This conversation between artist Rashid Johnson and Massimiliano Gioni, Edlis Neeson Artistic Director of the New Museum, was hosted in conjunction with the exhibition “Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America.” This public program series highlights the practices of artists participating in the exhibition.
Rashid Johnson (b. 1977, Chicago, IL) is a contemporary American artist whose multidisciplinary practice incorporates sculpture, painting, drawing, filmmaking, and installation. His work deftly engages cultural identities, literature, and critical history to consider both the potential and boundaries that personal narratives offer for material representation and collective understandings.
Recent solo exhibitions include “Rashid Johnson. Anxious Audience,” The Power Plant, Toronto, Canada (2019), “Rashid Johnson. Los Senderistas,” Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico (2019), “Rashid Johnson: The Hikers,” Aspen Art Museum, Aspen CO (2019), “Provocations. Rashid Johnson,” Institute for Contemporary Art at Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond VA (2018), “Rashid Johnson. No More Water,” Lismore Castle Arts, Lismore, Ireland (2018), “Rashid Johnson. Hail We Now Sing Joy,” Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI (2017), “Rashid Johnson. Hail We Now Sing Joy,” Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Kansas City, MO (2017), and “Rashid Johnson. Within Our Gates,” Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Moscow, Russia (2016).
Johnson’s artwork is in the permanent collections of many public institutions, including the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago IL; Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway; Brooklyn Art Museum, Brooklyn NY; Guggenheim Museum, New York NY; High Museum of Art, Atlanta GA; Museum of Modern Art, New York NY; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles CA; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York NY; National Museum of African American History and Culture, Washington, D.C.; Pérez Art Museum, Miami FL; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York NY; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis MN; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York NY.
