Indira Freitas Johnson

Public art projects

• Resonance of Emptiness, 2013, investigates the concept of emptiness and related ideas of impermanence and interconnectedness. Johnson was one of 9 international artists and 21 Korean artists invited to participate in the Haein Art Biennale in South Korea
• Ten Thousand Ripples, 2011–2013, is a multi-platform public arts project, a collaboration with cultural and community organizations from the city of Chicago. As part of the project, one hundred emerging Buddha heads were installed throughout the city in sites chosen by host community organizations located in Chicago's 50 wards. The goal of Ten Thousand Ripples was to provide the general community with an intense and meaningful public art experience outside of traditional art venues and in doing so act as a catalyst for community conversations and interactions about peace and nonviolence. Sites included parks, public plazas, alleys, libraries, building lobbies, and abandoned lots Changing Worlds was the lead arts organization in a consortium of over 30 social service, educational, religious and arts organizations.
• Growing Peace, 2011, consisted of Johnson creating a five-acre field sculpture. It revolves around themes of the power of human perspective and its relationship to the process of finding peace within civilization. Johnson uses the universal symbol of a foot, which she says grounds us to the earth and gives us stability
• 25th Bowl, 2010, was an exhibition at the Illinois State Museum, Chicago Gallery, which explored themes of interconnectedness, and water sustainability issues.
• Community Blessings are Rangolis, a South Asian folk art tradition where a woman welcomes the day by painting patterns on the threshold of her home to ensure the well-being of her family. Rangolis use traditional materials like rice flour, turmeric, earth, and flower petals and nontraditional materials like found objects and recycled materials. The first ‘Community Blessings" was in downtown Evanston right after the tragedy of 9/11 where the community came together to express their sorrow and their hope. Johnson has facilitated Community Blessings in diverse communities ranging from Providence, RI 2001, The Chicago Field Museum, 2004, Illinois Wesleyan University, 2004, Contemporary Art Center, Peoria, IL, 2006, SHARE, Mumbai, India, 2006 Parkland College, Champaign, IL, 2009.
• Hand in Hand, 2009, was displayed at the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul Minnesota. It questions the nature of "free" labor and investigates the basic transference of energy which is present in every form of exchange whether, physical, emotional, economic or psychic.
• Conversations: Here and Now, 2008, was commissioned by the City of Evanston, IL. Public meetings were held throughout the city to involve the community in planning the sculpture. Today, Conversations: Here and Now, has become a city landmark, a space for conversation.
• Where Sky Meets Water, 2007, sponsored by Chicago Cultural Center's Public Art Program engaged passersby, random people who helped float over 800 leaves in the Chicago River, in a ritual offering for peace.
• Enough; Indira Freitas Johnson and Voices from around the World, 2003, was sponsored by the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art, and involved women from the Golibar slum of Mumbai and a wide range of people from the Chicago area and around the world in the question of how much is enough and what do we all really want.
• FREENOTFREE, 2001, sponsored by the RISD Museum and the Pew Charitable Trust where Johnson worked intensely with a literacy group from the Rhode Island Public Library as well as collected stories from the wider Providence Community.
• Voices of Shakti; Pain, Struggle, Courage, a collaboration with women from Apna Ghar, a Chicago-based South Asian domestic violence shelter, which used words, objects and floor drawings to demonstrate the South Asian cultural dimension of domestic violence. This show traveled from Artemisia Gallery, Chicago, 1994, to Beacon Street Gallery, 1995, Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, IL 1996, College of St. Catherine, St. Paul, MN 1998.
• Our Own Vision, 1990, was Indira Johnson's first public art project, a collaboration with a Local Bombay NGO and the Indian Western Railway around leprosy health education. Working with a group of tribal children who had been affected by leprosy, Indira and partners painted a commuter train that ran between Mumbai and the far suburbs and spread the message of leprosy's curability to thousands of people.

  Selected solo exhibitions

• Energy Reboot: The Art of Indira Freitas Johnson, Krasl Art Center, St. Joseph, MI, 2012
• Opposition and Unity, Parkland College Gallery, Champaign, IL, 2009
• Satyagraha; Holding Fast to Truth, Chicago Public Library, Chicago, IL, 2007
• Lifetime Offer, Dimensions Variable, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago IL, 2007
• Indira Freitas Johnson, New Work, Walsh Gallery, Chicago, IL 2006
• Indira Freitas Johnson; A Merging of Two Cultures, Contemporary Arts Center, Peoria, IL, 2004
• Transforming Materials; Uniting the Physical and the Spiritual. Illinois Wesleyan University, Bloomington, IL 2003
• Process of Karma, Indianapolis Art Center Indianapolis IN, 2000
• Vehicles of Transformation, Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago, IL, 1993
• Storm Shelters and Other Works, Evanston Art Center, Evanston, IL, 1991
• Double Vision, Prince of Wales Museum, Bombay, India, 1990

  Selected group exhibitions

• Vice / Virtue, Northern Illinois University, DeKalb IL, 2013
• Streamlines, Ephemeral Presence in Contemporary Art, Mahaprajapati Vihar, Vaishali, India, 2013
• Infinite Mirror, Images of American Identity, International Art and Artists National touring exhibition, 2011–2014
• Pathways and Portals; Art, Nature and Science, Illinois State Museum, 2010–11
• 798 Art Zone, Kohler Company's Arts/Industry collection, Beijing, China, 2009
• Erasing Borders, Indo American Arts Center, New York, 2007
• Life InSight; The Human Experience, Kentucky Museum of Art & Craft, Louisville, KY, 2006
• Poetic Expression of Mortality: Figurative Ceramics from the Porter Price Collection, Mobile Museum of Art, Mobile AL 2005
• Fatal Love, Queens Museum, Queens, New York, 2005
• Particles and Passion: The Art of Clay, Academy Art Museum, Easton, MD, 2004
• Honoring Tradition, Perceptions of Three Asian American Artists, Ball State Museum, Muncie, IN, 2004
• Masala, Diversity and Democracy in South Asian Art, William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, 2004

  Residencies

• Anderson Ranch, Snowmass, CO., St Catherine's University, 1991 and 2009
• Adrian College, Adrian, MI 2001
• Kohler Company, Sheboygan, WI, Lakeside Studio, Lakeside, MI, 1989
• A long term residency at SHARE in one of the slums of Mumbai, India. It is a spiritual experience to go back every year and work in Golibar, where her family has worked for over 30 years. SHARE is part of Marketplace Handwork of India an organization that provides employment opportunities and leadership training for women and persons with disabilities in India

  Additional work