Cedric Johnson

Artworks

 

Untitled, 2019. Glazed ceramic. Courtesy of the artist and Creative Growth.

Audio description  

Untitled, 2019. Glazed ceramic. Courtesy of the artist and Creative Growth.

Audio description  

About the Artist 

“Straight up from my imagination.”—Cedric Johnson

Cedric Johnson always knew he wanted to be an artist. He works with a wide range of media, from wood and textiles to ceramics and printmaking. He combines vibrant color palettes with intricate linear patterns and often creates ceramic masks or uses masks as a favorite symbol in his works on paper. 

Johnson was born in Corpus Christi, Texas, in 1952 and has been creating a wide variety of two- and three-dimensional art at Creative Growth since 1980. He has exhibited in group shows at Creative Growth, Rena Bransten Gallery, and Gallery Paule Anglim in San Francisco. His first solo exhibition featuring 20 of his artworks, including six ceramic pieces, was in 2016, at Ampersand in Portland, Oregon. Johnson’s work has also featured in designs for limited-edition chocolate bar packaging for Guittard.

Creative Growth is a non-profit based in Oakland that advances the inclusion of artists with developmental disabilities in contemporary art by providing a professional studio environment and gallery representation. Sparked by the nationwide deinstitutionalization of disabled people, Florence and Elias Katz, an artist, and a psychologist, founded three Bay Area non-profit art studios―Creative Growth in 1974, NIAD in 1982 (Nurturing Independence through Artistic Development), and Creativity Explored in 1983. These programs often collaborate and share resources, and serve as a model for the field of art and disability worldwide.