Artist Statement
I make work that combines textiles, sound, performance, and video. I approach everything I make through a lens of caring. Before material considerations, I ask myself what I want the work to perform. The most successful pieces to me are the ones that marry tactile pleasure with narrative content. I strive to connect dots and make stories from what seems disparate. Creating fiber pieces allows me to channel time and energy into each stitch of the fabric. It makes visible the labor that goes into caring for myself, my family, my dogs, my home. Seemingly insubstantial and quiet, the small acts of carefulness combine in substantial textile tapestries and sculptures.
The narrative aspects of my work are loosely autobiographical. I begin with specific memories and let my mind replay them, ruminating on the sensory and emotional details (snapshots). From real memories, I create new/parallel stories to expand on. I sustainably address traumatic memories using my personal lore. I recreate vignettes from my past that run the risk of retraumatizing me if I linger on the hurt for too long. To make my practice more regenerative, I look to psychology’s PTSD treatment of re-staging. This treatment aims to alter the past and revise the traumatic memory to include adequate support and care. It desires to draw the traumatic moment out of the sensory subconscious of the brain and wash it with playful reenactment. My stagings use games and imaginings from my childhood to reestablish autonomy over traumatic memories in my past.
C.V.
Education
2023
MFA Studio Art, Cornell University
2018
BFA Art Education & Painting, Cum Laude, Texas Christian University
Experience
2022-2023
AAP Store Manager at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
2021-2023
Teacher’s Assistant at Cornell University, Ithaca, NY
Intro to Printmaking, 2021
Intro to Photography, 2022
Intro to Painting, 2022
Intro to Sculpture, 2022
Intro to Drawing, 2023
2018-2021
Art Teacher at Solar Preparatory School for Girls, Dallas, TX
2018
Clinical Art Teacher at South Hills Elementary School, Fort Worth, TX
Clinical Art Teacher at Paschal High School, Fort Worth, TX
2017
Chair for Student Division of TAEA
Museum Education Gallery Intern at Kimbell Museum, Fort Worth, TX
Selected Exhibitions & Group Shows
2023
Clapping Corners, Ortega y Gasset Projects, Brooklyn, NY
The Purification of Shelby Johnson, Solo Exhibition, Experimental Gallery, Ithaca, NY
Get Soft, The Soil Factory, Ithaca, NY
2022
Bury Me Beneath the Magnolia Tree, Solo Exhibition, Tjaden Gallery, Ithaca, NY
Flesh Space, Experimental Gallery, Ithaca, NY
Onion Moon, Solo Exhibition, Experimental Gallery, Ithaca, NY
I See You (IC/CU), The Ink Shop, Ithaca, NY
A Long Toast, Ortega Y Gasset Projects, Brooklyn, NY
2021
Visual Pit, Tjaden Gallery, Ithaca, NY
2020
Group Message, Group Performance, Sugar Cone Studio, Dallas, TX
2019
Experiencing Perspectives, Mercedes-Benz Financial Services, Fort Worth, TX
2018
Supernatural Flutist, Group Performance, TCU Opera Studio, Fort Worth, TX
Self/Social/Time at Moudy Gallery, Fort Worth, TX
2017
Repeating Identity, Gallery 414, Fort Worth, TX
TCU Annual Juried Exhibition at Moudy Gallery, Fort Worth, TX
Woodshed Smokehouse Mural Collaborator, Fort Worth, TX
2016
TCU Annual Juried Exhibition at Moudy Gallery, Fort Worth, TX
Curatorial Work
2020
random.order., Solo Exhibition by Eben Hall, PLANT Gallery
2019
Dallas Famous, Alec Stewart, PLANT Gallery
Bad Hombre, Solo Exhibition by Stacy Xilom, PLANT Gallery
The Lookout, Performance and Solo Exhibition by David Jeremiah, PLANT Gallery
Lock Jaw, Solo Exhibition by Vivek Sebastian, PLANT Gallery
Who’s Exploiting Who?, Colton White & Gibson Regester, PLANT Gallery
Projects
2020
PISTEL, Set Design & Director of Costume
2018-2020
Co-Founder of PLANT Gallery, Dallas, TX
2017
Collaborative Art Experience with ArtOrg in collaboration with Amon G. Carter Museum & Fort Worth Contemporary Arts, FWADA Gallery Night, Fort Worth, TX
2016
Founder of ArtOrg at TCU, Fort Worth, TX
Press
2019
The Reasons Why You Should Be Excited for Dallas Art in 2020, D Magazine
2018
Creative Recital Programming by Erich Tucker, Flute Talk Journal
Published Work
2015
Spring 2015 10th Anniversary Edition, eleven40seven TCU Journal of the Arts
Awards
2018
Senior Scholar, School of Art, Texas Christian University
2017
Outstanding Student of Art Education Award from TAEA
2015
Nordan Young Artist Award, Texas Christian University
2014
Choral Grant, Texas Christian University
Contact
shelbyclaire.johnson53@gmail.com
(404) 661-7282