BIOGRAPHY
Duwenavue Santé Johnson is a distinguished federal government artist, teacher, lecturer, and curator whose professional practice is profoundly rooted in textile arts, cultural preservation, and the power of narrative. As a three-time cancer survivor, her work is fundamentally guided by principles of resilience and process-based practices.
Johnson’s artistic mission is to engage audiences and promote dialogue, understanding, and appreciation of heritage and shared history. She is committed to fostering connections, bridging divides, and promoting social cohesion by holding space for others to share and express their stories through textile-inspired media such as collage and hand embroidery. This creates engagement opportunities to stitch, mend, and bond stories together in a specific time and space, with paper, fabric, and thread serving as the vessels for these unfolding narratives. As a highly skilled Senior Hand Embroiderer since 2015, Johnson holds a specialized federal role with the DefenseLogistics Agency (DLA), Institute of Heraldry. There, she meticulously executes the hand embroidery of U.S. Presidents' and Vice Presidents' Flags.She has been featured on NPR, ABC, CBS, and Fox News.
Beyond the craft, Johnson leverages her expertise in strategic communication as a Curator, Lecturer,Exhibitor, and Docent for the Heraldics collection, making the historical and artistic context of the work accessible to the public. Her service has been recognized with the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) America 250! Commendation Medal and Certificate Set (June 2024) and the 2024 U.S. Military Challenge Coin.
Beyond government work, Johnson's profound contributions to the visual arts have led to her work being acquired by the Victoria and Albert Museum, London,United Kingdom ("An Unstitched Coif," January 2024). She is a rising force in the contemporary art world with an ambitious schedule of Solo Exhibitions, including: Tiger Strikes Asteroid (March–May 2026), A.I.R Gallery, Brooklyn (August–September 2025), and 201@105 Gallery, New York City (March–May 2025). Her impact is further highlighted by a long list of accolades, including the prestigious Rebeccah Milena Maia Blum Curatorial Fellowship (2026-2027), the Radical America! Research and Exhibition Grant (March 2026), multiple Black Music City Grant Awards, and the Mural Arts Black Fellow 2024 Grant. Johnson holds a Bachelor of Arts in Communication Arts(awarded May 2025), actively engages in researching material culture. This blend of communications and history and hands-on textile artistry positions Johnson as a unique and powerful voice dedicated to fostering collective understanding through mended narratives.
In the last 5 years she has curated and participated in Satellite at Art Basel, Schau Fenster and The National Museum in Berlin, The Jones Institute in San Francisco, La Chapelle de Sainte Lucie located in Marsanne, France. She began her art career at Shantinekitan art center, India, Cushion Works, Art Span, 69 Belcher St, Active Space, Mission Cultural Center, and The Bahai Center in San Francisco, AHC, Girls Inc. in Oakland. She transitioned into Three years of quarterly shows with Oxheart in Brooklyn, NYC, andSquirrel Haus Arts in Saint Paul, MN. In 2012 has been Featured at Atelier Zardosi in Paris, France along with various textile shows such as the Harrogate Knitting and Stitching Show with the Royal School of Needlework in England.She continued her studies with Presentations, lectures, and awards in Seoul, South Korea under Han Sang Soo.Her first international job was teaching and curating a textile exhibition featuring Yalla Trappan, sponsored by IKEA in Malmo, Sweden. Art-related travel projects that lead towellness art with Underwater Healer, Erena Shimoda, Cancer awareness feature at Genentech and Art exhibition in Tokyo, Japan. This led to print and digital media worldwide, Life show aired in Rio de Janeiro Brazil in 2014, Genentech Biomedical conference in Phoenix, Arizona 2015, Apple stores in Boston, San Francisco.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My artistic journey celebrates creation, culture, and community engagement. Through textile and mixed media exploration, I interweave the stories of communities, promoting collaboration. My current body of work, “How will our ancestors find us?” explores the concept of retrieval and transformation. I collect and sort through retrievable pieces of fragments, each containing a seeded memory. These shards and fragments are combined to take on new life and character, embodying strength, anger, and beauty. Creations naturally emerge from intense emotional states, involving uncomfortable responses to perceptions and resilience, painstakingly reassembled onto new spaces while shapeshifting into new objects and identities. With the shapeshifting nature when chaos presents itself, migrations and journeys are sure to follow, leading to circular beauty and joy. Listening to the voices of my ancestors and the golden thread of knowledge through the music's timeless space, I search for connections. I aim to inspire others to embrace their roots and diversity, fostering understanding and connection through visual art and techniques like hand embroidery. Contemplating the past and future is central to my work as I seek to understand the intertwined nature of the world and personal struggles. Sharing, communicating, and inspiring others to follow what grows and brings confidence is paramount to creating a bright future. The space I work in determines the size of my pieces, while the world outside defines my color palette, experiences, and focus. My mission is to engage audiences and promote dialogue, understanding, and appreciation of our diverse heritage and shared history. I am committed to fostering connections, bridging divides, and promoting social cohesion, holding space for others to share and express their stories through textile-inspired media such as collages and hand embroidery, allowing engagement opportunities to stitch, mend, and bond stories together in a specific time and space. Paper, fabric, and thread become the vessels through which narratives unfold, each piece a page in a book, each shape a moving image.
Guided by principles of environmental sustainability, my artistic choices include the use of plant pigments and textile techniques that add movement, wholeness, and depth to my work. My goal is to continually evolve and refine my craft, creating visual outcomes that foster understanding and connection and leave a lasting impact on the communities I serve.
REPRESENTATION
2024- 2023 A.I.R. National Member, Brooklyn, N.Y.
2021-2024 Tiger Strikes Asteroid, Philadelphia
