Josh Johnson: Double Goer

May 23 – August 25, 2024

Josh Johnson: Double Goer is the ninth exhibition in the “Art Makers Series” underwritten by Dr. William F. Wosick of Fargo, ND. Because few professional opportunities are available for artists from the region, the Art Makers Series was designed to spotlight artists from the region, or those with ties to the region. Museum Staff selects artists who seem on the edge of a breakthrough in their work. They are often at a juncture in their artistic careers where a “leg up” could invigorate, revitalize, or change the course of their art. 

Johnson earned a BFA at the University of North Dakota, and an MFA at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. He has exhibited nationally, including shows at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, the Soo Visual Art Center in Minneapolis, Colorado State University, and Manifest Gallery in Cincinnati. 

Sculptor Josh Johnson makes connections between two environments – one at hand and the other remembered. There is a personal meaning behind the work that functions as the impetus for the pieces. Johnson takes materials out of context by assigning them different functions and explores the vast possibilities of his chosen materials. Materials mined from the surroundings, the wood of “trash trees” and species growing in the creases of the artist’s Southwest Missouri neighborhood, are synthesized into recognizable subjects plucked from nature and domestic interiors. He carves, joins, and constructs forms that are repeated again and again, blurring the line between production and ritual.

According to Johnson, “As I go about my daily routines, I have encounters that give me pause. Particular objects, their placement, the spaces they occupy, and my body’s relationship to these signifiers create an intersection of a remembered place and my current context. A connection is made between two environments, one at hand and the other remembered. I tap into this brief merger of my present location and a memory, identifying objects as personal landmarks and a catalyst for construction.”

This is the ninth exhibition in the

“Art Makers Series”

Underwritten by Dr. William F. Wosick of Fargo, ND

Additional support provided by Luise Beringer, Dennis and Joan Johnson, the City of Grand Forks, and by a grant from the North Dakota Council on the Arts, which receives funding from the state legislature and the National Endowment for the Arts.