Sarah Anne Johnson

• Name — Sarah Anne Johnson • Born — 1976 • Birthplace — Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada • Field — Installation artist, sculptor, oil painter, video artist, Performance artist, dancer • Education — University of Manitoba Yale School of Art • Works — Tree Planting (2005) House On Fire (2009) • Awards — Chalmers Art Fellowship • Website — sarahannejohnson.ca

Johnson received her B.F.A. at the University of Manitoba in 2002 and completed her Master's in Photography at the Yale School of Art in 2004. Her first exhibition, Tree Planting (2005), was purchased by the Guggenheim Museum while the National Gallery of Canada bought most of her second show, The Galapagos Project (2007). Johnson was chosen along with other Canadian artists by curator Jonathan Shaughnessy to be shown in Builders (2012), a featured exhibition for the Canadian Biennial 2012 at the National Gallery of Canada for her role and ability to create Canada's cultural fabric. Michael F.B. Nesbitt, a notable contemporary art collector who donated Johnson's House on Fire (2009) series to the Art Gallery of Ontario, proclaims Johnson as a “shining example of an artist able to tell unique, personal stories in a universal way”. Johnson lives and works in her hometown, Winnipeg. She is represented by the Stephen Bulger Gallery in Toronto and Julie Saul Gallery in New York.

Johnson explores themes of utopia, the hopefulness and despair of a perfect world, humans’ relationship with the environment, and unique subcultures facing difficult conditions while “poking fun at it all”. Although she often works in different media, Johnson expresses her frustrations with classical “straight” photography. In the Canadian Art article “7 Lessons from Sarah Anne Johnson”, she states, “My general interest in photography is showing what something looks like, but also what it feels like [… by] altering the surface or image in any way, I can describe what a space feels like psychologically, what it feels like to be there”. By using several mediums Johnson is able to separate photography and “true” documentary photographic representation by challenging the notion of photography as fact and different type of truths in capturing moments through photography. Pamela Meredith, a senior curator at the TD Bank Group who purchased Johnson's Tree Planting (2005) series for the bank's collection stated she appreciated how Johnson recreated the photographed moment by manipulating our perception and disrupting memory.

• 2014: Wonderlust, Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto • 2013: Wonderlust, Julie Saul Gallery, New York, NY • 2013: Arctic Wonderland, Division Gallery, Montreal, QC • 2011: Canadian Art Now – Storylines: Space, Colour, Geometry, Art Toronto, Toronto • 2011: Arctic Wonderland, Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto, ON • 2011: Arctic Wonderland, Julie Saul Gallery, New York, NY • 2010: Dancing with the Doctor, Ace Art Gallery, Winnipeg, MB • 2009: House on Fire, Julie Saul Gallery, New York, NY • 2009: House on Fire, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON • 2009: New Work, Illingworth Kerr Gallery, Calgary, AB • 2007: The Galapagos Project, Stephen Bulger Gallery, Toronto, ON • 2007: The Galapagos Project, Julie Saul Gallery, New York, NY • 2006: In the Forest, Bucket Rider Gallery, Chicago, IL • 2006: Either Side of Eden, Plug In, Institute of Contemporary Art, Winnipeg, MB • 2006: Tree Planting, Platform Gallery, Winnipeg, MB • 2005: Tree Planting, Duke University, Durham, NC • 2005: Tree Planting, Real Art Ways, Hartford, CT • 2005: Tree Planting, Julie Saul Gallery, New York, NY

• 2014: Beyond Street – Lit Roads – Curatron generated exhibition, Platform Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden • 2014: New Mythologies: Super Natural States and Polar Exploration, Fosdick-Nelson Gallery, Alfred, NY • 2013: Under My Skin, Flowers Gallery, New York, NY • 2013: They Made a Day Be a Day Here, Grand Prairie, touring exhibition, Canada • 2012: Builders, The Canadian Biennial, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON • 2012: The Perfect Storm, Julie Saul Gallery, New York, NY • 2012: True North, Anchorage Museum, Anchorage, AK • 2012: Oh Canada, Mass MoCA, Massachusetts • 2012: Spectral Landscape, MOCCA, Toronto, ON • 2012: Watch This Space: Contemporary Art from the AGO Collection, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, ON • 2012: Photography Is, Higher Pictures, New York, NY • 2012: Le Miroir & L’Encyclopedie, Galerie Michel Journiac, Paris, France • 2012: Winnipeg Now, Winnipeg Art Gallery, Winnipeg, MB • 2012: My Winnipeg, Plug In Gallery, Winnipeg, MB • 2011: Sobey Art Award, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, NS • 2011: The View from Here: New Landscape, Macdonald Stewart Art Centre, Guelph, ON • 2011: My Winnipeg, La Maison Rouge, Paris, FR • 2011: Global Nature – Organized by the CMCP, Kamloops Art Gallery, Kamloops, BC • 2011: Open Season, Flanders Gallery, Raleigh, NC • 2011: 25 Years/25 Artists, Julie Saul Gallery, New York, NY • 2011: My Winnipeg, Musée International des Arts Modestes, Sète, France • 2010: Haunted: Contemporary Photography/Video/Performance, Guggenheim Museum, NY • 2010: Out of The Woods, Leslie Tonkonow Artworks and Projects, New York, NY • 2010: It Is What It Is, Recent Acquisitions of New Canadian Art, National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, ON • 2009: Windows and Mirrors, Julie Saul Gallery, New York, NY • 2008: Rethinking Landscape: Contemporary Photography from the Allen G. Thomas, Jr. Collection, Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, North Carolina • 2008: Elsewhere, The University of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, FL • 2008: Guggenheim Collection: 1940s to Now, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, AU • 2008: 5th Biennale de Montreal, Centre International d'Art Contemporian de Montreal, QC • 2008: L’Enfant de Cartier, Theatre de la Photographie et de l'Image, Nice, FR • 2006: The Female Machine, Sister Gallery, Los Angeles, CA • 2006: Stiff, Gallery 4000, Chicago, IL • 2006: Soft Radical, Compact Space, Los Angeles, CA • 2006: Either Side of Eden, Plug-In RCA, Winnipeg, MB • 2006: Under 30, Ulrich Museum of Art, Wichita, KS • 2005: Imprints, Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography, Ottawa, ON • 2005: J'en Reve, Foundation Cartier, Paris, FR • 2005: On Transit, Mexicali, MX • 2004: Dreamweavers, Yancey Richardson Gallery, NY • 2004: Flirt, Neubacher Gallery, Toronto, ON

Johnson is an international public speaker, lecturer, and teacher. She has completed residencies in 2008 at the Banff Centre in Alberta, and in 2009 at The Arctic Circle Residency in Norway.

Johnson's piece Unclose Me was prominently featured in the 2024 film The Idea of You and served as a plot device.

Her work is included in many Canadian and international public collections including The Guggenheim Museum, New York, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, and The National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa. Johnson has been commissioned to create work for the Bank of Montreal Project Room, Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art / Art Toronto Benefit, and Louis Vuitton.