Rashid Johnson

With Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers, Johnson returns to the MCA as a prominent artist with numerous national and international projects, awards, and solo exhibitions to his credit. Unchanged is the artist’s remarkable capacity to ask fundamental questions about the fragile human psyche in the face of ineffable historic flows and forces. Keenly attuned to this young century’s central ideas, questions, and aesthetics, Johnson has forged a personal iconography that grapples with the fundamental concerns of our time.

The exhibition presents more than 70 artworks spanning key moments in Johnson’s career, including his poignant black-and-white photographs of The New Negro Escapist Social and Athletic Club inspired by the ideas of W.E.B. Du Bois; the wall reliefs made of black-soap and wax known as Cosmic Slops; and the Anxious Men and Broken Men series, which evolved in recent years to reflect the chaos and isolation of contemporary life in the United States.

Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers is organized by Naomi Beckwith, Deputy Director and Jennifer and David Stockman Chief Curator, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and Andrea Karnes, Chief Curator, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, with additional support from Faith Hunter, Guggenheim Curatorial Assistant. The MCA presentation is curated by Jack Schneider, Assistant Curator, with Korina Hernandez, Curatorial Assistant.