Jennifer Johnson is a Philadelphia-based sculptor who works with ceramics and fibers, but also electronics, video, and performance, to create installations. She is interested in the production of history and focuses on how architecture reveals lived experiences.
She has created a series of site-specific installations over the past decade: Her Powelton Village mosaics are on view in Sidewalk Mediations (May 29 - August 15) at Kieran Timberlake's Bottling House. Linger (2022): Recreated Park Towne Place high rise buildings to look at the 1950-60s redevelopment period in Philadelphia; Linger 2 (2022), broadened the view to include other midcentury high-rise clusters, both public and private. An Archive of Desire (2021), included a series of maquettes (ceramics, video and electronics) about the mansion during her 2019-2020 residency at Glen Foerd on the Delaware. With The Men’s Room (2019), embroidery-impressed ceramic paintings of the Crane Arts Gallery looked at the history of the building. The Architecture of Remembering (2017), recreated and deconstructed Nina Hole’s Himmel House during her residency in Skælskør, Denmark. Let me clear up a few things (2016), gave her grandmother’s life voice at Temple Contemporary by focusing on a midcentury house, through ceramics, video, performance and electronics.
Created for Contemporary Ruin future visions (2025), On the Banks of Sandy Creek, looks at the dramatic change to the land surrounding the Pearlstein Gallery over the past century by creating several 3-D maps.
