minted, tinted

Johansson Projects presents Minted, Tinted, a three-person exhibition featuring works from Nimah Gobir, Dana Robinson, and Sheena Rose. Opening during Black History Month and running through International Women’s Day, this compelling show unfolds unique narratives of healing and empowerment. Challenging stereo-types through vivid color, pattern, and anecdote, the work in Minted, Tinted uplifts the distinctive expressive styles of these artists while delving into how Black women lead fulfilling lives that extend beyond narratives solely centered on trauma or pain.

Dana Robinson‘s work is a testament to the healing power of abstraction. Her “Ebony Reprinted” series is created from images in Ebony magazine, which has historically highlighted Black entertainment and frivolity. By intentionally smearing, pressing, and blotting reproductions of the magazine’s advertisements, Robinson skillfully erases exploitative visual language. The unpredictable results of her mono prints embrace both experimentation and imperfection, presenting morphed subjects that reclaim their agency, liberated from the extractive gaze.

Bay Area artist, Nimah Gobir, delves into the intricacies of her Black identity in a profound narrative woven from her family’s memories. Gobir’s paintings, enriched with expressive brushwork, hand-stitched embroidery, and household textiles, encapsulate the tenderness and power inherent in personal and familial histories. Her deliberate use of repetitive patterns mirrors the banality yet unique significance of homes, relationships, and memory.

Hailing from the Caribbean and inspired by Black women in sports, Sheena Rose‘s work is a celebration of confidence through her bold painting style. Going beyond stereotypes and competitors’ physical prowess, Rose captures exuberant expressions of belonging across athletic platforms and social strata. Characterized by flat, vivid palettes and patterns, Rose’s fearless figures tell heroic stories that command attention. Her empowering work not only explores recreation and athleticism but also emphasizes camaraderie and connectedness.

Running through March 30, with a reception on Saturday, March 2 from 1-3 PM. 

For all inquiries, please contact Johansson Projects at 510-444-9140 or info@johanssonprojects.com

Nimah Gobir (b. 1993 in Los Angeles, CA) is an artist and educator based in Oakland, California. She earned her B.F.A. in Studio Art and B.A. in Peace Studies from Chapman University before pursuing an M.Ed. at Harvard Graduate School of Education, specializing in Arts in Education. Through paintings and installations, her work explores the nuanced tapestry of Black identity. Drawing inspiration from familial and personal archives, she creates figurative works that capture the ways loved ones are reflected in one another and illustrate how their everyday habits shape their living spaces. Her artistic process extends beyond conventional mediums to embrace expressive brushwork, hand-stitched embroidery, and a fusion of household textiles. Her creative endeavors have been highlighted in Hyperallergic, 48Hills, and SF/Arts. In 2020, she completed a fellowship with Emerging Artist Professionals SF-Bay Area. Gobir has shown work at Root Division, Johansson Projects, SOMArts, and the Museum of the African Diaspora, where she was selected to be part of their Emerging  Artist Program. Additionally, Gobir was recently selected to be part of Recology’s 2024 artist in residence cohort. With upcoming projects poised to further amplify her artistic voice, she continues to weave together threads of memory, identity, and resilience in her work. She is in the permanent collection at The Crocker Museum. 

Dana Robinson (b. 1990, Brooklyn, NY) has exhibited at Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Texas State University, Fuller Rosen Gallery, 92nd Street Y, Spellerberg Projects, A.I.R. Gallery, Haul Gallery, and Regular Normal. Robinson was a contributing artist for the New York Times Magazine and The Baffler, and her work had been written about in Artsy, It’s Nice That, and Ain’t Bad Magazine. She was a fellow at A.I.R Gallery, a Vision Fund resident at ISCP and has shown work at Turley Gallery in Hudson, New York and The Bureau of General Services- Queer Division, in New York City. She has recently finished a public art work for ArtBridge in Bushwick, New York and a solo show and Kates-Ferri Projects in New York City. Robinson anticipates a group exhibition at Johansson Projects early 2024. 

Sheena Rose (b. 1985, Bridgetown, Barbados) has exhibited in the United States at The Hole (New York, NY); Museum of African Diaspora (San Francisco, CA); Weatherspoon Art Museum (Greensboro, NC); De Buck Gallery (Miami, FL); Connect Gallery (Chicago, IL), Johansson Projects (Oakland, CA), the Museum of African Diaspora (SF) and has upcoming group exhibitions at the Lowe Museum in Florida (2024) and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (2024-2025). Internationally she has exhibited at the Havana Biennial (Cuba); ICF, Royal Academy of Arts (London, England); Berlin Biennale (Berlin, Germany); the University of the West Indies (Barbados); Saatchi Gallery (London) curated by June Sarpong; and 1-54 (London), curated by Caryl Ivrisse Crochemar. Her work has been acquired by collectors Venus Williams, Seith Mann, and the Barbados National Art Gallery, she’s been featured in publications including The New York Times, Travel & Leisure Magazine, Vogue, Hospitality Design, White Wall, Wetranfer, Black Futures, Fox Television Empire Season 6, and on the cover of the novel “The Star Side of Bird Hill” written by Naomi Jackson. Public works include a two-story mural at the Inter-American Development Bank Headquarters (Washington DC) and a mural for the exhibition “The Other Side of Now” at the Perez Art Museum (Miami). She was also commissioned by the DSM Public Art Foundation to design seven bus shelters in the 6th Avenue Corridor (Iowa). Rose won the Greensboro School of Art Distinguished Alumni award and in 2014, she received the distinguished Fulbright Scholarship. She holds an MFA in Studio Art from the University of North Carolina at Greensboro and currently lives and works in her hometown of Bridgetown, Barbados.

Nimah Gobir’s work traces the complexity and nuance of Black identity through the rich tapestry of her family’s history. Artworks source her siblings’ and Nigerian-born parents’ memories while honoring their individual experiences and essential humanity. Drawing from personal and autobiographical histories to imbue paintings with images that are at once tender and powerful.  Using expressive brushwork, hand-stitched embroidery, and a fusion of household textiles, Gobir layers multiple textures into domestic portraits that uplift cultural memory. In each painting, she captures the ways family members and loved ones are reflected in one another, illustrating how their everyday habits shape and enliven their living spaces.

Using painting, collage, printmaking, and fabric Dana Robinson addresses the topics of youth, femme identity, ownership, and nostalgia through combining, reproducing and blurring vintage Black media. Robinson’s visual language uses primarily 70’s Ebony magazines as a source material. By selecting stylized advertisements or editorial images that highlight the idea of upward mobility and a growing Black middle class. This pop media leaves little room for deviation away from a cis hetero patriarchal middle class lifestyle. This is the life we are meant to aspire to but consistently fail to achieve to perfection due to not wanting or being out of reach. While being pushed and pulled towards this goal of a “perfect”, she addresses the ways we deviate from this norm and therefore find ourselves. Employing a language of humor and relaxation, the artist opens  space for laughter and irony, while maintaining an empathetic quality.

As these images are separated from their origins or recreated, their definitions change. The images pared down to almost unrecognizable dissolve into flashes of skin and color, making an atmosphere that gently circulates and never quite settles. In the banality of the content is the intensely personal that reveals without giving everything away. 

Sheena Rose is a visual artist who lives and works in Bridgetown, Barbados. Her multi-disciplinary practice includes painting, drawing, performance, new media, public art, and mixed media. This latest body of work is an exploration of Black women in sports, revealing more than physical prowess, but exuberant expressions of belonging across athletic platforms and therefore social strata. Rose also explores accessibility of wealth and personal power, referencing symbols of affluence and place. Her painting style is characterized by flat coloring, bold patterns from the seventies and eighties, and vivid, comic-book-like palettes and vignettes. Her proud figures take up literal and figurative space, donning clothes, hair and confidence that commands attention. Situated in a myriad of contexts – the tropics, with horses, beautiful interiors, engaged in professional sports – they are symbolic celebrations of the artist’s imagination and self-actualization. Rose is curious about a generous world, where she can move freely and be present as her whole self in any space. Using only paints that are locally accessible to her in Barbados, she unlocks a certain freedom while querying real life strategies on how to get there.