Loni Johnson

Loni Johnson is a multi-disciplinary visual artist born and raised in Miami, FL. As an artist, educator, mother and activist, Ms. Johnson understands that as artists, there is a cyclical obligation to give back and nurture our communities with her creative gift and it must be utilized to better our world. Through movement and ritual, the artist creates healing spaces for Black women and explores how ancestral and historical memory informs how, when and where we enter and claim spaces. Ms. Johnson graduated in 2003 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts from SUNY at Purchase College School of Art and Design.

Selected exhibitions and performances include: Remnants at Locust Projects, Miami, Making Visible: The Studio Archives of Chire Regans and Loni Johnson, WAAM at Dimensions Variable, Miami (2020); Say Their Names, Chire Regans/Vanta Black Memorial Mural Project Unveiling, Bakehouse Art Complex, Miami (2020); Performans Fanm/Global Borderless Caribbean XII: Focus Miami, Little Haiti Cultural Arts Center, Miami (2020); Homegoing, NADA Art Fair, Miami (2017); Offerings III, Bas Fisher Invitational and O’Miami, Miami (2017); Offerings II, Common Field Convening, Miami (2016).

Johnson is the Lead Coordinator of Art Detectives-an arts education program rooted in the framework of Social Justice at Perez Art Museum(PAMM) Miami, Prevention Coordinator of youth arts prevention program at Concept Health Systems, and Chairperson for the National Visual Arts Selection Panel for National YoungArts Foundation. Johnson is one of the founders of Miami Melanated Arts- a collective of Black artists who are creating space to reimagine what effective and impactful Arts eco-systems in South Florida could be. She continues to work with community organizations such as Girl Power, S.O.U.L Sisters Leadership Collective, and Voices United by providing youth the opportunities to find and nurture their identities and creative voices. She received a Knight Champion Award in 2019 and is a frequent guest speaker, lecturer, facilitator, and performer.

About The Ellies Social Justice Award
Created by Oolite Arts to honor visual artists who have made a commitment to working for equality in their daily lives and artistic practice.