Johanna Ehmke lives in Cologne and works in Düsseldorf. Her first institutional solo exhibition was presented by the Kunstverein Trier in 2023, with support from the Archive for Queer History. Further exhibitions have taken place at venues including the Mittelrhein Museum in Koblenz (2024), Künstlerhaus Bethanien in Berlin (2023), the Opelvillen in Rüsselsheim (2020), as well as in London (2022), Vienna (2023), Brussels (2025), and Paris (2026). Johanna Ehmke was nominated for the Junger Westen Art Prize 2025, the Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Scholarship 2024, and the Federal Prize for Art Students 2020. She was a resident at the Artist-Residency Schloss Balmoral in Bad Ems (2023), in Los Angeles Günsterode (2025), and at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris (2026).

The artist was awarded the residency fellowship at the Künstlerhaus Bamberg by Bavarian State Minister Markus Blume at the suggestion of Villa Concordia art fellowship board members Walter Storms, gallery owner, and Katharina Vossenkuhl, Director of the Götz Collection. She will work in Bamberg for 11 month from mid-April to mid-March 2027.