Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Teaching Fellow Lecture: Tamara Johnson

Artist, educator, and curator Tamara Johnson will deliver the Henry L. and Natalie E. Freund Teaching Fellow Lecture.

Born in Waco, Texas, in 1984, Johnson earned a bachelor’s degree in studio art from the University of Texas at Austin in 2007 and a master’s in fine arts, in sculpture, from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2012. She spent the next six years in New York, serving as a project manager for the Robert Gober Studio and public artist Janet Zweig while exhibiting her own work at Socrates Sculpture Park, the CUE Art Foundation, Wave Hill, Maria Hernandez Park, Air Mattress Gallery, and other spaces.

In 2018, Johnson and fellow artist Trey Burns founded the Sweet Pass Sculpture Park on a one-acre lot in west Dallas. An extension of their own artistic practices, Sweet Pass provides space and support for temporary, experimental and large-scale outdoor projects by a diverse set of contemporary voices.

Johnson’s work has been featured in dozens of exhibitions, including recent solo and two-person shows at the Nasher Sculpture Center and the ex ovo gallery, both in Dallas; at Wassaic Projects in New York; and at MAD Arts in Dania Beach, Fla. Other major exhibitions include the Dallas Biennial and shows at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art in Salt Lake City, the Blanton Museum of Art in Austin, and Grand Union Gallery in Birmingham, England.

Johnson’s numerous honors include a National Endowment for the Arts grant, in conjunction with Wassaic Projects, as well as awards from the Meadows School of the Arts at Southern Methodist University, the Santo Foundation in St. Louis, the Foundation for Contemporary Arts in New York and the Brooklyn Arts Council. Johnson has an upcoming permanent public project in California commissioned by the City of West Sacramento to be completed in 2024.