Quiet Observations
Duwenavue Santé Johnson
GALLERY III
Duwenavue Santé Johnson, Being home in my memories, 2024, paint, cardboard, fabric on wood panel, 16 x 20 inches.
August 9–September 7, 2025
Opening reception: Saturday, August 9 from 6–8pm
A.I.R. Gallery is pleased to announce Quiet Observations, an exhibition of recent work by A.I.R. National Member Duwenavue Santé Johnson. In Quiet Observations, Johnson uses hand embroidery, collage, and painting to consider issues of history, time, memory, balance, and stillness.
The works on view manifest as bold configurations of textured patterns and colors intricately collaged and painted in compositions reminiscent of landscapes. Industrially manufactured materials such as paper and cotton bandanas are altered with hand embroidery and paint to explore history, identity, and the enduring influence of social norms. Through her use of these materials, Johnson conjures voices across time, mapping both our personal and collective memories.
Created through a repetitive, meditative process—hand embroidered stitches, delicately collaged elements, and expressively painted gestures—Johnson’s works ruminate on the known and unknown, past and future. Embedded in the works’ materiality is the weight of memory and inheritance, acknowledging how the echoes of past experiences inform our present realities. Quiet Observations serves as a visual metaphor for the artist’s ongoing journey to find stillness amidst history’s persistent forward motion, as well as the sense of liberation that comes with understanding one's place within the constant flow.
Duwenavue Santé Johnson is an artist based in Philadelphia. She has studied hand embroidery at the Royal School of Needlework, Ecole Lesage, and Hang Sang Soo, and holds a BA in Communication from Southern New Hampshire University. Recent exhibitions include 201@105 Gallery and 616 Gallery in New York, NY, and Spring Box Gallery, Ubuntu, Tiger Strikes Asteroid, and Cherry St Pier in Philadelphia, PA. She is a recipient of the Bartol Foundation grant, the Black Music City grant, and the Mural Arts Black Artist Fellowship, and will participate in the U.S. semiquincentennial exhibition Radical Americana at The Philadelphia Historical Society and Clay Studio in partnership with the Winterthur Museum in 2026. Johnson is a member of the small prestigious team of artisans responsible for hand embroidering the U.S. Presidential and Vice-Presidential flags. www.artxstitch.com
View Duwenavue Santé Johnson’s page here.
View the Press Release here.