Pioneer Works Presents I Think, I Draw, I Am
NEW YORK, NY, JUNE 7, 2025—Pioneer Works is pleased to present I Think, I Draw, I Am, an exhibition featuring more than 300 drawings by musician and artist Daniel Johnston (1961–2019). Curated by Lee Foster, co-owner of Electric Lady Studios and Curatorial Advisor for the Daniel Johnston Trust, it will be the largest solo presentation of Johnston’s work in New York to date. The exhibition will reveal the psychological depth and formal inventiveness of his comic-inspired drawings, all while attesting to the abundance of material that Johnston made during his restlessly creative life.
Johnston first entered the public eye as a musician in the mid-1980s after arriving in Austin, Texas, in 1984. Through dogged self-promotion—personally handing out home-recorded tapes to anyone who wanted one, all of which featured his illustrations on their covers—he managed to establish himself within the city’s alternative and lo-fi music scenes. Quickly becoming known for his emotionally unguarded songs and his intimate yet raw performance style, Johnston would go on to achieve an avid local following, before then gaining national attention through an appearance on MTV’s The Cutting Edge in an episode about Austin’s ‘New Sincerity’ music scene. In 1992, Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain wore Johnston’s ‘Hi, How Are You?’ t-shirt to the MTV Music Awards, effectively broadcasting his graphic art to the entire country. Johnston would record and release eighteen albums of original music over the course of three decades, a prolific output when considered alongside the hundreds of notebooks he filled with his sketches, ideas and imagination.
Though music is what originally brought him recognition and acclaim, drawing was Johnston’s first and longest-running passion—one that existed alongside and evolved with his music career. The relentless creative energy he displayed throughout his life is perhaps most vividly expressed by the graphic world of his drawings and their penchant for providing a window into his emotional and psychological landscape. As Foster writes in Daniel Johnston (Rizzoli, 2025), “What I came to love about Daniel's art and music is the impulsiveness and imperfection of it all. He considered his audience, surely, but the work was never overcooked to accommodate anyone. These were his heartfelt feelings, and what is left on the page are Daniel's simple truths—mistakes and all. He could be precise in his message, but he was never precious in his expression. ‘Better done than perfect,’ as the saying goes.”
I Think, I Draw, I Am embraces the maximalism of Johnston’s artistic output and explores many of the recurring characters, themes and stylistic tropes that run through his drawings. By placing works from different years and creative periods in dialogue with one another, viewers can understand and appreciate the idiosyncratic iconography of his work, one that combined the revelatory and apocalyptic imagery found in religious texts such as the Bible, with his encyclopedic knowledge of superhero comics. Though intensely personal, Johnston’s storytelling regularly centered around fundamental clashes between good and evil, a dynamic further expressed by the way he framed his characters at times in a heroic light and in others an evil one. Redemptive characters like Captain America, Casper the Friendly Ghost and Jeremiah the Frog—which is perhaps the most emblematic figure within his oeuvre—are pitted against sinister ones such as Lucifer, Satan and Vile Corrupt, Johnston's evil, multi-eyeballed version of Jeremiah the Frog.
The expansive world of characters, both appropriated and invented, in Johnston’s drawings are regularly accompanied by simple yet emotionally penetrating inscriptions about life, love, regret and anxiety—statements that not only provide us with a depth of feeling about his inner world, but which also speak to experiences and emotions more universally felt. Likewise, the distinct graphic style of the artist’s drawings, one suggesting immediacy and freewheeling directness rather than having been carefully planned or preciously rendered, connects us to what is unique and singular in Johnston’s art while also remaining approachable, humorous and relatable, ultimately providing proof of Foster’s larger observation about his creative practice, namely that “If he could think it, he could draw it.”
About the artist
Daniel Dale Johnston (b. Sacramento, California, 1961; d. Waller, Texas, 2019) was an American singer-songwriter and a significant figure in the indie music scene of the 1990s. Johnston produced over twenty albums and as many singles within his lifetime to an ever-growing international audience. His influence as a songwriter and musician is evident in the numerous musical icons who have covered his songs, including Tom Waits, Eddie Vedder, Beck, Phoebe Bridgers, Jeff Tweedy, and Lana Del Rey. In addition to his success in music, Johnston was celebrated for his visual art and showed his work at museums and galleries internationally, including the Whitney Museum of American Art’s Whitney Biennial in 2006. Several books and documentaries have been made about his art, music, and life, including the award-winning documentary The Devil and Daniel Johnston (2005). Today, the Hi, How Are You Project, created with the support of Johnston and his family, generates awareness and ongoing dialog about mental health in Daniel's honor.
About the curator
Lee Foster is an Operating Partner of Electric Lady Studios, the legendary recording studio in Greenwich Village commissioned by Jimi Hendrix. He is also the Curatorial Advisor for the Daniel Johnston Trust.
Pioneer Works is an artist and scientist-led 501(c)(3) nonprofit cultural center in Red Hook, Brooklyn that fosters innovative thinking through the visual and performing arts, technology, music, and science. We provide visual and performing artists, musicians, scientists, technologists, community organizers, and educators the resources and platform they need to expand their practices. Our approach encourages experimentation and empowers curious minds across diverse communities, knowledge bases, and frames of reference; in so doing, Pioneer Works aims to accelerate culture through the free exchange of ideas and information for all.