b. Los Angeles, California

Johanna is a first generation artist of Mexican descent, currently based in Decatur, Georgia. 

Her abstract voluptuous sculptures convey the expansive state of imagination and explore themes of creation, spirituality, and existence. Her works have been exhibited at the American Museum of Ceramic Art in California and at the Museum of Contemporary Art GA in Atlanta. 

Johanna holds a BFA from Parsons with a concentration in Product Design and Ceramics. Her studies merged Art and Design history and theory whilst exploring materials, fabrication, and aesthetics.

In her latest work: MULTIDIMENSIONAL, Johanna explores the complexity and the different facets of the self: such as the outer, the inner, the shadow and the collective self, including the physical and the spiritual self. Although we don’t see these parts, they belong to us nevertheless. The sculptures are smooth and voluptuous forms that resemble stylized seeds.

Statement

Making ceramics makes me feel connected to the Earth, connected to my ancestors, to indigenous ancient people, also through my spiritual practice, I have come to understand that imagination is our direct connection to other realms of consciousness, a link to the cosmos.

The process of making ceramics is in many ways a ceremonial act for me, through clay I connect to the Earth, through my hands I connect to my ancestors, and through my imagination I connect to the cosmos.

As I touch the clay, I discover what it would like to become, my mind becomes empty, in this stillness I welcome that which wants to come through my vessel. In this numinous space, there is peace, there is expansion and elation, all happening simultaneously.

The dichotomy between something abstract versus something concrete, being on the Earth and being of Spirit, is very fascinating to me. My sculptures are the direct representation of bringing something from the realm of imagination (spirit), to the material world.