Willard Johnson Gallery Exhibition

2 MIN. READ 

Anderson University will feature Willard Johnson  ’10 in the Wilson Gallery from February 7 to March 7 in collaboration with PACT. Exhibition Opening Details: Friday, Feb. 7, 5-7 p.m. with an artist talk at 6 p.m.

Artist & Artwork Details:

Willard Johnson was born in Seoul, South Korea in 1987 and is an Indianapolis-based artist. A graduate of Anderson University and Cranbrook Academy of Art ’15, Johnson’s work has been exhibited nationally, including at the Indianapolis International Airport and the Indianapolis Museum of Art at Newfields.

He lives in Indianapolis with his wife, Mandy (Coplin) Johnson ’10, and their two children. He currently serves as the art director and middle school art educator at The Oaks Academy and maintains his studio in downtown Indianapolis at the Harrison Center.

“I am honored to return to Anderson University and exhibit at the Wilson Gallery. This space holds so many fond memories of community, learning, and exploration. I am deeply grateful to the university and the faculty who generously dedicated themselves to the education of all the art and design students from the days of Ruthven Byrum to the present. The legacy of this place lives on in the countless students who have gone on to pursue artistic and creative endeavors outside these walls,” says Johnson.

“Nomads of Memory:”

In “Nomads of Memory,” Willard Johnson examines the interplay between movement, memory, and identity, drawing on his upbringing as the child of missionaries and his evolving roles as a parent, spouse, and educator. The exhibition features large-scale, unstretched canvases layered with collaged satellite imagery, family photographs, Google Street View glitches, children’s drawings, and his paintings. These works evoke fragmented landscapes shaped by migration, adaptation, and an ongoing search for belonging.

Johnson’s process—equal parts excavation and creation—reflects on the fragments of place and experience we carry with us, intertwining personal history with global narratives. By incorporating materials like studio detritus, childhood art, and imagery of survival and journey, he grapples with questions about our interconnected world: how the past informs the present, how family and history converge, and how artmaking itself navigates these dreamlike complexities. “Nomads of Memory” invites viewers to reflect on their own journeys and the traces we leave behind in an ever-changing, interconnected world.

Learn more and directions about Anderson’s galleries and exhibits.

Connect with Willard Johnson via his website or on Instagram.

Painting pictured above: I Remember (The Horizon)
Oil, acrylic, collage on canvas
58 x 52 in.

Anderson University educates students for lives of faith and service, offering more than 50 undergraduate majors, 30 three-year degrees, 20 NCAA Division III intercollegiate sports, alongside adult and graduate programs. The private, liberal arts institution is fully accredited and recognized for excellence in business, computer science, cybersecurity, engineering, music, nursing, psychology, and teacher education programs. Established in 1917 in Anderson, Indiana, by the Church of God, the university remains committed to its Christ-centered mission.