Marc Johnson (artist)

Marc Johnson is a FrenchÃ¢ÂÂBeninese visual artist, filmmaker, and architect.

Early life and education

Johnson was born in Vitry-sur-Seine, France, in 1986. From 2006 to 2011, he studied at the ÃÂcole nationale supÃÂ©rieure des Beaux-Arts (ENSBA) in Paris. During this period, he completed exchange programs at Hunter College in New York City (2009Ã¢ÂÂ2010) and at the Hangzhou Academy of Art in China. From 2011 to 2013, Johnson studied architecture at the ÃÂcole Nationale SupÃÂ©rieure dÃ¢ÂÂArchitecture Paris-Malaquais.

Career

Johnson began exhibiting his work in the early 2010s. His 2014 short film, YÃÂºYÃÂº, was selected for the Berlin International Film Festival in 2015 and was part of The Yvonne Rainer Project at Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris, an exhibition curated by Chantal Pontbriand. In 2016, the film won the Best Short Film Award at the Las Palmas International Film Festival. In 2017, the Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art at UC Davis presented YÃÂºYÃÂº as a solo exhibition in collaboration with the Kramlich Collection. Also in 2017, Johnson exhibited Rite of Spring at the 3CHA art center in ChÃÂ¢teaugiron and the installation fecund lacuna: art, archaeology, genetics at La MarÃÂ©chalerie in Versailles. In 2020, Johnson presented YÃÂºYÃÂº at the Centre Pompidou as part of the Fast Forward section of China Africa: Crossing the World Color Line.

The book associated with the fecund lacuna project, titled fecund lacuna / lacune fÃÂ©conde (2017), won the Cornish Family Prize for Art and Design Publishing. His 2017 short film, Ultraviolet, premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2018 and received the Honorable mention for Best Experimental Short at the Milwaukee Film Festival the same year. Johnson's work was also shown at the Moscow International Biennale for Young Art in 2017 and 2018 and at venues including the Centre National ÃÂdition Art Image (CNEAI) and Ginza Maison HermÃÂ¨s. In 2024, Galerie Mitterrand in Paris held a solo exhibition of his series The Sea is History (After Derek Walcott).

Selected exhibitions

Solo

2024: Galerie Mitterand, The Sea is History (After Derek Walcott), Paris, France
2017: YuYu, Manetti-Shrem Museum of Art, UC Davis, in collaboration with the Kramlich Collection, United States
2017: Rite of Spring, 3 CHA Centre for Contemporary Art, ChÃÂ¢teaugiron, France
2016: fecund lacuna: art, archaeology, genetics, La MarÃÂ©chalerie Centre for Contemporary Art, Versailles, France
2016: Videorama, Werkleitz Gesellschaft e.V. Ã¢ÂÂ Zentrum fÃÂ¼r Medienkunst, Germany

Group

2024: Liljevalchs Konsthall, The Stockholm Cosmology, Stockholm, Sweden
2024: Art Paris Art Fair, Fragile Utopias: A Focus on the French Scene, Galerie Mitterrand, Grand Palais ÃÂphÃÂ©mÃÂ¨re Ã¢ÂÂ Champ-de-Mars, Paris, France
2022: Ghosts of the Machine, screening program, The Polygon Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
2020: Manifesta 13, Les ParallÃÂ¨les du Sud, Marseille, France
2018: Abracadabra!, 6th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Curator: Moscow, Russia
2018: OLHO, Museo de Arte Moderna, Curator: Vanina Saracino, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, Brazil
2017: ATM tempo I/II/III, Ginza Maison HermÃÂ¨s Le Forum, Tokyo, Japan
2016: constellationÃ¢ÂÂ¢s, new ways of living in the world, arc en rÃÂªve centre dÃ¢ÂÂarchitecture, Bordeaux, France
2016: Deep Inside, 5th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Moscow, Russia
2015: trans(ÃÂ¿)duction, CNEAI= Centre National Edition Art Image, Chatou, France
2014: The Yvonne Rainer Project, Jeu de Paume, Paris, France
2010: Ligne of chance, Fondation d'entreprise Ricard, France

Books

Johnson, Marc, Dana Claxton, Stan Douglas, Ian Wallace, Peter Morin, Anthony Shelton and al., Parley: How would you feel about being denied the opportunity to speak your ancestral language? Edited by Marc Johnson, Vancouver Biennale and Stockholm University of the Arts, 2024.