Latest Shape collaboration: David Johnson was announced as the 2025  Adam Reynolds Award recipient, through which he will work on major new commissions, including work for Beyond the Visual at Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, opening in November 2025, and a podcast series about art, blindness and the fugitive imagination.

Artist statement: 

David Johnson (b. 1956) is a UK-based, blind artist. He says he is “unashamedly a blind artist rather than an artist who is blind”. In his art practice he uses a wide range of materials and processes including concrete, plaster, found objects and sonics. He produces a wide range of cast objects, 3D print objects, assemblages and installations, all of which provoke, challenge and upset beholder expectations. His art mission is not to overcome the barriers that blindness undoubtedly puts in the way in our visually biased world, but rather to show that blindness has a positive side that art practice is uniquely placed to demonstrate. Beauty remains a key driver in a blind person’s life.

Check out David Johnson's website                    See all the artists we work with

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Banner image: David Johnson’s I As Object Unseen (2022) exhibited as part of Layers of Vision, Kings College London, 2022, a Shape Arts-supported exhibition. Description: This image shows two perspectives of a 3D sculpture surrounded by a steel frame. The sculpture has three separate sculptures. The rightmost image shows a sculpture of David using his cane as he passes a chair with a red hat positioned on its corner. The leftmost image shows a sculpture of David sitting on a chair with the red hat on his head. The final sculptural scene (not pictured) shows a mirroring of the first sculpture of David using his cane and now passed the chair with the red hat positioned on its corner. In the background of the image are students and persons congregating in the social gallery area.