Kendal Johnson was born in Sylva, North Carolina on October 26, 1982. An only child, she grew up mostly in south Florida and graduated from Naples High School in 2000. Kendal did her under-graduate work at Rollins College in Winter Park, Florida, earning a Bachelor of Arts in studio art in 2004. Before pursuing a Master of Fine Arts at the University of Florida, she served as Gallery Director for Trudy Labell Fine Art in Naples, Florida.

Since then Kendal has served as gallery co-ordinator for UF's WARPhaus Gallery and Focus Gallery in Gainesville, Florida. During her graduate studies she received the James J. Rizzi Graduate Scholarship from the School of Art and Art History and the E. Robert Langley Internship at the Samuel P. Harn Museum of Art. In 2007 she was awarded a Tri-State Sculptors Educational Scholarship and presented her work at their 27th annual fall conference at East Carolina University in Greenville, North Carolina. A diverse artist, Kendal works in the media areas of drawing, sculpture, installation, photo/video, printmaking and the book arts.