F. Geoffrey Johnson Bio

Johnson is a graduate of Morehouse College who majored in Political Science. He is a multi-disciplinary artist working in various mediums, highlighting issues related to environmental, social and political justice.

Johnson's poetry was first published in 1975 by Inner City Cultural Center's Neworld Magazine and has since been published in literary journals and books, both domestically and abroad.

In 2006, in order to expand his artistic vocabulary, Johnson began painting. In 2009, Johnson's artwork evolved to include assemblages of re-purposed materials, found objects, environmental waste and the literary word.

In 2012 Johnson was expelled from Art Basel Miami Beach for “Peaceful Anti-Homelessness Demonstration”. Management said his signs constituted art and not allowed to be displayed without permission.

In 2009 Johnson was the poet selected by Fulton County, Georgia for their Caversham residency program in Balgowan, South Africa. In 2018, Johnson was selected to participate in Otis College of Art and Design's L. A. Summer Residency.

Johnson's artwork has been shown in group and solo exhibitions throughout Georgia, Alabama, New York and South Africa. His work has been awarded in various group shows and art exhibitions, most recently in 2018, Abernathy Arts Center's Georgia Artists: A Juried Exhibition.

Johnson’s current work is informed by the result of a DNA test. Both of his parents are African American and his mother’s grandmother was a slave. What the DNA did not reveal was an ancestral name or homeland in West Africa. We know, these markers were stripped from enslaved Africans in America and are a legacy of the transatlantic slave trade.

Landing in Accra, Ghana in 2003 and upon exiting the airplane Johnson was identified by his West African “community” as Kwesi Buroni (Sunday white man). He left America black and landed in Ghana white.

This experience was troubling and raised many questions. What is identity theft? How does being stripped of these markers affect the African American and white American communities in 2018 and beyond? Do African Americans have a connection to West Africa outside of their own psyche? As a hybrid race should we forget the past and move on or explore that element of Africa that is us? These and other questions, Johnson is presently exploring in his series, “identity theft”.