Niki Johnson
EMBODY DEMOCRACY
We are excited to welcome Niki Johnson to our gallery and HeartSpace studio this Fall. Her residency will center on a new participatory art project, Embody Democracy, an outgrowth of her 2026 tour Pillars of Democracy: Unite & Rise.
Pillars of Democracy, built by Johnson with contributions from eight Milwaukee artists and help from nearly 70 volunteers between fall 2024 and summer 2025, is a series of large-scale portraits depicting Lady Liberty, Justice, Freedom, and Forward progress as first-time voters from Milwaukee. The large-scale collage series is made out of leftover stencil paper and paint from spent spray cans used by Shepard Fairey and the Obey Giant team to paint the Voting Rights Are Human Rights mural on the Colby Abbot building in downtown Milwaukee.
During Johnson’s Pillars of Democracy: Unite & Rise tour across the Midwest this summer, she recorded conversations with workshop participants, asking: What do you value most in our democracy? Their answers and stories are shaping Embody Democracy, a new project Johnson is building out during her residency at Arts @ Large, which explores how democratic values are not only expressed but also lived and practiced by each of us every day.
RESIDENCY HIGHLIGHTS
All programs take place at the Arts @ Large Community Center and are FREE and open to all!
Opening Celebration
October 16, 5–9 PM
VOTE with 100 Women on the Move
October 29, 10 AM–1 PM
GATHER with The Center for Immigrant Progress
November 13, 1–4 PM
MOBILIZE with She Should Run
December 4, 5–8 PM
Closing Celebration
Winter Gallery Night, January 2027
Artist in Residence | 2026-2027 | Niki Johnson
Niki Johnson is a Milwaukee-based artist whose practice combines sculpture, collage, and women’s traditional craft to examine democracy, identity, and structures of power affecting our lives today. Drawing from histories of voting rights, reproductive justice, and social justice, her work considers who is represented, who holds power, and how individuals participate in shaping the systems that govern their lives. Her projects create opportunities for public participation and dialogue, extending these questions beyond the artwork itself. Johnson’s work has been exhibited nationally and is held in public and private collections.
Thank you to the many supporters who make our residency program possible, especially the City of Milwaukee Arts Board, Ruth Foundation for the Arts, and the Wisconsin Arts Board.