SONJA JOHN
sonjaljohn@gmail.com
Education
Rhode Island School of Design | BFA Painting 2017
Residencies
2023—The Studios at Mass MoCA Residency Program, North Adams, MA
2022—ChaShama ChaNorth, Pine Plains, NY
2020—Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, VT
Awards & Grants
2023—General Fellowship, The Studios at Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA
2022—Young Artist Fellowship Award, ChaShama ChaNorth, Pine Plains, NY
2020—VSC Merit Grant & Community Exchange Award, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson VT
2015—Pushing the Art Forward, College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational, Virginia Commonwealth University
Commissions & Public Art
2023—”We Are Nature Defending Ourselves,” Javits Center. Mural commissioned by The Center for Cultural Power in partnership with The Nest Climate Campus, NYC Climate Week 2023
Performances & Exhibitions
2023—YARD WORK, RIO II Gallery, 583 Riverside Drive floor 7; & RIO III Gallery, 898 Saint Nicholas Ave, Harlem, NY
2023—2023—Process Reimagined: Building It Up To Tear It Down, Longwood Gallery @ Hostos College, 450 Grand Concourse, The Bronx, NY
2021—Flat File 2021-2022 Peep Space Gallery, Tarrytown, NY
2021—Media & Materials online exhibition, Dodomu Gallery
2021—Variance, curated by Jamaal Barber, I Like Your Work podcast online exhibition
2021—Picturing America: Immigrant Perspectives on Nature in the Nineteenth Century and Today, Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden, Mount Vernon, NY
2021—The Future is Worth the Fight, Just Hold On & You Will See, 3404 Kensington Ave, Philadelphia, PA
2020—Distant Future, Vermont Studio Center, Johnson VT
2020—Night & Day, Long Island City, NY
2019—Our Collective Visions of Liberation, Kimmel Center for University Life, New York University
2019—Qinfolk Festival, Ithaca, NY
2019—Dot Conference, Room 83 Spring, Watertown, MA
2019—Dot Conference, The Yard: Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
2019—We Imagine Sanctuary, Asian/Pacific/American Institute, New York University
2019—Florilegium, The Magenta Suite, Exeter, NH
2017—College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational, University of Illinois at Chicago
2015—Artists Against Police Violence, EMW Bookstore, Cambridge, MA
2015—Emerging Poets: Paul Tran, Sonja John, & Chrysanthemum Tran, Nuyorican Poets Cafe, New York, NY
2015—Senakwami Studios Presents, Jazz at Lincoln Center, New York, NY
2015—College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational, Virginia Commonwealth University 2014—Kindred, Gelman Gallery at RISD Museum, Rhode Island School of Design
Workshops
2023— Japanese Bookbinding, Bronx Council on the Arts/Longwood Gallery at Hostos College
2021—Virtual Art Workshop: Abstraction through Collage, Mount Vernon Hotel Museum & Garden
2021— Online Bookbinding Workshop, AS220 Industries
2019— Color Theory Workshop, Queens Council of the Arts HS2AS program
Curatorial Projects
2023—Floriography, The Yard: Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY
2022—Paper Menagerie, The Yard: Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY
2022—Have You Eaten?, The Yard: Greenpoint, Brooklyn, NY
2021—SOLSTICE, The Yard: Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
2021—Influorescence, The Yard: Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
2020—Loom, Longing, The Yard: Williamsburg, Brooklyn, NY
Press/Publications
2023—The The Center for Cultural Power. The Power Mural at Climate Week 2023, September 14, 2023
2023—Tan, Janelle. Artist Sonja John Paints Floral Odes to Queer Intimacy, Them.us, April 2023
2023—Bronck, Jonas. Process Reimagined—Building it Up to Tear it Down, The Bronx Daily, March 2023
2021—Barber, Jamaal. “I Like Your Work Podcast” Variance Summer Exhibition Catalog, p. 18
2021—Streets Dept A New Mural on Kensington Avenue Envisions a New World of Community Care and Safety, Streetsdept.com, August 13, 2021
2020—Cheung, Zhiwan. The Struggle Is Continuous, Seeing Color Podcast, June 30, 2020
2019—Chen, Ken. Ethnicity as Counterculture, n+1 magazine, October 17, 2019
2018—Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design. Manual Issue 10: Polychrome, RISD Museum/Manual, 2018
2017—Bond, Sara E. How Coloring Books Can Teach Us About Diversity in Ancient Times Hyperallergic, August 11, 2017
2015—Sorsby-Jones, Hadley. Artists Against Police Violence: The Radical Potential of Art Activism, Bluestockings Magazine, March 2, 2015
2014—Crocker, Abigail. Kindred: Race and Identity in Art and Design Our RISD, December 8, 2014