Rashid Johnson- A Poem for Deep Thinkers

Rashid Johnson (born 1977 in Chicago) is an American multidisciplinary artist whose work spans photography, sculpture, painting, installation, and film. He received a BFA in photography from Columbia College Chicago in 2000 and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2005. Johnson is often associated with the concept of “post-Black” art, engaging issues of Black identity, memory, and cultural history through symbolic materials (such as shea butter, black soap, ceramics, plants, mirrors, wax) and layered references to literature, philosophy, and music. The exhibition “Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers” is a major retrospective survey installing more than 90 works from across Johnson’s three-decade career. It is organized by curators Naomi Beckwith and Andrea Karnes. The show takes place in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York City, filling the museum’s iconic spiral rotunda with installations, paintings, sculptures, mosaics, video and performance elements.The exhibition is on view from April 18, 2025 until January 18, 2026. The title “A Poem for Deep Thinkers” is borrowed from a work by the poet Amiri Baraka, whose voice and themes resonate in Johnson’s conceptual approach. Among the more striking installations are mosaics with faces carved or scratched into tiles (such as his “Anxious Men” / “Broken Men” series) and suspended plants integrated into the architectural space, creating immersive and contemplative environments. The exhibition also includes live performances and a public performance series tied to the rotunda show.