About the Artist:
Chanel C. Johnson grew up in Bridgeport, CT and received her Bachelors of Fine Art from Rutgers University’s Mason Gross School of Arts. She works as an artist and lives by a strong belief that art is a vehicle to connect people. She has exhibited throughout the region, as well as internationally. In Sao Paulo, for example, she exhibited at the Museo Afro Brasil. Currently, she lives and creates art in Baltimore, Maryland.
Artist Statement:
Compton expresses Black diasporic experiences, history, and identity through a series of portraits, mosaics, and abstract paintings. She creates these works in a passionate and elegiac manner that explores the physical and spiritual conflicts of external and internal liberation.
The works featured are portraits of historic and iconic figures, such as Nat Turner and Oya: an Orisha of winds, lightening, death, and rebirth. In her figurative works, the images are created by painted, ripped pieces of paper or glass to reinforce the idea of strength and transformation amid historic oppression. Many of the works are inspired by her \work in museum education, community arts, and her travels abroad.