Hillary Irene Johnson
- Office
- 204 Riley Hall Of Art And Design
Notre Dame, IN 46556 - hjohns26@nd.edu
Teaching Scholar, Studio Art (Photography)
Area: Studio Art
Education
B.A., Purchase College
MFA, Columbia College Chicago
Research Interests
Multidisciplinary art practices including photography, handmade paper, and immersive installation; Contemplative and trauma-aware methodologies in artmaking; Ecological aesthetics, grief, and belonging in the Anthropocene; Ancestral and embodied practices as responses to industrial and digital rupture; Feminist visual culture and the recovery of marginalized histories in art
Biography
Hillary Johnson was born and raised along the Atlantic coast in Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New York City. Of Irish, English, French, and Eastern European Jewish descent, she is a lifelong mystic and multidisciplinary artist whose work spans photography, video, handmade paper and books, and immersive installation. Rooted in contemplative walking, trauma-aware practice, and ecological and spiritual inquiry, her work thrives at the intersection of art and science. She explores the tension between grief and beauty, presence and loss, while drawing on ancestral practices, hand-making, and embodied learning to help mend the rifts wrought by industrialization and the digital age. Johnson is also devoted to uncovering hidden histories of art by women and feminist interventions in visual culture. Her work invites slowness, entanglement, and a felt sense of belonging. She is the creator of The Waters We Swim In and was Visiting Artist at Columbia College Chicago in spring 2025. Her work has been featured internationally, including by NPR, NBC News, and the Quanzhou International Image Biennale.
