Rishma Mariya Johnson

I paint queer life into visibility. From Kerala to Santiniketan, my paintings move between color, landscape, and what it means to exist outside the lines society draws for us. There's intimacy in my work - moments of the body, the land, the things we notice when we're paying attention. 

My work has been featured in Seedlings V: Queer as Nature (London, 2025), and I've exhibited at MSU Gallery, Baroda (2024), Camel Art Camp (2025), and Fierce Queens 2026 in London, where my work was shown alongside 50 other queer and trans South Asian artists. I've illustrated books- Dwadash Phoenix (2025) and Onno Bosonter Upakhyan, a queer speculative fiction anthology - and created murals. I also collaborate with Food Studio Collective, recently showing at Museum of Fishes & Greens in New York (2026).