James W Johnson

James W Johnson was born and raised in Upstate NY, received a BS in Art from S.U.N.Y. Oswego in 1977 and moved to Lubbock, Texas in 1978. He received an MFA from Texas Tech University in 1981 and has continued to live in Lubbock as a professional, full-time studio artist.

In the last 48 years, Johnson has spent over 80,000 hours making, more than 2,000 pieces of art. While being primarily a painter, he has produced a complex body of work in a wide variety of mediums such painting, drawing, sculpture, etching, video, digital, mixed media and furniture. He has participated in over 200 solo and group exhibitions worldwide in commercial galleries, museums, non-profit and alternative spaces, including dozens of venues in the Lubbock area. James has, at least, 1,200 of his pieces of artwork included in hundreds of public and private collections. In February, 2011, James was co-winner of the Willian D Kerns Award for the Visual Arts from the Louise Hopkins Underwood Center for the Arts.

Living “outside” of the mainstream art world has allowed James to perfect his craft and independently pursue an impressive flow of ideas and images that defy categorization, yet present his observations about art and life from his unique perspective.