Associate Professor and Area Coordinator of Printmaking, Department of Art and Art History, Colorado State University

Johnny Plastini received his BA in visual art with a painting emphasis from the University of California, Santa Cruz and received his MFA in printmaking from the Tyler School of Art, Temple University. In addition to teaching, he has also worked professionally in the museum world at the Museum of Art and History in Santa Cruz, California and at the Barnes Foundation in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Johnny currently is an associate professor and area coordinator of printmaking at Colorado State University where his advisement ranges from introductory undergraduate courses to graduate level theses. Johnny’s current research focuses on issues of interaction, intra-action, transaction, and transmission through the lens of contemporary art and art history. His pluralistic approaches to exploring both dichotomies and kinships of erudition and neo-mysticism specifically with regard to hypermodernism, dromology, vital materialism, and agential realism have been exhibited extensively at museums, multidisciplinary conferences, art fairs, and galleries, nationally and internationally. He has been featured in numerous fine art publications including CRED, Studio Visit, and New American Paintings. Johnny’s work is held in the permanent public collections of Zayed University, United Arab Emirates, and in the Zuckerman Museum of Art at Kennesaw State University. His work is also held in various private collections across the United States.

Resident Fellowship Year: 2020-2021

Research Focus: This project will employ visual communication strategies that poetically and effectively convey the reality of our current climate crisis through artistic activity and creative research. Johnny Plastini will photo-document biological indicators of pollution and climate change across the Western United States, including Ramalina Menziesii, a lace lichen along the Northern California Coast, and Caloplaca Candelariella, a common crustose lichen along the Colorado Front Range and Alpine Tundra Ecosystems. Plastini’s documentary project will be printed on handmade recycled papers via photo-lithographic and post-digital technologies that focus on sustainable printmaking processes. The entire finished series of 100-200 prints will be exhibited during May 2021 in Fort Collins, Colorado. This fellowship aims to solidify a meaningful project within the local and regional community, then apply a similar research model with opportunity for growth at future residencies/fellowships in various international locations.