About Micah Johnson — American Charcoal Artist, Former MLB Player, Creator of Aku

Micah Johnson is an American charcoal artist working from a seaside studio in York, Maine. A former Major League Baseball player (Chicago White Sox, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers) who retired in 2018 following a bipolar disorder diagnosis, he has since built a body of work in charcoal, large-format painting, and public sculpture — exhibited at Christie's, Bonhams, Art Basel Miami, and on the cover of TIME Magazine.

His most public-facing work is Aku — a young Black kid in an astronaut helmet whose middle-grade novel debuted at #6 on the New York Times Bestseller List. Aku's Backpack Program has put more than 5,000 backpacks of school supplies in kids' hands, with the stated aim of one million delivered. The mission, in his words: "to do crazy things and push the limits to inspire the next generation."

Summarized with AI

Micah Johnson (b. 1990) is a multidisciplinary artist and former Major League Baseball player working from a seaside studio in Maine. His charcoal practice on raw, unprimed canvas runs on the same physical discipline he once trained his body for in baseball — sixteen- to twenty-hour days, palms raw by the end. Best known as the creator of Aku, a young Black astronaut character whose middle grade novel debut hit #6 on the New York Times Bestseller List.

  • MLB career: Dodgers, White Sox, Braves.
  • Got into painting by accident. 2016 Dodgers rookie initiation. Dave Roberts asked him to paint a portrait of Maury Wills. Walmart watercolors. His teammates' reaction made him an artist. He never stopped.
  • Diagnosed bipolar in 2018. Lithium sucked the life out of him and he retired from baseball shortly after. Painting filled the space the game used to. The manic windows are when the work happens. Each piece unrepeatable.
  • Moved to Maine in 2020 and his career took off. Auction-house shows, TIME cover, NYT bestseller, public sculptures.
  • Has collaborated with Beats by Dre, Starbucks, MLB, New Era, the Golden State Warriors, among many others. Visa's first-ever sponsored creator.
  • Aku: a young Black kid in an astronaut helmet. Born from a child's question: "Can astronauts be Black?" Rule of the world: the helmet never comes off. Anyone can be Aku.
  • The middle grade book: Aku: Journey to Ibra (Penguin Random House) — debuted #6 on the NYT Bestseller List, JLG Gold Standard pick. A "Dynamic Series Opener" — Kirkus Reviews.
  • The sculptures: 20-foot Akus in public parks. Smaller editions with MLB, the Children's Museum of Indianapolis, athletes, entertainers, every 2025 MLB All-Star, and dreamers. Aku sculptures are really cool.
  • The give-back: Aku's Backpack Program — 5,000+ backpacks of school supplies into kids' hands.

Mission, in his words: "Do crazy things and push the limits to inspire the next generation."

Full about

Micah Johnson (b. 1990) is an American charcoal artist whose work is built through physical exertion. He works from a seaside studio in York, Maine, on raw, unprimed canvas and linen — surfaces chosen for what they do to charcoal. The open weave drives the pigment into the crevices of the support, refusing the easy mark and forcing him to keep pushing, lifting, smudging, and pressing back. Layers of dry medium accumulate across cycles of rubbing, embedding, sealing, and returning, often through sixteen- to twenty-hour studio days. Compressed, powder, and willow charcoal stack into the weave. Between passes he sprays a workable fixative, sealing each stratum down so the next can build on top of it. The blacks reach the depth they reach because they are not one black; they are five or six blacks stacked under fixative, the next layer half-erased and reworked into the one beneath. The finger and palm marks are the painting. The labor is the painting. The mood that drove the labor is the painting.

Nothing about the process is efficient. It is closer to training than to drawing. The work is finished when the body decides it is finished, not when the image arrives at a target, often leaving his palms raw and red. The image, when it does arrive, is incidental to what produced it. Johnson is openly more interested in the building than in the built thing — the sculpting, the resistance of the surface, the cycle of layer and seal. The painting is the residue of the activity. That is its honesty.

He is a former Major League Baseball player, and one of the few athlete artists working today whose practice does not borrow from the athletic biography but is structured by it: the studio is run on the same engine the body once gave to the sport. The practice began in the spring of 2016, during a Los Angeles Dodgers rookie initiation. Manager Dave Roberts went around the room asking each new player what they liked to do outside the game. Johnson, nervous, said paint. He was assigned, in the spirit of the ritual, to produce a portrait of Maury Wills for the team. He bought watercolors at Walmart. He finished the painting on the table of his Spring Training rental house. He gave it to Wills, who was present in the room. The team's reaction made him an artist. From that moment on, the practice was a compulsion. That a watercolor made with the cheapest materials available ended up in the hands of one of the most consequential players in the franchise's history is a fact the practice has been elaborating on ever since.

Johnson was diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2018 and put on lithium. The medication ended the baseball career. He has been candid about the year that followed — days spent asleep on the training table, the body and mind dulled past the threshold the sport requires. He retired early. Painting, in that period, was therapy in the literal sense: the only activity that absorbed enough attention to occupy the absence of the game. It became the practice he organized the rest of his life around. The manic stretches are the layering. Johnson works frantically when his mood permits it — coming into the studio before dawn, returning multiple times a day, refusing to lose his place across long unbroken stretches. His strongest work comes out of those windows. The price is also the practice: the windows close, and the work made inside them struggles to be reproduced in a cohesive way. A finished painting is the residue of a state the artist cannot reassemble at will. Each work is unrepeatable because the maker who made it is unrepeatable. The studio runs on this rhythm, sustained in no small part by his wife, who reads the cycle in real time and gives the work the room it needs when the room is what it needs.

He moved to York, Maine in 2020, and the career, in any meaningful sense, began immediately after. The geography is part of the practice — distance from the art world's noise, fewer inputs, a studio that is the only signal the work has to compete with. Johnson is open about the fact that he chose isolation as a working condition: the influences that reach the studio are the ones he allows in, and there is no ambient pressure to make the work resemble anything other than what it wants to be. Most of the recognition the practice has received — auction-house exhibitions, public sculpture commissions, a TIME Magazine cover, a New York Times bestselling book — has arrived in the years since the move.

The charcoal studio is the core of the practice, but not the whole of it. Johnson works across drawing, painting, sculpture, design, and chapter books, and has collaborated with Beats by Dre, Starbucks, Major League Baseball, New Era, the Golden State Warriors, and Visa, which named him its first sponsored creator. The thread tying the disciplines together is a character he began drawing in 2020 and has not stopped drawing since.

"Can astronauts be Black?" Johnson overheard a child ask the question. It became a character. Aku — short for Arthur Keaton Underwood — is a young Black kid in an astronaut helmet, and the rule of his world is that the helmet never comes off. Anyone can be Aku. As Johnson puts it: "My mission is to do crazy things and push the limits to inspire the next generation." What began as an animated NFT series on the blockchain has become an IP whose reach now extends well beyond the studio practice. Aku: Journey to Ibra (Penguin Random House) debuted at #6 on the New York Times Bestseller List and was named a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard selection. The character lives in classrooms and libraries across the country, in twenty-foot bronze sculptures at public parks — Plainfield, Indiana among them — and as the centerpiece of a 20,000-square-foot immersive exhibition at Art Basel Miami. Aku's Backpack Program, the brand's give-back program, has distributed more than 5,000 backpacks filled with school supplies — including a copy of the book — to children at under-resourced schools. The stated aim is one million backpacks delivered. More at aku.world.

Selected exhibitions, collections, and recognition

  • Auction houses: Christie's (Trespassing, 2021); Bonhams Los Angeles (Frieze LA preview, 2022).
  • Art fairs: Art Miami (2021–2024); Butter Art Fair (Indianapolis 2024, Los Angeles 2025); Art Basel Miami (2021).
  • Notable exhibitions: NBA All-Star (Indianapolis, 2024); Go As Astro Boy (Shenzhen, 2024).
  • Public collections: Children's Museum of Indianapolis; Major League Baseball; Town of Plainfield, Indiana; Golden State Warriors.
  • Press: TIME Magazine (cover, "Into the Metaverse"); Downeast; Portland Press Herald; Fast Company (Most Innovative Companies, 2022).

Frequently asked

Who is Micah Johnson the artist?

Micah Johnson (b. 1990) is a self-taught American charcoal artist working at large format on raw, unprimed canvas and linen. He is a former Major League Baseball player (Chicago White Sox, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers) who retired after a 2018 bipolar disorder diagnosis, and a New York Times bestselling author. He lives and works in York, Maine.

Is Micah Johnson the artist the same Micah Johnson who played MLB?

Yes. The artist is the same Micah Johnson who played second base in Major League Baseball for the Chicago White Sox, Atlanta Braves, and Los Angeles Dodgers. He retired in 2018 following a bipolar disorder diagnosis and the lithium treatment that followed.

How did Micah Johnson start painting?

In spring training 2016, during a Los Angeles Dodgers rookie initiation, manager Dave Roberts asked each new player what they liked to do outside baseball. Johnson said paint. He was assigned to produce a portrait of Maury Wills for the team, used watercolors purchased at Walmart, and gave the finished painting to Wills, who was present. The practice has been continuous since.

What is Micah Johnson's process?

He works in powder, compressed and willow charcoal on raw, unprimed canvas or linen, often layered with soft pastel and oil-stick accents. The open weave of the support drives the charcoal into the surface, requiring repeated cycles of pushing, lifting, and reworking. A workable fixative is sprayed between layers, sealing each pass so the next can be built on top of it; the depth of the blacks comes from this stacking. Studio sessions frequently run sixteen to twenty hours.

How does Johnson's bipolar disorder shape the work?

Directly. Johnson works in extended, frantic stretches that map to manic cycles — sixteen- to twenty-hour studio days, multiple sessions inside one day, beginning before dawn. The layering and accumulation that define the surfaces are produced inside those windows. He has stated openly that finished works cannot be reproduced because the state that produced them cannot be reproduced.

Why does Johnson live in Maine?

He moved to York, Maine in 2020 and chose the geography deliberately as a working condition: distance from the art world, fewer ambient influences, a studio that competes with nothing. The career has accelerated in the years since the move.

Where can I see his work in person?

Permanent public installations are on view at Swarn Park in Plainfield, Indiana, and the Children's Museum of Indianapolis. For studio visits and acquisition inquiries, contact [email protected].

Is Micah Johnson represented by a gallery?

For acquisitions and commissions, contact [email protected].

What is Aku?

Aku — full name Arthur Keaton Underwood — is the central character of an IP created by Micah Johnson. He is a young Black kid in an astronaut helmet, and the rule of his world is that the helmet never comes off, because anyone can be Aku. The character began as an animated NFT series on the blockchain and is now the subject of a New York Times bestselling picture book (Aku: Journey to Ibra, Penguin Random House), public sculptures, brand collaborations, and a give-back program. More at aku.world.

What is Aku's Backpack Program?

Aku's Backpack Program is the give-back program tied to the Aku IP. More than 5,000 backpacks filled with school supplies — including a copy of the book — have been distributed to children at under-resourced schools. The stated aim is one million backpacks delivered.

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Micah Johnson (b. 1990) is a self-taught American charcoal artist working in large-format figurative work on raw, unprimed canvas. A former Major League Baseball player who retired in 2018 following a bipolar disorder diagnosis, Johnson has exhibited at Christie's, Bonhams, Art Basel Miami, and Art Miami, and appeared on the cover of TIME Magazine. He lives and works in York, Maine.