Marnia Johnston

Marnia Johnston is a sculptor and interdisciplinary instigator collaborating with engineers, biologists, programmers, and tinkerers. She creates projects exploring what Donna Haraway calls the “ideological struggle between life and social science.” Johnston’s work does this by incorporating themes surrounding mass production, ecology, and biological processes by using robotics, ceramics, and various other media.

Johnston has been awarded the Visions from the New California Award, a James Irvine Foundation Fellowship, and has completed residencies at the Exploratorium, Watershed Arts Center, CARPA, and Anderson Ranch. Her sculptures and drawings have been exhibited widely—most recently at the Portland Museum of Contemporary Craft; the American Museum of Ceramic Art in Pomona, California; and at the MultiSpecies Salon at CUNY. Johnston’s work can be found in the permanent collection of Jingdezhen Ceramic Art Museum and the Icheon World Ceramic Center. Her work has been recognized by the World Ceramic Biennale, South Korea with two diplomas of honor and a medal of honor.

Born in California, Johnston holds a BFA from San Jose State University and an MFA from the California College of the Arts (CCA). She continues to sculpt out of her studio in the Castro in San Francisco, CA.