Artist Bio

Elliot Johnson is a multidisciplinary artist from Queens, NY. He has overcome numerous challenges and barriers to his pursuit of art, including his mental illness.

As a respected graffiti artist with many completed wall murals, his artistic output is rooted in his birthplace of Queens. Intensely original, Johnson luxuriates over the details in his figurative work. He has a long experience in several drawing and graphing traditions, including seventeenth century Dutch techniques. Depicting mainly black subjects, Elliot’s light touch brings his subjects to life by stressing each subject’s personality. Some illustrations are so complex that the work can take months to achieve the dreamlike, psychedelic effect which Elliot creates with his hatching.

While his home, Queens, has undergone many changes since 1964, Johnson sees a through-line from then till now: the strong community and support for the arts which has remained constant. With a long history of collaborating with Jamaica Center for the Arts and teaching courses at the Queens Public Library, Elliot also gives back to the neighborhood.