Johnson received the 2023 Wherewithal Research Grant from Washington Project for the Arts, as part of the Andy Warhol Foundation’s Regional Regranting Program.

Who Cares for Artists? A Field Guide of Artistic Survival
His research is propelled by the question of how artists and creatives sustain challenging practices, ones that require mental, emotional, psychological, and physical agility. His research explores the role of care and repair as it pertains to the integrity of the artist themself, rather than the representation of care in objects or exhibitions. Artists carry the weight of complex and difficult subject matter that demands and depletes. They are challenged to remain whole as they alchemize and distill their relationship to gender identity and expression, class, sexuality, race and ethnicity, and immigration status. Part of this research project will include long-term studies with selected artists in an effort to build an insightful field guide of artistic survival.

Read more about the Wherewithal Grant Program.

Johnson recently received the 2024 and 2025 Arts & Humanities Fellowship Grant and the 2024 Curatorial Grant from the DC Commission on the Arts & Humanities in support of his scholarly, curatorial, and artistic practice.