Iskra Johnson

Throughout my work I explore impermanence as it occurs in the urban landscape and in nature. My architectural prints and mixed media pieces focus on the radical reshaping of the built landscape through gentrification and de-industrialization. As we are confronted with change and our relationship to it, I am interested in the question of how much of the past we value and hold onto, and how much we let go to make the future our “now.” My work lives on the edge between nostalgia and accommodation, mediating through the elements of surface and iconic structure to a conversation about history, identity and sense of place.

I have been a calligrapher and letter form artist for much of my professional art career, creating well known brandmarks for film, books and packaging. I have created custom typographic identities for Kitty Kelly, Clive Barker, Naomi Judd, and Anne Rice among others, and movie titling for Dreamworks and Walt Disney.

As a fine artist I bring my passion for mark making and the architecture of letter forms into the abstract realm. I have a calligrapher's subtle sense of surface and texture, and incorporate calligraphic mark making into many of my pieces. I use photography, digital composition, printmaking, mixed m...

BFA in Painting, University of Washington
Private studies in sumie, Eastern and Western calligraphy

2018 SAM Gallery at Seattle Art Museum "Color Bath" solo show
2018 Perry & Carlson "Industrial Pastorale," solo show
2017 SAM Gallery “Industrial Strength,” Three-person show, Seattle, Washington
2017 Chittendon Locks Centennial, “Splash,” (Group/Invitational), Seattle, Washington
2017 Center on Contemporary Art, “Make America Create Again,” (Group/Juried), Seattle, Washington
2017 Museo Gallery, “The Winter Show,” (Group/Invitational), Langley, Washington
2016 Galvanize, “Tech and the Democratization of Art,” (Group/ Invitational)
2016 Seattle Art Museum Gallery, “Prints Today,” Invitational
2016 Columbia City Gallery, “Confluence: The Duwamish River Project” (Group/Invitational)
2016 Museo Gallery, “The Garden Show,” (Group/Invitational), Langley, Washington
2015 Linda Hodges Gallery, “Seattle Seen,”(Group/Invitational), Seattle, Washington
2015 Arts at the Port, “Zeitgeist,” (Juried), Anacortes, Washington
2015 Alexis Hotel, Invitational, “Waterways”, Three-person, Seattle, Washington
2014 Seattle Art Museum Gallery, new architectural work for May exhibition
2014 Linda Hodges Gallery, “Making & Breaking,” (Group/Invitational), Seattle, Washington
2014 Zeitgeist, “Excavations: Th...