Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers

For nearly 30 years, artist Rashid Johnson (b. 1977, Chicago) has cultivated a diverse body of work that draws upon an array of disciplines such as history, philosophy, literature, and music. This major solo exhibition highlights Johnson’s role as a scholar of art history, a mediator of Black popular culture, and as a creative force in contemporary art.

Almost 90 works—from black-soap paintings and spray-painted text works to large-scale sculptures, film, and video—will fill the museum’s rotunda, including Sanguine, a monumental site-specific work on the building’s top ramp with an embedded piano for musical performances. Additionally, a dynamic program of events, developed in collaboration with community partners across New York City, will activate a sculptural stage on the rotunda floor.

Credit: Exhibition overview from museum website

Image credit:  ​​Rashid Johnson, The Broken Five, 2019 (detail). Ceramic tile, mirror tile, branded red oak flooring, vinyl, spray enamel, oil stick, black soap, and wax, 97 1/4 × 156 1/2 × 2 1/8 inches (247 × 397.5 × 5.4 cm). Image courtesy the artist © Rashid Johnson, 2024. Photo: Martin Parsekian​