Opens May 1, 2026
Erin Johnson (50), Lake at HARDWARE
Still from Erin Johnson, Lake, 2020, 4 minute 26 second video with sound on loop.
About
Erin Johnson’s Lake observes a calm body of water from above, where a group of artists drift in slow, fluid motion. They gather and separate, sometimes floating with ease, sometimes resisting submersion, their movements shaped by quiet attention to one another. Hands meet, bodies overlap, and space is negotiated through small acts of desire, trust, care, and collectivity. Intimacy unfolds as a shared rhythm, where boundaries soften and connection emerges.
Lake is directed, produced, and edited by Erin Johnson. Director of photography is Christopher Carroll. Featuring: Shani Ben Simon, Anika Cartterfield, Elizabeth Flood, Maria Fragoso, Jessica Fuquay, Meredith Gaglio, Chitra Ganesh, Nasim Hantehzadeh, Ranee Henderson, Bryson Rand, Jinal Sangoi, Hannah Shaban, Saar Shemesh, Sindhu Thirumalaisamy, Maria Tinaut, Lan Tuazon, and Jordan Weitzman.
Erin Johnson: Lake at HARDWARE is curated by Lighthouse Works Curator-at-Large Laurel Ptak, with the support of Community Coordinator, Claudia DeSimone and Fellowship Coordinator, Eliza Schmidt. Exhibition guide designed by Eric Nylund. Special thanks to the entire team at Island Hardware for their ongoing support.
HARDWARE is a year-round exhibition space for film and video by contemporary artists located in the loose screw section of Island Hardware on Fishers Island. Every two months, a new moving-image work by a former Lighthouse Works Fellow appears, inviting unexpected encounters with contemporary art where the everyday rhythms, textures, and temporalities of a hardware shop frame the work. Conceived by master carpenter Dave Beckwith and curator Laurel Ptak, HARDWARE grew out of an earlier collaboration as part of the exhibition Sara Magenheimer: Ill-Gotten Gains.
Located inside Island Hardware at 741 The Gloaming on Fishers Island, HARDWARE is programmed by Lighthouse Works and open to the public during business hours, from Monday–Friday 8am–4pm and Sunday 8am–noon, or by appointment. For further information about the exhibition contact Nate Malinowski at [email protected] or (631) 788-7713.
Artist
Bio
Erin Johnson (50) is an artist and filmmaker based in New York, NY.
Johnson was a Lighthouse Works Fellow in 2022. She received an MFA and a Certificate in New Media from the University of California, Berkeley in 2013, attended the Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture in 2019, and has participated in residencies at the Jan van Eyck Academie (Maastricht, NL), Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (New York, NY), Hidrante (San Juan, PR), Lighthouse Works (Fishers Island, NY), Pioneer Works (Brooklyn, NY), among others.
Her work has been exhibited or screened at venues including e-flux (New York, NY), BOAN1942 ARTSPACE (Seoul, KR), BOFFO (Fire Island, NY), Rencontres Internationales (Paris, FR / Berlin, DE), BIENALSUR (Buenos Aires, AR), MOCA (Toronto, CA), Munchmuseet (Oslo, NO), Sanatorium (Istanbul, TR), Times Square Arts (New York, NY), etc. galerie (Prague, CZ), Cinalfama (Lisbon, PT), deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum (Lincoln, MA), Billytown (The Hague, NL), Galleria Eugenia Delfini (Rome, IT), and REDCAT (Los Angeles, CA).
Johnson is the Undergraduate Director and faculty member of the Studio Art Program at New York University.
