Calabi Gallery

Featuring an Eclectic Array of Primarily 20th Century Artwork

Johanna Poethig

Be the Thorn by Johanna Poethig, Fine Art Print, 20×16

Johanna Poethig is a visual, public and performance artist who has exhibited internationally and has been actively creating public art works, murals, paintings, sculpture and multimedia installations for over 25 years.

She has worked in collaboration with other artists, architects, urban planners, design teams, arts commissions, specific communities and cultural groups. She was raised in the Philippines through high school and has lived in Chicago, San Francisco and Oakland since coming to the United States. She received her BFA at University of California, Santa Cruz and her MFA at Mills College in Oakland, California.

Poethig’s public art works intervene in the urban landscape, in neighborhoods, on freeways, in parks, hospitals, schools, homeless shelters, cultural centers, advertising venues and public buildings. She has received numerous commissions and awards for this work. Her paintings, sculpture and installations reflect her interest in satire, symbol, human nature, society and our consumerist culture. She has produced and participated in performance events that mix feminism, global politics, costume, props, cabaret, experimental music and video.

Poethig is on the faculty of the Visual and Public Art (VPA) department at California State University, Monterey Bay (CSUMB). As an arts educator and socially engaged artist she deconstructs traditional “art world” boundaries in a collaborative artistic process grounded in research, production, critique, improvisation and reciprocal learning.  Her interest in the dialogue between the public and personal, politics and aesthetics, the ridiculous and the sublime and an inclusive cultural life inform her process and inspire her work.

Johanna Poethig Official Website

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