Artists Traci Johnson
SPRING 2025 RESIDENT · MAR – MAY
Traci Johnson
Textile, installation, sculpture · Brooklyn, NY
Traci Johnson is a Brooklyn-born textile artist whose work in textile design, installation and sculpture explores the complexities of femininity. Born in New York City in 1998 and a graduate of the Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT), Johnson joined Manchester AIR at The Factory on Willow in Manchester, New Hampshire, for the Spring 2025 session.
Background
Johnson first learned to crochet in church among a circle of older women, and grew up visiting the Brooklyn Museum and the Metropolitan Museum of Art. During the pandemic they began making rugs as a search for comfort, and rugs have remained central to their practice ever since.
About the work
Johnson’s colorful, tactile works use yarn, faux fur, lace, trim and found materials to imagine new ways of seeing womanhood beyond familiar expectations. Their practice draws on themes of mental health, self-discovery and sanctuary, often through immersive installations that visitors can enter and touch. Construction, deconstruction and reconstruction serve as symbolic paths toward selfhood.
Selected highlights
Safe Space, Young Talent Exhibition, Affordable Art Fair NYC (2022), and a commissioned installation for MTA and Chashama at the 50th Street subway station
Creatures of Desire, solo exhibition at Established Gallery, Brooklyn (2022)
FST StudioProjects Fund recipient (2022)
Window installation at Bergdorf Goodman (2022)
Exhibited at the Museum at FIT
