Select Published Writing
Robert Rauschenberg, Locks Art Publications, 2014
2023 - Marianne Bernstein
A forthcoming publication designed by studio FM milano entitled Theatre of the Everyday, a personal monograph of photographs by Bernstein spanning 40 years exploring the poetics of everyday life. With essays by Kelsey Halliday Johnson alongside Gregory Volk, Stan Mir, and Raimondo Cortese. Details online soon.
2019 - Common field “field perspectives”
Title Magazine published ( INDEX ( MODEL ( POSSIBLE ART WORLDS))), an essay that excavates the conceptual art collective Art & Language’s 1970 call for a plurality of art worlds. Exploring anecdotes ranging from the personal to socioeconomic, Johnson critically evaluates how contemporary art worlds are constructed through words, privilege, and organizing tactics. This essay was commissioned by the 2019 Common Field national convening in Philadelphia for their writing series “Field Perspectives.”
2017 - charles sheeler
Philadelphia native Charles Sheeler (1883-1965) is recognized as one of the founding figures of American modernism. This groundbreaking publication explores his little known, and even lesser studied, work from 1926 to 1931 as a fashion and portrait photographer for Condé Nast, contending that this commercial work exposed him to modernist design that changed the course of his future. Johnson’s essay explores contemporary echoes of Sheeler’s work, homages to his legacy, and contemporary editorial photography by visual artists. Published by University of Pennsylvania Press and the Michener Art Museum.
2017 - Mural arts
Unsung was a 4-channel video / 12-channel audio installation ncluding transducers, found steel, and fog machines by artists Nadia Botello, Nadia Hironaka, and Matthew Suib exploring thesuppressed voices of women in Philadelphia’s Callowhill neighborhood, commissioned by Mural Arts. A limited edition publication to commemorate the project was published by Mural Arts with installation shots, archival research materials used by the artists, and an essay.