(she/hers)
email: info@beth-johnston.com
instagram: @beth_johnston_
b. Kuna, Idaho
Bio:
Beth Johnston (she/hers) is a photographic artist and educator making work around|about|amidst|from within the climate crisis. Beth’s work investigates inherited ways of knowing and is indebted to the many voices aligned in acknowledging that the climate crisis is rooted in settler-colonial legacies.
Grounded in research on environmental justice and first trained as a scientist, Beth’s work explores temporal chasms (when different timescales collapse/collide), climate data encounters, the decolonization of nature (and matter), tipping points, and inherited blindspots. Her work blurs traditional boundaries between photography, installation, performance, video, and activism often building conversations across mediums.
Beth has exhibited in New York, Colorado, Rhode Island, and New Mexico. She has been awarded several grants for her community-based work in Colorado including the Creative Industries Artist Grant (2020). She has been the recipient of the Curator’s Choice at the Center for Fine Art Photography (2021) and was the finalist for RISD Museum’s Donor Prize for a public artwork installation (2022). She is currently a Colorado Art Science Environment (CASE) Fellow through the University of Colorado-Boulder and recipient of The Center for Fine Art Photography’s 2023 Denis Roussel Fellowship.
Beth received an MFA in Photography from Rhode Island School of Design in 2022 with a self-designed concentration in NatureCulture studies. She currently works between the high mountain desert of the Southwest and coastlands of New England.
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-2023 Shows etc-
Bio:
Beth Johnston (she/hers) is a photographic artist and educator making work around|about|amidst|from within the climate crisis. Beth’s work investigates inherited ways of knowing and is indebted to the many voices aligned in acknowledging that the climate crisis is rooted in settler-colonial legacies.
Grounded in research on environmental justice and first trained as a scientist, Beth’s work explores temporal chasms (when different timescales collapse/collide), climate data encounters, the decolonization of nature (and matter), tipping points, and inherited blindspots. Her work blurs traditional boundaries between photography, installation, performance, video, and activism often building conversations across mediums.
Beth has exhibited in New York, Colorado, Rhode Island, and New Mexico. She has been awarded several grants for her community-based work in Colorado including the Creative Industries Artist Grant (2020). She has been the recipient of the Curator’s Choice at the Center for Fine Art Photography (2021) and was the finalist for RISD Museum’s Donor Prize for a public artwork installation (2022). She is currently a Colorado Art Science Environment (CASE) Fellow through the University of Colorado-Boulder and recipient of The Center for Fine Art Photography’s 2023 Denis Roussel Fellowship.
Beth received an MFA in Photography from Rhode Island School of Design in 2022 with a self-designed concentration in NatureCulture studies. She currently works between the high mountain desert of the Southwest and coastlands of New England.
A different kind of honest bio:
I’m utterly confused by this reality way too often. So I turn to art and some (*sometimes silly* and overly heady) theory to try and make sense of it all - because it seems that the imagination that got us into this mess, is not going to be the one that gets us out of it. And I take this art thing way too seriously sometimes. And often laugh out loud at the absurdity of it all. But I also have this nagging feeling that what is normal shouldn’t be normal and what is deemed weird shouldn’t be deemed weird. And that there are also nuances and exceptions to that all over the place. And so I put vacuums in the desert and carry a tumbleweed around and try to be honest and ask the questions that nag at my bones- while hanging onto joy and curiousity along the way- because, well... I don’t know what else to do.
Or something like that?
I’m utterly confused by this reality way too often. So I turn to art and some (*sometimes silly* and overly heady) theory to try and make sense of it all - because it seems that the imagination that got us into this mess, is not going to be the one that gets us out of it. And I take this art thing way too seriously sometimes. And often laugh out loud at the absurdity of it all. But I also have this nagging feeling that what is normal shouldn’t be normal and what is deemed weird shouldn’t be deemed weird. And that there are also nuances and exceptions to that all over the place. And so I put vacuums in the desert and carry a tumbleweed around and try to be honest and ask the questions that nag at my bones- while hanging onto joy and curiousity along the way- because, well... I don’t know what else to do.
Or something like that?
-2023 Shows etc-
January 3rd-21st, 2023
January 19th, 2023
May-September, 2023
2023 Fellow
January 19th, 2023
May-September, 2023
2023 Fellow
2023 Fellow
“Fragments” Group Show at Strata Gallery
“Lost and Found, Red Dots” Performance at Site Sante Fe with support from Creative Sante Fe
“Coloradans and Our Shared Environment in Times of Challenge and Change“ at The Colorarado State Capital
Colorado Art Science Environtment (CASE) with CU Boulder + Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research + Boulder Art + Boulder County Arts Alliance
Denis Roussel Fellowship with The Center for Fine Art Photography
“Lost and Found, Red Dots” Performance at Site Sante Fe with support from Creative Sante Fe
“Coloradans and Our Shared Environment in Times of Challenge and Change“ at The Colorarado State Capital
Colorado Art Science Environtment (CASE) with CU Boulder + Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research + Boulder Art + Boulder County Arts Alliance
Denis Roussel Fellowship with The Center for Fine Art Photography
Sante Fe, New Mexico
Sante Fe, New Mexico
Denver, Colorado
Sante Fe, New Mexico
Denver, Colorado
-2023 Artist Talks, Lectures, + Panels-
March 2023
April 2023
June 2023
September 2023
New Mexico School of the Arts, Guest Lecuture
MassArt, Guest Lecutre
University of Colorado, Panel
Mountan Art Summit, Crested Butte Center for the Arts, Panel, Artist Talk + Workshop
Denver University, Panel + Artist Talk