Meet Gray and Johnson Art | Multidisciplinary Collaborative Artists

We had the good fortune of connecting with Gray and Johnson Art and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Gray and Johnson, what is the most important factor behind your success?

Proactively listening-As Collaborative Artists we must acknowledge our differences and use those to strengthen the foundation of our business. We bring different life experiences, approaches towards creativity, styles of work, skill sets and business knowledge to the table, all while knowing we must do our research and due diligence. It’s that unique blend that strengthens us as a team and gives us the ability to continue to learn and grow as artists and individuals.

 We came up with an acronym: “SMASHIEEQ”. (Pronounced-smash-ee-que) to remind us that success comes in all different forms, and never done alone…acknowledging all the help we’ve received and continue to receive along the way.

S: Sense of Humor- This is something we do every day, whether we are working within the same space or texting one another about random things; we make sure that laughter is a part of our collaborative process. It keeps our energy positive and our minds creative.

M: Making Mistakes- We believe it’s crucial to embrace any mistake, misstep, rejection or failure and see it as an opportunity for growth, self-reflection, ability to learn, adapt and move forward.

A: Attitude- We believe that having a positive attitude and surrounding ourselves with positive energy leads to personal growth and success.

S: Shaking Things Up- Stepping outside of our individual and collective comfort zone gives us the confidence to take risk without worry of failure. We don’t see failure as a negative, rather as an opportunity to reflect and learn from-failure opens different doors.

H: Humble- Staying humble in the path of success is crucial. It’s extremely important to recognize that our success didn’t happen overnight and acknowledge all the help we received and still receive.

I: Individual Creativity- As collaborative artists our star shines brighter when we can incorporate our individual styles within one piece and within the success of our art business.

E: Engaging Audience- Engaging our audience means proactively listening. We value their opinions on how a piece might make them feel and any suggestions and feedback they offer.

E: Ego- We must leave our egos at the door before starting work. We are a team, which means no one is above the other and all opinions are valued.

Q: Quality- It’s super important that we use high quality materials that we researched and tested to make sure that it meets our standards for our work we are selling.


Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?

We began working together as collaborative artists in the summer of 2017, taking our time to make sure that our personalities, work ethic, individual vision, values and artistic skills would blend well together. This took about a year and a half until we felt comfortable with the level of trust required for launching a business together. Gray and Johnson Art was born in 2019. (Jennifer L Gray & Phillip Johnson)

As one white female and one black male, we’re often asked-How does it all work? Who does what on a piece? Who comes up the creative idea for the work? How is it working with the opposite sex? How do you not step on one another’s toes? Are you a couple? Do you bring different life experiences as a white female and as a black male? How do you incorporate your experiences into your work? What happens if one of you doesn’t like the other’s work? Don’t you get sick of each other? Do you argue? What happens if one person doesn’t agree with the other? The questions go on and on…there definitely has been some doozies that we have been asked along the way. We typically answer all the questions with one common response. We celebrate our differences and incorporate them into our work. It’s a blessing to see life through some else’s eyes. We use that as a gift to further our growth and understanding. No, we are not a couple, rather incredible friends and business partners. We aren’t solely about work. We spend time outside of work having fun with our significant others and friends. All of this adds another level of trust and understanding that we utilize while working.

What we most enjoy is the opportunity of meeting other people and getting to know their communities. A lot of our inspiration for our works come from these interactions.

We are multidisciplinary artists, which allows us the ability to use all sorts of mediums to create our works. Within our digital mixed media pieces, we use a technical process of layering our work digitally, merging individual skill sets of hand drawings, digital art, photography, painting, pen and ink and other mediums in one piece. What differentiates us from other artists is our multi-disciplinary art toolbox that we pull from in order to create urban, pop-art, mixed media art. This allows us the ability to tell stories within our works, all while working collaboratively from concept to final product. Since 2020, we added a more simplistic energy, no less powerful than before, by creating positive and negative shapes along with direction and linear perspective that is not to proportion or scale. We did this to highlight those imperfections are what makes people and inanimate objects beautiful and unique. For us to achieve this, we eliminated the digital component only to these pieces to showcase a more verse body of work.

 All our pieces allow the viewer many ways to explore the depth and vastness of each piece due to the juxtaposition from our layering technique to the use of mixed media. What makes our art intriguingly different…if Alice in Wonderland is the metaphor, our art takes you down the rabbit hole…but every time you enter into Wonderland, it grabs you emotionally and leads you to a different path. We believe that Gray and Johnson Art has the creative edge to tell many stories in one piece.

We are proud of our journey, the knowledge we’ve gained, the people we’ve met and learned from along the way, the successes and failures and everything in between. Without all of it, we wouldn’t be where we are today and have the confidence to explore, navigate and try new things without worrying about failure.

Our journey has not been an easy one due to our business being so young and only having a year under our belt before the arrival of Covid. The first year of business, 2019- we were riding on the excitement of experiencing so many firsts. We were non-stop busy with showcasing our physical pieces in Yonkers, NY-
NYC (Tribeca), Jersey City, NJ-Wynwood in Miami- Downtown, Miami-Chicago, Illinois and Paris, while managing our online presence with our website and social media accounts. It was a year of intense work. Time management was always being tested as we constantly were educating ourselves on the ins and outs of running a business. We needed to make sure we were doing our own due diligence, staying current on all tax laws for the state that our business was registered, along with the tax laws of the states we did business with…our accountant and intellectual property lawyer always on speed dial.

Our adrenaline was surely pumping throughout 2019, with one of our pieces selected for a magazine cover, 2 solo long term installations at residential-high rise buildings, participated in 9 different group shows, 3 solo shows and being selected for Aqua Art Miami. As the year was ending, we were asked by a Gallerist from Paris, France if we would come to Paris and showcase our works at her gallery alongside another artist. The Gallerist had seen our work while we had one of our solo shows in NYC. Not skipping a beat and after doing our due diligence, we decided to prepare to take our works and exhibit internationally, giving us an opportunity to branch out and step out of our comfort zone. With 2019 winding down, it was now time to immerse ourselves into the work needed for our show in Paris. A year of sheer joy, excitement, successes, failures, future opportunities, learning, growth, meeting new people, travel and more, led us to boarding our flight for Paris in the beginning of March, 2020- energized, confident, strong, with a little bit of worry, because of some chatter about a virus that could become serious, yet we were still filled with optimism for what was to come…

Upon arrival to Paris, we made sure to stay current with the news of this “new virus” and how the international communities were addressing it. As we were getting ready to head over for Opening Night at the gallery, texts were flooding in from friends and family, as well as news alerts from the US and France saying the virus was beginning to spread to other countries. We all decided to head to the show and keep phones on to get further updates. We made a conscious decision to stay present and enjoy our first international show. Every moment was surreal. We kept having to pinch ourselves to make sure this wasn’t a dream. However, there was an undercurrent that was felt surrounding this new virus and what would happen.

The morning after the show, took our “wow” moment and turned it into a flurry of “oh-no’s”. The United States was talking about closing the boarders. There wasn’t much information regarding the virus or even if it was spreading throughout the United States. Armed with disinfectant wipes, we boarded our flights back to NY and Chicago.  A couple of days after returning to the US the boarders were closed and a 2-week quarantine was imposed if coming from abroad to the US. One made it to Chicago before lock down, while the other was in NY, unable to make it back to Chicago before the country shut down. Unfortunately, one got sick with Covid about 20 days after returning from France.

We, along with everyone else, were now sitting in uncharted waters. What was going to happen with our business? How were we going to work collaboratively from two different states? When would we be able to participate in physical shows? Not to mention all of the unknowns about the impact of one’s health if sick with Covid (which we were dealing with firsthand). -And endless other questions. For five months we were in different states. We decided to focus on what we could do, rather than what we weren’t able to do and take the time to reflect on the past year and how we could positively adjust to our new normal. There was so much uncertainty all around us and we chose not to get sucked into the politics of Covid and focused on our physical and emotional wellbeing. We found that there were many positives things that came out of Covid and the impact it was having in the world. Once we were back in the same space, we took the time that was now afforded to us, to restructure and organize all business-related materials and come up with new ways of selling our works in non-physical settings. This led us to discovering the virtual world of art and how we could utilize this platform. We researched and learned and then applied our knowledge by participating in virtual online shows, zoom talks, creating NFTs and acquiring Ethereum. After the whirlwind of 2019, we knew we had a strong foundation of works and a strong resume to navigate our “new normal,” while implementing new techniques and mind set, giving way to a deeper insight of allowing us to feel more secure in taking risks and applying to shows that would better suit our brand and grow our business to carry us into the future.


If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
We both have connections to Miami and hold the city very close to our hearts. Between the two of us, we have stayed in so many different hotels and Airbnb’s, tasted countless different ethnic foods from food trucks to fine dining and everything in between, explored different neighborhoods in and around Miami, visited art exhibitions, different museums, enjoyed many beaches, nightlife and more…that being said, here are a few of our favorite places to stay, eat, get drinks and more.

The Fountainbleau at 4441 Collins Ave, Miami Beach is a favorite for sure. Love staying beach side just chilling on the balcony overlooking the expansive pool area and incredible view of the beach and ocean. There is something to be said about staying beach side and having direct access to the beach. Drinks at the hotel lobby bar, although a bit pricy, offers incredible people watching-just sit back and relax! Grab a bike and peddle your way south towards South Beach-stop in at the Delano for drinks and some tasty bites.

Always fun walking around Lincoln Road and enjoying the art deco architecture. Head over to Espanola Way for some amazing seafood.

If you’re in the mood for some flavorful tacos, head over to Coyo Taco which is in Wynwood and while there spend some time walking through Wynwood Walls, then scoot on over to Wood Tavern for some great music, cheap drinks and fun games.

Midtown is always a fun and energetic part of Miami to head to and check out the different boutiques, restaurants and night life. It’s a bustling part of the city.

It’s always nice to head over to the bay in Brickell. Walk along the bay and take in the mix of architecture with so many new and ultra-modern high-rise buildings mixed in with Miami’s classic art deco style. The Four Seasons is a great spot for viewing art, having appetizers in the hotel bar and walking outside around the grounds.

Miami brings incredible music, food, art, outdoor activities, theater, sporting events and so much more to all that go…The sights, sounds, lights and people of Miami are truly energizing. There is something for everyone to enjoy.


The Shoutout series is all about recognizing that our success and where we are in life is at least somewhat thanks to the efforts, support, mentorship, love and encouragement of others. So is there someone that you want to dedicate your shoutout to?

We would like to dedicate our “Shoutout” to ALL that we have met along the way, from when Gray and Johnson Art was only an idea, to creating our LLC and formally starting our business, all the way through present day and to those we haven’t met yet.

We have our die hard-family and friends that have been with us every step of the way- physically helping us with installations, lending their ears to bounce off business ideas, giving us honest feed-back about our art and other products, attending our shows in person and virtually, posting on their social media accounts, purchasing pieces and seemingly (ha!ha!) never getting tired of listening to our endless stories of the good, the “WTF” moments, the funny and so much more. Now, that’s unconditional love! THANK YOU. Shoutout to Dr. Donna Landsman that started the journey with us helping to lay the ground work, adding to our social media presence, researching galleries-just to name a few and to Barbie Rivera a.k.a, B.(part of P.B. & J.)- our right hand, keep us pointing in the right direction, grounding wire, late night-eleventh hour-getting us through the frantic craze of getting, “IT” done and comical-cohort.

Shoutout to all that have given us an opportunity to showcase our work.

We would be remiss if we didn’t give a shoutout to those that we didn’t know. They are the people that simply flashed a smile, offered to help us navigate the city sidewalks while carrying huge pieces of art and those that stopped to engage us while at art fairs.

A special Shoutout to Martryce Roach, an incredible pastel artist (@martrycetheartist), for recommending us to Voyage MIA Magazine, thinking we would be a great fit and passing along our information. Love our artist family.

It’s never too late to follow your dreams!

Website: https://www.grayjohnsonart.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/grayjohnsonart/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100057121630735