Spitzer Stars
Patricia Johanson
Bachelor of Architecture (1977)
Biography :
Patricia Johanson (1940-2024) was a pioneering environmental artist and a leader in the land art movement. Her multidisciplinary designs combined art, ecology, landscape, and infrastructure into multifunctional public landscapes.
She began her career as a painter and sculptor, working for Joseph Cornell and Georgia O’Keeffe and designing 150 gardens for House & Garden magazine. Studying architecture allowed her to pursue her interest in urban architectural and environmental systems with large-scale works of land art. Johanson’s work merged art and engineering, creating artwork in public spaces such as highway underpasses and sewage treatment plants.
“Bucky Fuller said to me when I was young to never think about beauty when it comes to solving problems. But when the solution comes, if it’s not beautiful it’s wrong” (Times Union interview, 2021).
Career Highlights :
- Fair Park Lagoon, Dallas, Texas
- Endangered Garden, San Francisco, California
- Petaluma Wetlands Park and Ellis Creek Water Recyling Facility, Petaluma, California
- The Draw at Sugar House, Salt Lake City, Utah
- Mary’s Garden, Marywood University, Scranton, Pennsylvania