Education
2023 MA Curatorial Practice, University of Bergen, Bergen, Norway
2016 MFA in Studio Art, San Francisco Art Institute, San Francisco, CA
2011 BA in Comparative Ethnic Studies and Studio Art, Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY
Solo and Two-Person Exhibitions
2022 “Holding Space,” METHOD Gallery, Seattle, WA
2019 “Overspaced,” Open Signal, Portland, OR
2018 “Encounters,” Indivisible, Portland, OR
2017 “Territories of (E/e)nlightenment,” c3:initiative, Portland, OR
2016 “Sound Beings,” Residence/SF, San Francisco, CA
2015 “Body Spaces,” Paul Sack Still Lights Gallery, San Francisco, CA
Selected Group Exhibitions
2024 “Alterations,” Photographic Center NW, Seattle, WA
2023 “Black Artists of Oregon,” Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
“Failed,” Das Schaufenster & The Vestibule, Seattle, WA
“Imposter Switch,” Performance Works NW, Portland, OR
“Conduits,” Stone Quarry Hill Art Park, Cazenovia, NY
2022 “Overspaced & Conduits,” Stone Quarry Hill Art Park, Cazenovia, NY
“Be Our Guest,” Gallery 114, Portland, OR
2021 “Time Being,” Oregon Contemporary, Portland, OR
“Prototypes,” Converge 45, Portland, OR
“Entanglement at Night,” Paragon Arts, Portland, OR
2020 “rise x fall: at the end of empire” showing for TBA, PICA, Portland, OR
“been here,” Mobile Projection Unit and ariella tai (drive-in screening), Portland, OR
“Being/Conjured,” Wa Na Wari, Seattle, WA
2019 “Many Worlds,” Mobile Projection Unit Showcase, Portland, OR
“In Residence,” Northwind Arts Center, Port Townsend, WA
“the map is not the territory,” performance of In/Body in collaboration with Fernanda D’Agostino’s Borderlines, Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
“Alembic Artists Showcase,” Performance Works NW, Portland, OR
2018 “Iteration Two: Earth,” The Tiny Theater PDX, Portland, OR
“Charcoal,” 101 South Jackson Street, Seattle, WA
“Intersections and Missed Connections,” Open Signal, Portland, OR
“Spaceness,” Sou’Wester Lodge, Seaview, WA
“Night Lights,” Portland, OR
“Radiate,” Portland Winter Light Festival at Open Signal, Portland, OR
“Untitled Art Fair,” in collaboration with Collective Action Studio, Palace of Fine Arts, San Francisco, CA
“Peace Movements Culmination,” in collaboration with Collective Action Studio, 41 Ross, San Francisco, CA
2017 “Interchange,” Indivisible, Portland, OR
“Obscuring the Ambient, Concealing the Encompassing,” Holt Gallery & the Commons, Pacific Northwest College or Art, Portland, OR
“Open Call Guerrilla Outdoor Performance Festival,” South Park Block, Portland, OR
“Etat de Siege,” Disjecta, Portland, OR
2016 “SFAI Graduate Exhibition,” Fort Mason Center for Arts and Culture, San Francisco, CA
“The Artist’s Body,” Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, CA
“SPIRIT Zine Release Party,” Qulture Collective, Oakland, CA
“Whose Story? Whose Glory?,” Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2015 “IN/TENSION,” Diego Rivera Gallery, San Francisco, CA
2014 “Spicy Hazard,” Artists’ Television Access, San Francisco, CA
2013 “Fresh Art Exhibition,” Marin Society of Artists, Greenbrae, CA
2011 “Vassar Senior Art Exhibition,” Poughkeepsie, NY
“Masters on Main Street,” Greene County Council on the Arts, Catskill, NY
Awards, Grants & Fellowships
2020 Fellowship Award, Artist Trust
2018 New Media Fellowship, Open Signal
2016-2017 AICAD Post Graduate Teaching Fellowship, Pacific Northwest College of Art
2016 Outstanding Graduate Student Award, San Francisco Art Institute
2014-2016 San Francisco Art Institute MFA Fellowship
2013 Second Place Award for the photo “Books” in the Fresh Art Exhibit
Behrouz Mirdadian Scholarship in the Arts, College of Marin
2011 Lewis Rubenstein Prize in Painting, Vassar College
2010 Moore Undergraduate Research Apprentice Program Fellowship, University of North Carolina
Residencies
2023 PLAYA Residency with A Black Art Ecology of Portland, Summer Lake, OR
2022 PLAYA Residency with A Black Art Ecology of Portland, Summer Lake, OR
2020 Black Abbey, Nat Turner Project, Alberta Abbey and BAEP, Portland, OR
2018-2019 Alembic Resident Artist Program, Performance Works NW, Portland, OR
2018 The Emerging Artist Residency, Centrum, Port Townsend, WA
2017-2018 Future Forum, Open Signal, Portland, OR
Curatorial Projects & Juried Shows
2024 “Imprint: Objects in Performance,” Gallery 114, Portland, OR
2023 “Out of Sight” at Bumbershoot (curatorial team), Seattle, WA
“Conductions: Black Imaginings,” Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR
2022 “Throwntogetherness” (co-curator), Mobile Projection Unit & Lino Kino, Portland, OR & Philadelphia, PA
2021 “Small Expressions” (juried group show), Northwind Art, Port Townsend, WA
Publication & Interviews
2023 “Conductions: Black Imaginings” publication- Contributor and Editor, published with nůn studios, Portland, OR
“Jaleesa Johnston Artist Interview: In-Between All that Matter(s)” by Katharina Brinschwitz, REDEFINE Magazine (redefinemag.net)REDEFINE Magazine (redefinemag.net)
2022 “More Tempo than Timeline” by Jordan Amirkhami, PhD, Time Being exhibition catalogue
2021 “Episode 178: Jaleesa Johnston” interview on Talking with Ghosts Podcast
2020 “Black Abbey Series w/ Jaleesa Johnston” by Nat Turner Project on Who All Gon Be There?
“Everything is Art or Nothing is Art: manuel arturo Abreu and Jaleesa Johnston” On A.I.R.-Conversations with Artists in Residence, Centrum
2018 “Rise and Fall with Jaleesa Johnston” interview by Joni Witworth on Future Prairie Radio
“Fragmentation in Motion: An Interview with Jaleesa Johnston” by Hannah Krafcik, Oregon Artswatch (orartswatch.org)
“Living with Whiteness…” by Melanie Stevens, Nat Turner Project: Testimony book publication
“Interview” with Felicity Fenton on Freeform Portland Radio
2017 “Living with Whiteness: On Jaleesa Johnston’s Territories of (E/e)nlightenment” by Melanie Stevens, Nat Turner Project (natturnerproject.tumblr.com)