About Johnnie

   Johnnie Bess is a multimedia artist whom currently specializes in wheel thrown pottery.  After receiving his Bachelor’s of Fine Arts Degree with concentrations in painting and photography, from Howard University in 2009, Bess began to teach Visual Art in Washington D.C. public schools. After briefly working as studio assistant for figurative painter Iona Rozeal Brown in Washington DC, in 2011,  Bess settled in Miami Florida where he began to explore new mediums and began showing his own work in various cities throughout the eastern seaboard while also assisting renound graffiti artist Ernie Vales in his early Wynwood studio, EVL World.

    Though It was as a college student that Johnnie was first introduced to ceramics, it would admittedly be some years before he “matured” enough for the medium. In 2016, inspired by pre-Columbian pottery encountered during travels to Bogota and Guasca Columbia and joyful memories of insight gained via mentors such as Ceramicist Reginald Pointer at Howard, Bess reacquainted himself with clay and hasn’t looked back since. The artist uses his paintings and ceramic work to question and affirm our collective identities, our roots. As a military “brat“ whom moved around every few years as a kid, the artist has developed a keen sensitivity to an ever nagging question...  ”Where you from?”