Heather Lynn Johnson (she, they) is an artist and poet living in Brooklyn whose work is characterized by its lyricism and cultural critique. Centering queer and Black American liberation, with an emphasis on outsiders, rebels, and lost histories, into an autobiographical framework, Heather’s formal approach to the narrative, whether visual or poetic, is distinguished by her willingness to lay bare her own existence. Their paintings have recently been in a two-person exhibition at the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art, NY (2026), and in exhibitions for Pace Gallery’s project space 125 Newbury Gallery, NY (2025), Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY (2024), Canada Gallery, NY (2023) and at her solo exhibition, “The Essence We Leave Behind” at Nesto Gallery, MA, (2022). Heather has exhibited internationally for the Queer Arts Festival in Antwerp, Belgium, (2020) and published poems in the Panorama Journal of the Association of Historians of American Art, Pique Magazine, Pine Magazine, and Facility Magazine. They have been invited to read poems for Experiments & Disorders at Dixon Place, Ford Foundation, Segue Reading Series at Artists Space, Knockdown Center, and the Brooklyn Arts Book Fair. Heather was a co-curator for Queer|Art|Film from 2020-23, the 2019 Leslie-Lohman Museum Fellow, and the 2017 Literary Fellow for Queer|Art|Mentorship. She is also the author of The Survival Guide For Queer Black Youth (Inpatient Press, 2017) and received an MFA with honors from the Rhode Island School of Design.