Jess Johnson (born 1979) is a New York-based New Zealand contemporary artist who works in drawing, installation, animation, and virtual reality.
[citation needed] In 2016 she relocated permanently to New York City after participating in the Australia Council's Greene Street residency in SoHo.
Her humanoids occupy a virtual reality comprised of patterns and ancient architectural forms that delineate the boundaries of these imagined spaces.
Their first collaborative work, the single-channel high-definition digital video Mnemonic Pulse, premiered at Gertrude Contemporary in Melbourne in March 2014.
[9] In May 2017, Johnson and Ward received a commission from the National Gallery of Australia (Canberra) for a major new virtual reality work as part of the Balnaves Contemporary Intervention Series.
[10] Johnson has identified a wide range of influences including the ideas of Terence McKenna;[11] Frank Herbert's Dune and the works of Alejandro Jodorowsky;[12] the dystopian novel Riddley Walker by Russell Hoban; early video games; and comics.