the Trees, exhibition catalogue, Jessie Demers, curator
2012 Life Inspiring Art, Vurb, Megan Cole, editor
2009 Reflections on Water, exhibition catalogue, Deborah Thompson, curator
2009 Stories about Water as Told by Artists, R.W Sanford, Canadian Partnership Initiative. United Nations Water for Life, Director Western Watersheds and Climate Research Collaborative
2008 Infecting the City, Art Festival catalogue, Africa Centre
