Environmental and landscape art
Site-specific and integrated art
2-D art, including murals, mosaic, photography, etc.
Pittsburgh Creative Corps Artist Directory
Erika Johnson
Erika Johnson Studio / Mudlark Mosaicist
Primary Discipline
Artistic Practice
Assemblage, including found objects, multimedia
Site-specificity determines materials used
The Ruins Project Tours, ongoing.
Ephemeral Art Excursions, ongoing, land art and mosaic.
Darr Mine Mosaics, 2024. Part of an international collaboration involving more than 50 artists along the Great Allegheny Passage bike trail.
Mudlark, ongoing, found artifacts.
Nest, 2025, sticks, 60″ x 50.”
About the Artist
Erika Johnson is a multidisciplinary artist whose work is rooted in storytelling, memory, ecology, and material culture. Traditional and contemporary mosaic techniques provide both method and focus for her current practice. Using reclaimed materials, industrial waste, historic artifacts, and foraged natural materials she creates individual and collaborative work that explores the ways that stories intertwine with place and time. Erika is currently the director of tours and programs at The Ruins Project, a contemporary mosaic art museum on the remains of the Banning #2 coal mine in Fayette County. She is the former executive director of Pittsburgh Center for Creative Reuse, and has led creative workshops, industrial history tours and environmental education for many arts, culture, and environmental organizations.
Photo courtesy of the artist
Web
Accreditations, Certifications, and/or Awards
- Alliance for Creative Rural Economies (ACRE) from Bridgeway Capital, 2025-2026 cohort
- Artist in Residence, Floodplain Studios, 2025
- Director of Tours and Programs, The Ruins Project, Whitsett, PA, 2021-present
- Completed OPA / Springboard for the Arts Winter Intensive: Artists Working in Community, 2023
- Pittsburgh History Tour Guide and Environmental Educator, Rivers of Steel, 2018
Provides Fabrication Services to Other Artists
Yes
Teaching Artist
Yes, all ages
Joined the Directory
May 2026
Related
PROJECT
Pittsburgh Creative Corps
Designed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pittsburgh Creative Corps initiative engages artists and creative workers to activate the public realm while providing economic opportunity.
“I believe artists have an important role to play in shaping our world, and that inclusive creative practice can build stronger, more just communities.”
Erika Johnson
Contact the Artist
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Related
PROJECT
Pittsburgh Creative Corps
Designed in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Pittsburgh Creative Corps initiative engages artists and creative workers to activate the public realm while providing economic opportunity.
