Chris Johanson is an American painter and street artist. He is a member of San Francisco's Mission School art movement. Johanson was born in suburban San Jose, California in 1968. He has no formal training in art, learning some technique by painting skateboards and houses. He moved to San Francisco, California's Mission District in 1989, where he became a member of the local art community, initially drawing cartoons on lampposts and bathroom walls using black Sharpies. In 2004 he bought a home and moved to Portland, Oregon. Johanson achieved international fame after participating in 2002 Whitney Biennial exhibition. The next year he was one of winners of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art's "SFMOMA SECA Experimental Design Award."