Andrew Ellis Johnson was born in Cortland, NY to a jazz guitarist, civil war historian father and science major mother who, together, won many bowling tournaments. He made his first film cycle on the battle of Gettysburg at the age of 9, miniature marzipan figurines of Fats Waller at 11, and a life-size faux bronze sculpture of Baron Manfred von Richthofen at 13. He pursued film and painting at SUNY Buffalo and completed his BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. After years in Europe and Asia, he earned an MFA in Art at Carnegie Mellon while serving as an artist-in-residence at the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections and curating an exhibition of inmate art. Subsequently Johnson attended residencies at Skowhegan in Maine and Poznan Academy of Art in Skoki, Poland. After several years of nomadic teaching, he joined the University at Buffalo faculty where he co-founded PED, a socially engaged collective that performed in Buffalo, Belfast, Chongqing, Rio de Janeiro, St. John’s, Tonawanda, and Toronto. As Associate Professor of Art at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh (2004-2025), he participated in residencies at Korean National University of the Arts in Seoul, Fayoum International Art Center in Egypt, University of the Arts London at Camberwell, Sites of Passage in Jerusalem/Ramallah/ Pittsburgh, and Tsinghua University in Beijing.
Johnson’s visual allegories, whether saturated or distilled, are composed of recognizable parts that yield multiple interpretations. Theatrical settings, historical references and political allusions imbue narratives of personal and collective culpability in which the credible and incredible collide. Venues for his work have included museums, galleries, electronic arts and video festivals, public collaborations, conferences, books, and journals in Africa, North and South America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.