Instructor Instructor
Johannes Barfield is an American sample-based multimedia artist who works in photography, video, painting, sculpture, and sound. In May 2018, he received an MFA from Virginia Commonwealth University in Photography and Film. He is also the recipient of several awards, fellowships, and residencies. Including the Mint Museum Atrium Health best in show award, the Toby Devan Lewis fellowship award, the Merriweather District AIR residency, the Fine Arts Work Center visual artist fellowship, the Lighthouse Works Fellowship, ACRE residency, MASS MoCA residency, and the VCU 10 Under 10 award that recognizes noteworthy and distinct achievements made by VCU alumni.
Johannes’s work revolves around his personal and collective experience. His work explores: childhood memories, joy, internet age lynchings by police who receive immunity, appropriation as a means for survival and cultural production, the repatriation of artifacts, objecthood, extinction, and the music played at Black family cookouts in the 1990s.