Johan Hagaman

Johan Hagaman earned both a bachelor’s and a master’s degree in English from Indiana university.  After teaching english in the u.s. and in the peace corps in Sierra Leone, West Africa, Johan turned her love for stories and poetry into physical objects. She has work included in many public and private collections and museums such as the Tennessee State Museum and Evansville (Indiana) Museum of Arts and Sciences. Johan's sculptures are psychological in nature, exploring the stories and myths we create for ourselves to give us meaning.  The work often depicts a figure embedded or entwined in some form of nature juxtaposed with rusted manmade objects, implying a larger story of the relationship between the interior landscape of the psyche and the exterior landscape of nature.

STATEMENT

It has been said that the act of observation is linked to the “reality” observed—that we can create our own reality.  This has been an ongoing inquiry in my work: how we see-- how we see what we want to see-- and how this determines how we shape ourselves, and allow for what seeks to emerge.  I am a collector of often unrelated and ambiguous images, poems, news articles, and ideas –not looking for anything in particular, but noticing patterns that seem to be informing me about my “reality”; and I try to process this by making something formal.  Being covered in vines or leaves or birds—a metaphor that has become a dominate theme in my work for some time—is both about paying close attention to what is around us; and also about stepping back for perspective on how our level of focus determines how we shape our world, and are shaped by and tied to it in a circle of reciprocity.

RESUME

Education

1980, M.S., English/Education, Indiana University, Bloomington, IN
1972, B.A., Indiana University, Bloomington, IN

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2017 Solo Exhibition, Bennett Galleries, Knoxville, TN

2016 Flying Solo; Nashville International Airport; Nashville, TN
2016 Shaping My Intangibles; Hidell Brooks Gallery; Charlotte, NC
2014 A Vine Grows Around It; Hidell Brooks Gallery; Charlotte, NC
2012 Air in Autumn, Cumberland Gallery, Nashville, TN
2012 What Memory Believes, Hidell Brooks Gallery, Charlotte, NC
2009 Sarratt Gallery, Vanderbilt University Nashville, TN
2007 Pollination, Cumberland Gallery, Nashville, TN
2007 Teaspoons and Tornadoes, Cumberland Gallery, Nashville, TN
2005 Tennessee Arts Commission (Fellowship Exhibition)
2004 Dwelling Thinking, Cumberland Gallery, Nashville, TN
2002 Dwelling, Zeitgeist Gallery, Nashville, TN
2000 Johan Hagaman: Illuminated Interiors, Tennessee Tech. U, Cookeville, TN
2000 Love, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA
2000 Johan Hagaman, Volunteer State Community College, Gallatin, TN

Selected Group Exhibitions

2017 New Arrivals, Cumberland Gallery, Nashville, TN

2016 Apalachicola School of Art, Apalachicola, FL

2016 Unexpected Surfaces, Cumberland Gallery, Nashville, TN

2016 Made in the South; Hidell Brooks Gallery; Charlotte, NC
2015 Microcosmos; Gallery 621; Benecia, CA
2015 Go Figure; Hidell Brooks Gallery; Charlotte, NC
2013 Twisted Women, Sue Greenwood Fine Arts, Laguna Beach, CA
2013 On and Off the Wall, Cumberland Gallery, Nashville, TN
2012 Group Exhibition, Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA
2011 Lost?Found, Lanoue Fine Art, Boston, MA
2011 Introduction 5, Hidell Brooks Gallery, Charlotte, NC
2009 More Art, Less Filler, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN
2007 "Visions", Eleanor D. Wilson Museum, Hollins University, Roanoke, VA.
2007 Visions - Contemporary Female Artists, Lanoue Fine Art, Boston, MA
2004 N. American Sculpture Exhibition, Foothills Art Center (James Surls, Juror) Golden, CO
2004 Renewal of Spirit, the Art Association, Jackson Hole, WY
2003 Small Packages, Cumberland Gallery, Nashville, TN
2002 Figure It Out, Blue Spiral 1 Gallery, Asheville, NC
2002 N. American Sculpture Exhibition, Foothills Art Center, (Donald Lipsky, Juror) Golden, CO
2001 National 1, ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL, Honorable Mention
2001 The Word in Art, Swan Coach House Gallery, Atlanta Georgia
2000 22nd Annual Juried Competition, Masure Mus. of Art, (James Surls, Juror), Monroe, LA
2000 Elephants, Juried Competition, Merit Award, Zeitgeist Gallery, Nashville, TN
2000 Boundless Expressions: Renewal of Spirit, U of South Florida Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, FL (Richard Gruber, Juror)
2000 Celebrating Tennessee Women Artists, Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, TN. Selected as one of twenty outstanding women artists of Tennessee, Juried by Beth Wilson, Director of The National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington, DC
1997 Sculpture Garden, Chattanooga, TN
1997 48th Mid-States Art Competition, Evansville Museum of Arts and Sciences, Two Museum Purchase Awards (Nancy Hoffman, Juror) Evansville, IN
1995 Artstravaganza, 1995, Hunter Museum of Art, Juried Art Exhibiti, Chattanooga, TN
1995 Bell South Exhibition of Collection, (four pieces purchased for the corporate collection), Bell South, Nashville, TN
1995 Tennessee Crafts Showcase, Tennessee State Museum, Nashville, TN
1995 The Self-Portrait: From Carrots to Canines, Cheekwood Museum of Art, (curated by Marilyn Murphy), Nashville, TN
1995 Animate/ Inanimate, Tennessee Arts Commission Gallery, Nashville, TN
1995 33rd Annual Mid-States Craft Exhibition, Evansville Museum of Art and Science, Evansville, IN
1995 From the Mountains to the Mississippi, Cheekwood Museum of Art, TN
1995 Exhibit sponsored by the National Museum for Women in the Arts.
1995 Water Tower Annual, Water Tower Museum, Louisville, KY
1992 New Works Series, Capitol Arts Center, Bowling Green, KY
1991 44th Annual Mid-States Art Exhibition, Evansville Museum of Arts and Science, Evansville, IN (Bud Harris, Juror)
1991 Mid-Cumberland Art Exhibition, Hendersonville Arts Council (Special Mention), Hendersonville, TN

Art Expos

2013-2014 FADA Los Angeles Art Fair, Represented by Cumberland Gallery
2010-2012 FADA Los Angeles Art Fair, represented by Cumberland Gallery
2010 Art Chicago, represented by Cumberland Gallery, Chicago, IL
2009 FADA Los Angeles Art Show, represented by Cumberland Gallery
2008 FADA Los Angeles Art Show, represented by Cumberland Gallery
2007 Affordable Art Fair, NY, NY
2006 Art Chicago, Chicago, IL
2005 San Francisco International Art Expo, San Francisco, CA
2005 Affordable Art Fair, NY, NY

Awards

2008 Third Place Award in Sculptural Pursuits's 5th Annual Art/Literary Competition
2005 2005 Tennessee Individual Artist Fellowship
2001 ARC Gallery, Chicago, IL
2000 Zeitgeist Gallery, 2000 Elephants, Nashville, TN
1996 Two Purchase awards, Evansville Museum of Arts and Sciences, Evansville, IN
1991 Mid-Cumberland Art Exhibit, Hendersonville, TN

Museums and Public Collections

Gaylord Opryland Hotel
Tennessee State Museum
Jackson Hole Art Association, Jackson Hole, WY
Evansville Museum of Arts and Sciences, Evansville, Indiana
Loeb & Loeb, Entertainment Attorneys, Nashville, TN
Bridgestone/Firestone, Inc.
Bell South, Nashville, TN
Transfinancial Banks
Genesco Corporate Collection

Bibliography

Tennessean, "Cumberland Gallery Shares Johan Hagaman's Organic Sculptures," Sept. 2012, MiChelle Jones
Tennessean, "Metaphors Take Shape," May, 2009, MiChelle Jones
Creative Wisdom, February, 2009
Cloth Paper Scissors, Artist Interview, July, 2008, Leslie Riley
Creative Concrete Ornaments for the Garden, by Sherri Warner Hunter
Garden Design, August 2002
Cancer Control Journal of the Moffitt Cancer Center, Tampa, FL
Creating with Concrete, By Sherri Warner Hunter
Celebrating Tennessee Women Artists, Tennessee State Museum, pub. YWCA
Nashville Scene, "A Sense of Place," July, 2005, David Maddox
Jackson Hole News, "Artists Believe in Positivity," June, 2004, Johanna Love
Planet Jackson Hole, "Art Renews," June, 2004, Tammy Christel
Splash (Jackson, WY), 2004, Matthew Flint
Creative Loafing ( Atlanta, GA), 2001,
Nashville Scene, June, 2000, Donna Dorian Wall
Nashville Scene, "Arts and Crafts", September, 1993, Susan Knowles