MLJ Johnson

A native of Washington, D.C., born in 1947, MLJ grew up on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. He is an artist, exhibition coordinator, educator, and art consultant. He states, “Art, being a universal language, is used as a form of visual communication, morphing words into images—pictograms of life’s phenomena. With a very direct, minimal design, my art demands the viewer’s response, which is more personal than simply looking at a painting.”

Travel to Madrid, Spain, inspired his brand “Yo People”, animated images marked by emphatic emotional communication. Yo People sets a mood that appeals to the sense of humor while moving beyond caricature or cartoon. What first appears funny or comical often gives rise to satire; what may seem ordinary or commonplace reveals itself as ironic. The wit of puns and the drama of human behavioral confrontations are enacted through everyday situations, set into compositions starring “Yo People”: expressive, animated forms with exaggerated gestures, posture, language, and meaning.

MLJ is listed in Who’s Who of American Artists and Who’s Who of African Americans as both an artist and educator. He has exhibited extensively throughout the United States, as well as in London, Spain, Puerto Rico, South Africa, and across the African diaspora.

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