"In Part 1 of 2, Los Angeles artist and activist Kysa Johnson talks about: the various platforms and outlets for her activism, and how donating money, signing petitions and watching protest-based movies gave way to attending the initial protest in L.A., the Women’s March in Washington, a protest at LAX airport, artist political group meetings, [and] phone calls to Congress; how her 'being active' was a necessary reaction to the extreme change in the political landscape, and how protests... matter because the visibility and solidarity of resistance is a key arm of resistance that lets those in power know that you’re angry."

Kysa Johnson will be showing at Eastside International (ESXLA), in their group exhibition entitled Echo Location, curated by Lisa C. Soto. "The exhibition features work by artists who participated in a series of talks at Soto’s Inglewood studio entitled 'Conversations By Artists For Artists', which began in November of 2015. The conversations were intended to build connectivity, cultivate empowerment, and provide an intimate space for the exchange of ideas, energies, and perspectives. In Echo Location the visions and voices of the twenty-three participating artists co-mingle again and offer an alternative mapping of LA’s creative landscape."

Kysa Johnson's work explores patterns in nature that exist at the extremes of scale. Inspired by the 80-acre grounds at Grace Farms, she has made a new, 360-degree drawing, which creates an immersive experience for visitors at the Pavilion, a glass-enclosed volume in the River building. This installation, which opens on April 23 and is on view through May 31, 2016, marks the first time Johnson has worked on a transparent surface, providing the opportunity for a seamless interplay between in and out-doors.

The Fire Next Time is a group exhibition featuring artists Kysa Johnson, Angel Otero, Michael Cline, James English Leary, and Kenny Riviero, curated by Christian Viveros-Fauné. 

FROM INCEPTION TO INSTALLATION – KYSA JOHNSON AND HER NEW PROJECT FOR HALSEY MCKAY

"Here is the first note (of an as yet undetermined number) chronicling the progress of my upcoming installation project for Halsey McKay Gallery, from its messy (and potentially embarrassing) beginnings to its final (and hopefully impressive) end."

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An unexpected texture, a new angle, or a jarring juxtaposition—no matter the medium, artworks are always different when you see them in person. Here are some of our favorite Instagram images, taken around The Armory Show and hashtagged #ArtsyArmory.

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The Armory Show seems a bit same-y this year, and fairly conservative. This atmosphere makes the booths that are truly different stand out all the more, though, and one of these is definitely to be found at Morgan Lehman’s stand. There, Kysa Johnson has completely taken over the space with a full-scale recreation of a Bank of America waiting room, complete with chairs and the looming BoA logo, all of it composed out of black board. The furniture and walls alike are covered with ghostly chalk drawings that come together, from a certain angle, to depict a totally new image: a plunging vista of Roman ruins (inspired by Piranesi). . .

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This year’s Armory Show is short on video. My explanation is that videos are hard to sell, and harder to get the friends whom you’re trying to impress to watch. There’s also the risk that the video you paid $50,000 for won’t look much better than the video made by your child. Remember that kid who’s costing you $55,000 a year at NYU Film School?

Let’s not start with moving pictures, but with production design. At the north end of Pier 94, near the entrance to the New York Times Media Lounge, where real moving pictures are shown (and panelized, of course), Kysa Johnson’s replica of a Bank of America waiting room is installed. You can do everything but sit in the chairs and write on the walls – and you can even do that if security isn’t watching. It’s the size of a small art fair booth, nowhere near too big to fail. . .

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A NEW YORK CITY ARTIST REINVENTS PIRANESI’S RUINS FOR THE 21ST CENTURY

Morgan Lehman Gallery Ξ This Chelsea gallery has a roster of very talented emerging artists, that create art which is dynamic, young, meaningful and invigorating. As Sally Morgan Lehman, Founder and Director at Morgan Lehman Gallery explains, for The Armory Show the gallery is structuring their booth around a single installation by a young New York City artist who constructs her work around the premise of combining opposite notions and using that new concept as a foundation for her reinvented Baroque still lives or the 18th century Roman Ruins after Giovanni Battista Piranesi. . .

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Instead of tackling a neighborhood festival like Northside in Williamsburg/Greenpoint or Bushwick Open Studios, last weekend I decided to explore Queens Arts Express, a project of the Queens Arts Council, in the hopes of acheiving some level of understanding regarding the creative spirit of an entire borough over the course of four days. Though I longed to visit Woodside, Jamaica, Jackson Heights, Middle Village, Sunnyside, Ridgewood, Astoria, College Point, Corona, Middle Village, Rockaway Beach and Flushing, the subways, notorious for weekend delays and disappearing routes, devoured my afternoon and stranded me in Long Island City. Apologies to the plethora of unvisited artists and neighborhoods notwithstanding, I still found two stellar shows, and a number of grassroots developments.

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Exhibition

Terrible Beauty: Art, Crisis, Change & The Office of Non-Compliance

The title and theme of Dublin Contemporary 2011 is Terrible Beauty—Art, Crisis, Change & The Office of Non-Compliance. Taken from William Butler Yeats’ famous poem “Easter, 1916”, the exhibition’s title borrows from the Irish writer’s seminal response to turn-of-the-century political events to site art’s underused potential for commenting symbolically on the world’s societal, cultural and economic triumphs and ills. The second part of the exhibition’s title underscores Dublin Contemporary 2011’s emphasis on art that captures the spirit of the present time, while introducing the exhibition’s chief organizational engine: The Office of Non-Compliance. Headed up by Dublin Contemporary 2011 lead curators Jota Castro (artist/curator) and Christian Viveros-Fauné (critic/curator), The Office of Non-Compliance will function as a collaborative agency within Dublin Contemporary 2011, establishing creative solutions for real or symbolic problems that stretch the bounds of conventional art experience.

Physically sited within the grounds of the larger exhibition, The Office of Non-Compliance will function as a promoter of ideas around a laundry list of non-conformist art proposals and, when inhabited by given artistic projects, as a work of art itself. The Office of Non-Compliance posits the obvious fact that not only has the world changed in the last few decades, the idea of change itself has changed utterly. An exhibition that looks to highlight less conventional, largely artist-led models of art discourse, production and presentation, Dublin Contemporary 2011 will find in The Office of Non-Compliance an active thresher for novel, underrepresented and even untested ideas around contemporary art and its myriad possibilities.

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In Wall Works, six artists were invited to create site-specific wall installations in response to the Museum’s collection of modern and contemporary American art. In preparation for the exhibition, artists Kysa Johnson, Natalie Lanese, Caleb Neelon, Alison Owen, Justin Richel, and Mary Temple trolled the Museum’s database of 3,500 objects and selected an artwork to serve as a source of inspiration for their proposed “wall work.” The artists identified artworks that resonated with their varied interests and aesthetics and have consequently assembled an eclectic assortment of objects from deCordova’s collection. Sited both in the gallery and the Museum’s Café, these new installations reflect each artist’s own practice while creatively engaging the Permanent Collection as an educational, historical, and inspirational entity.

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"Kysa Johnson tracks the travel paths of subatomic particles in swirling colored lines — there’s no Lonely Planet accompanying her map, either."

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