Jaleesa Johnston

Jaleesa Johnston is an interdisciplinary artist currently working in the Pacific Northwest. Born and raised in the Bay Area, California, she now lives in the woods of Washougal, WA. She holds a BA from Vassar College in Comparative Ethnic Studies and Studio Art, and an MFA in Studio Art from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her work explores the ruptured and queer existence of the Black female body as both subject and object through performance, video, photography, sculpture, collage and drawing. She has been the recipient of the AICAD Post-Graduate Teaching Fellowship, and Open Signal’s New Media Fellowship, as well as Centrum’s Emerging Artist Residency, Performance Works NW Alembic Artist Residency, and Nat Turner Project’s Black Abbey Residency. Jaleesa has exhibited her work and performed in cities along the west coast, including San Francisco, Portland and Seattle, and she currently facilitates workshops and classes in new media and performance art.