Explore the studio of artist C.E. Johnson with the Contemporary Arts Center of New Orleans this Thursday, January 7 at 5 p.m. for Studio V, the CAC’s series of live, intimate virtual tours of artists’ studios and collectors’ homes. This event will explore the artistic practice of Alabama-based artist C.E. Johnson.

Hosted by the members of the Contemporary Art’s programming team, Studio V examines the artistic inspiration behind C.E. Johnson’s work Democracy Machine (After the remains found of an Ancient Greek Kleroterion), currently on view in the CAC’s Make America What America Must Become exhibition, which will be on view through April 25, 2021. It was discovered that in ancient Greece (370 BCE), a machine called the Kleroterion was used to make a random selection for voting for political positions and jury service. C.E. Johnson’s Democracy Machine (2020) can be used as an object of meditation for healing in a time of disillusionment with Alabama-based politics. It is an artifact from an alternate history of the state where elections were given up to pure chance and a monument to the ideals of democracy in its authentic form.

Johnson is a multi-disciplinary visual artist working and living in Alabama. Place, landscape, and the idea of “the sacred” are important themes in Johnson’s work and she takes inspiration from the materials she works with. Recently, she has been interested in utilizing locally sourced minerals (like marble, shale, and chalk), to create paintings, sculptures, and ceramic works. The study of various ancient religious and spiritual traditions has become a large part of Johnson’s research including the aesthetics and materials used in the traditions of the icon paintings of Christianity, Zen-influenced ceramics, and Tantric Hindu painting.

Tickets are free but space is limited. Click the link for more information and to RSVP now.