APG invites you to a discussion with artist Ervin Johnson about the technical and creative aspects of his work, the role of art in social change, and how his projects evolved in reaction to contemporary events. Johnson utilizes photo-based mixed media to reimagine his cultural and racial identity via photography and video. His most recent body of work, #InHonor, is a series of photo-based mixed media portraits made to honor Blackness as it exists in its various forms. More specifically it speaks to the violence and destruction occurring across America, in the form of police brutality. The skin color is removed from larger-than-life prints and then aggressively renegotiated. Pigment stands in for an idea or preconceived notion about a particular type of human experience. This discussion will be assisted by Atlanta gallerist Arnika Dawkins.

Ervin A. Johnson graduated from the University of Illinois- Urbana Champaign with a bachelor's in Rhetoric. After he completed his MFA in photography at Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta, he returned to Chicago. In 2016 he was awarded the Critical Mass Solo Exhibition Award and completed a residency with Columbia College.