Traci Johnson
December 12, 2025 / Photo: Courtesy of Traci Johnson / Title: “ Love me in a place where there’s no space or time”
Artist Traci Johnson creates multisensory objects and installations to explore ideas like identity, sexuality, sanctuary, and safety.
Johnson has explored their creativity through many different modalities over the years, including dance, music, and fine art. While at college, they were primarily focused on painting, printmaking, and woodworking — but the pandemic shuttered in-person studies and separated them from the many materials they regularly used. This led them to experiment with tufting, which unlocked a new and expansive means of making art.
“My longstanding interest in soft sculpture, combined with my passion for painting, prompted me to explore how these disciplines could be integrated,” Johnson explained. “This culminated in my current practice of creating rugs through tufting, which I conceptualize as textile paintings or tapestries.”
Johnson’s brilliant tufted works combine concepts like nature, spirituality, and the female form. This spans from their personal reflections on the relationship between religion, refuge, and queer identity.
“My work is deeply informed by several interconnected influences: my Christian upbringing, the natural world, sacred geometry, and the exploration of the feminine spirit,” they explained. “I frequently employ myself as the subject matter within my compositions, creating a dialogue between personal identity and these themes.”
And though these concepts may seem at odds, the composition of their work is more harmonious than antithetical.
“My approach to creation has consistently been intuitive, prioritizing the emotional resonance of color over purely visual considerations,” Johnson said of their process. “This methodology allows me to engage with color as both a sensory and emotional experience, resulting in work that communicates beyond the visual plane.”
They also use constructing the work itself as a way to meditate on these many ideas and describe the repetition of tufting as both “ritual and roadmap.”
In addition to their tapestries, Johnson has created several immersive installations that allow viewers to interact more directly with their ideas and objects. In August of 2024, they opened their site-specific “Safe Space” inside the MTA’ 1 Train platform on 50th street, as a conceptualization of a truly protected space where individuals can find risk-free, and judgement-free inspiration. Their “Stay Frosty” installation features a van retrofitted with their signature candy-colored tufting. They have also created custom shoes and sportswear for a workshop with Nike, and showcased their tapestries in galleries around the country.
In the future, Johnson will be showcasing new work and expanding their installations globally to serve as venues for various art, wellness, and community programming.
“I am developing a body of work that integrates fiber art with glass, which I plan to present as various public installations across the city in the future,” they previewed. “This exploration of materiality aims to expand the accessibility and scale of my textile practice, allowing my work to engage broader audiences in public spaces.”
More about Traci Johnson’s work can be found here.
