Ashley Johnson
The Divine Feminine
July 1 – August 31, 2021

The Divine Feminine is a multidisciplinary exhibition by North Carolina-based artist, Ashley Johnson. The exhibition includes work from three connected series, Sestina, Us, and Woven. Sestina is a narrative photographic series, born out of Johnson’s own experiences growing up as a Black woman in the South. Johnson’s somber images reflect the deep complexities of generational concepts such as Southern femininity, Black-hair identity, and notions of self-worth that Johnson inherited through the countless hair rituals she shared with her mother. In her video entitled Us, Johnson shares the joy, intimacy, and sisterhood also found in the rituals of Black hair, offering a forecast of hope for younger and future generations of Black girls and women. Woven is a photographic series exploring the artist's formal studies of texture and obscurity, created with the tools and natural resources available to her at the time. Johnson assigned the names of gods and goddesses to each photograph based on which deity she felt would best align with the energy of the image and the portrait sitter. Displayed is the portrait titled Oya—the great goddess of wind, fire, and the thunderbolt; the defender of truth, justice, women, and change. Ashley Johnson’s solo exhibition The Divine Feminine will be on view at The Residency Project from July 1–August 31, 2021.

Artist Bio
Ashley Johnson (www.hiaj.co) is a writer and a multidisciplinary creative entrepreneur living in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. Johnson uses mixed media via photography, textile, live floral, woven and braided masks to navigate intra-racial conflict, identity evolution, southern woman and girlhood, and studies of relative time as it relates to African American/feminine beauty practice.

Johnson's work has been exhibited in venues including but not limited to Angels Gate Cultural Center in Los Angeles; Bellarmine University in Louisville; Hanesbrand Theatre Gallery, Associated Artists, and Blissful Gallery and Studios in Winston-Salem, NC; SoHo House x Buckhead Art & Company in Atlanta; the Central Gallery at Revolution Mill, Studio 503, and Center for Visual Arts in Greensboro. Johnson's photographs have been published by Darling Magazine, Fourteen Hills Press, and The Coraddi, and she's received acknowledgments in numerous media outlets including but not limited to the CulturePower Podcast, Click Magazine's "20 Women Changing Photography," Call + Response Journal, The Coastal Post, and All the Pretty Bird's 2019 article entitled "Who’s Inspiring Us Right Now."