Biography | Studio Practice and Background

Jeanne Burris Johnson develops her work deliberately, with close attention to structure, material behavior, and visual balance. Her paintings, mixed media pieces, and kiln-fired glass focus on exacting execution and strong compositional decisions. The images remain compelling because they are fully worked through, not merely refined.

She grew up in Michigan just outside Flint, an environment that shaped her awareness of contrast, durability, and emotional understatement. Rather than following a traditional art school route, she built her practice through direct studio work in painting, design, and restoration, strengthening technical skill through applied making.

As an Army spouse, she relocated often and learned to establish functional studios in temporary and improvised settings. Restoring furniture and adapting available materials reinforced a practical, solution-oriented approach that still informs her methods today.

After returning to Michigan, she moved into professional art leadership roles, serving as Director of Programs and Operations for a nonprofit gallery and later co-founding New Century Art Gallery. Her work there included exhibition planning, artist mentorship programs, curatorial coordination, grant development, and early virtual exhibition models. These initiatives received national recognition, including a $30,000 grant award supporting expanded artist programming. She later stepped away from administrative leadership to concentrate fully on her studio practice.

Her work has been exhibited at Manifest Gallery, Detroit Artists Market, and other juried venues, and is held in private collections across the United States.

Johnson integrates traditional craftsmanship with modern viewing tools, including virtual exhibitions and augmented preview technology, to make careful, materially driven work more accessible to serious viewers.