Marie E. Johnson-Calloway

Marie Edwards Johnson-Calloway (April 10, 1920 – February 11, 2018) was an American artist. She was born in Pimlico, Baltimore, Maryland to father, Sidney Edwards, a minister, and mother, Marie Edwards, a seamstress and an artist. She worked in the fields of painting and mixed-media assemblage.

Education

Born Marie Edwards in Pimlico, Baltimore, the African-American Johnson-Calloway first attended Coppin State Teacher's College. In 1952, she received a Bachelor of Arts Degree at Morgan State College, Baltimore, Maryland, in art education. In 1968, she received a Master of Arts in painting from San Jose State University as a Graduate Studies Experienced Teacher Fellow. She also obtained a Graduate Studies Fellowship at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California. In 1976, she was approved for a Doctoral Equivalency at San Francisco State University. Throughout her educational journey, she taught at universities and colleges in the Bay Area until she retired from teaching in 1983.

Awards

Throughout Johnson-Calloway's career as an artist and professor, she obtained awards for her scholarship. In 1959, she won first place at the First Unitarian Church in San Jose, California. She won several first and second place awards from county fairs and community art festivals between 1955 and 1960. In 1961, she gained a non-purchase award at the Sacramento, California State Fair. In 1964, she won the Grand Prize at Hale's Art Fair, sponsored by the San Jose Art League. In 1964, she won the Purchase Award at the San Jose City College Annual. In 1965, Johnson-Calloway won the grand prize and first prize, for oil paintings, from the Town & Country Village of San Jose, California. In 1965 to 1966, she won the First Award, for her awarded solo show, at the San Jose Art League semi-annual. in 1968, she won the Purchase Award for Black Arts Today at San Jose State College in San Jose, California. In 1969, she won the Purchase Award from the San Francisco Art Commission. In 1971, she won First Award for mixed media at the San Jose Art League Regional Show.

Themes throughout works

Johnson-Calloway's works focused on the portraiture of Black individuals. Through assemblage and mixed media, plywood silhouettes with added paint and cloth created these portraits. By using simple construction and supplies, the visual impact of her work is straight-forward. These portraits of the everyday person or child are universal and accessible to all.

Johnson-Calloway has worked with the Bay Area Women Artists of Northern California on community-based projects. The Oakland Art Museum is among institutions which contain examples of her work. Johnson-Calloway has also taught at San Francisco State University and at the California College of Arts and Crafts. Twice-married (Arthur Johnson, M.D. and Charles Calloway. M.D.), she has two children (daughter, April Watkins, and son, Art Johnson),and four grandchildren, and lived in Oakland, California. She served as president of the San Jose chapter of the NAACP, and was long active in civil rights.

Johnson-Calloway died in February 2018 at the age of 97.

References

1920 births
2018 deaths
20th-century American artists
20th-century American women artists
21st-century American artists
21st-century American women artists
African-American women artists
Artists from Baltimore
Artists from Oakland, California
California College of the Arts faculty
Coppin State University alumni
Mixed-media artists
Morgan State University alumni
San Francisco State University faculty
San Jose City College
San Jose State University alumni
American women academics
20th-century African-American women
20th-century African-American artists
21st-century African-American women
21st-century African-American artists

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