Coretta King Johnson is an abstract painter whose vibrant, pattern-rich canvases distill a lifetime of travel into perpetual, radiant energy. European-born and widely traveled from a young age, she absorbed the color and ornament of Asia and Europe — influences that surface in her diverse palettes and intricate motifs.

She later earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Studio Art from Virginia State University, and her work today reads as vibrant modern abstraction in decadent tones, articulating compositions at once simple and brilliantly complex.