Rashid Johnson

Rashid Johnson is one of the most influential American voices in contemporary art whose multidisciplinary works interrogate themes of art historical canons, cultural identity, critical history, and personal narratives. Often drawing from materials or formal vocabularies from autobiographical experiences, Johnson’s practice weaves through the larger context of African American creative histories through film, video, installation, sculpture, and painting.

Oscillating between the independent personal history of an individual and collective social history of the African American experience, Rashid Johnson’s practice masterfully channels the symbolic weight of his motifs and inspirations into striking and alluring compositions. As the artist himself explains, his practice resists simplified understandings and instead opts for nuanced and poetic reimaginings of identity: “My work has always had concerns around race, struggle, grief and grievance, but also joy and excitement around the tradition and opportunities of Blackness. Many of Johnson’s most recent works, such as his Anxious paintings series or Broken Crowd series, place a caring and attentive lens on existential themes of anxiety and interiority that underlie the modern day.

Rashid Johnson’s conceptual rigor and singular visual language has cemented his position among the most exciting artists of today. Testament to the importance of his practice, Rashid Johnson has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions such as Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York or Seven Rooms and a Garden: Rashid Johnson + Moderna Museet at the Moderna Museet, Stockholm. His works are collected by esteemed institutions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; the Lousiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk; Fondation Louis Vuitton, Paris; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, among others.