CV


Exhibitions
2026 Forthcoming: Weft, Bury Barn, Nr Hitchin, Hertfordshire, May 2026

ArtPara Exhibition, Milano-Cortina, Italy , March 2026

Beyond the Visual Exhibition, Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, UK - 28 November 2025 - 19 April 2026

2025SenseScapes, Shoreditch, London, September 2025

2023 RCA Research Biennale 2023, Copeland Gallery, London, June 2023
Earthwise, Beaconsfield, London, June 2023

2022Layers of Vision, Kings College London, 21 November – December 2022

Liberty Festival, Lewisham, London Borough of Culture, July 2022

Unruly Encounters, Southwark Park Galleries, March 2022

2021 91DIVOC,  Gallery@oxo, London, November 2021

2020 2084, Dyson Gallery, Royal College of Art, London, January 2020

2019There’s something lurking in the shadows that might be interesting, RCA School of Arts & Humanities MPhil/PhD Research Exhibition, March 2019

2017 Second Sight film showing and pop-up exhibition, Tate Modern, London, January 2017

2016Creations off the beaten path, MIT Boston, Concordia University Montreal , Autumn 2016

Sculptures from the inner space, Concordia University, Montreal, March 2016

2015 Blind Creations, Royal Holloway College, London

2011 Scents and Sensibility, Vaad Gallery, London, 11 – 12 April 2011
Conferences
2026    Disabled Legacies: Beyond Access and Inclusion, Paul Mellon Centre, London, March 2026

Beyond the Visual: Blindness and Expanded Sculpture – Various dates 2022 – 2026

2022(Critical) Blindness Studies : Current Debates and Future Directions, online conference, July 2022

2016Engaging the Senses: IVLA 2016 – October 2016

TransCultural Exchange’s 2016 International Conference on Opportunities in the Arts: Expanding Worlds, Boston University, March 2016

2015Blind Creations, Royal Holloway, London, June 2015
Awards
2025 Adam Reynolds Award, Shape Arts
  2019London Arts and Humanities Partnership (study award) 
Workshops
Part of the The Disorderly Eye with Richard Butchins and Channel 4, 2020

Life drawing workshop for blind and partially sighted visitors, Royal Academy of Arts, London, 2018, 2019 and 2020

Summer Exhibition Edit, Royal Academy of Arts, 2019

Inclusion in ‘Hands with Phillipa Perry’ Art of Now, Radio 4, 2019

Presentation and creation of training events for both gallery staff and VIP visitors to galleries and museums at Royal Academy, London and Tate Gallery, London

Blindness Consultancy work for many cultural institutions including Royal Academy of Art, Tate Gallery, Whitechapel Gallery, Outside In, VocalEyes, and Jennifer Lauren Gallery

Publications

Johnson, David. ‘Blind Aesthetics: Complexity, Contingency and Conflict’. In Beyond theVisual - Multisensory Modes of Beholding Art, edited by Ken Wilder and Aaron McPeake. UCL Press, 2025.

Johnson, David. ‘The Shades of Dark Matters: Dappled Insights into the Aesthetics of Blindness’. Prova 5, 2020.

Johnson, David. ‘Unlikely Mike and the Counter Factuals’. Prova 5, 2020. 

Johnson, David, and Chang Gao. ‘How Do Affect and Phenomenology Reshape Representation and Art?’ In Representation - Research Communiques: RCA School of Arts and Humanities, edited by Josephine Berry. Royal College of Art, 2022.

Johnson, David, and Florian Grond. ‘Remote Feelings: On Blind-Sighted Collaborations and Long-Distance Art Making’. Disability Studies Quarterly 38, no. 3 (2018). 

Commissions
2025


 Nugget of Embodiment, Beyond the Visual, Henry Moore Institute, Commissioned by Shape Arts

Inhibition: Beyond the Shadow of a Doubt, Beyond the Visual, Henry Moore Institute, Commissioned by Shape Arts
2022I As Object Un-Seen, Layers of Vision, Kings College London

Sanctuary Cafe, Liberty Festival, Lewisham, London Borough of Culture

2016Citrus Corners, IVLA, Montreal
2015Too Big To Feel, Royal Holloway, University of London2011Time is the Essence, Sense and Sensation 
Education 
2025 PhD - Blind Aesthetics:  Art as the currency of radical vision, Royal Academy of Art