Johnson is known for several bodies of work in different media, including photography and painting. In addition to photography, Johnson makes audio installations, video, and sculpture. Johnson is known for both his unusual artistic productions and for his process of combining various aspects of science withblack history.
Johnson was born in Illinois to an academic and scholar mother,Cheryl Johnson-Odim,[6][7] and a Vietnam-war veteran father, Jimmy Johnson, who was an artist but worked in electronics. His parents divorced when he was 2 years old[8] and his mother remarried a man ofNigerian descent.[9] Johnson has stated that growing up his family was based inafrocentrism and that his family celebratedKwanzaa.[10]
Johnson followed a generation of black artists who focused on the "black experience" and grew up in a generation that was influenced byhip hop andBlack Entertainment Television. Because of his generation's high exposure to black culture withinpop culture, his contemporary audiences have a greater understanding of the "black experience," which has enabled him to achieve a deeper race and identity interaction.[15]
As a college junior, he opened his first show at the Schneider Gallery.[12] By 2000, he had earned a reputation for his unique photo-printing process and political content.[16][17][18][1][4][19] TheFreestyle exhibition at the Studio Museum in 2001 is credited with launching Johnson's career. The curator of the show, Thelma Golden, is credited with coining the term "post-black art" in relation to that exhibit, although some suggest the term is attributable to the 1995 bookThe End of Blackness byDebra Dickerson, who is a favorite of Johnson's.[15] The term post-black now refers to art in which race and racism are prominent, but where the importance of the interaction of the two is diminished.[20]
Johnson's most controversial exhibition was entitledChickenbones and Watermelon Seeds: The African American Experience as Abstract Art. The subject matter was a series of stereotypical African-American food culture items such aswatermelon seeds,black-eyed peas, chicken bones, andcotton seeds placed directly onto photographic paper and exposed to light using an iron-reactive process.[21]
In 2002, he exhibited at theSunrise Museum inCharleston, West Virginia. The exhibit, entitledManumission Papers, was named for the papers that freed slaves were required to keep to prove their freedom. The exhibition was described as being as much a cultural commentary as an imagery display, and it related to the previous "Chickenbones" exhibit. He geometrically arrangedabstractions of feet, hands, and elbows in shapes such as cubes, church windows and ships. This was a considered as study in racial identity because the body parts were not identifiable.[21] Also in 2002, presenting his photographic work using chicken bones, Johnson exhibited at theMuseum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, as part of theUBS 12 x 12: New Artists, New Work series.[22]
In 2002 he exhibited his homeless men in theDiggs Gallery ofWinston-Salem State University. The exhibit was entitledSeeing in the Dark and used partially illuminated subjects against deep black backgrounds.[23] He also exhibited his homeless men work, includingGeorge (1999), inAtlanta, Georgia as part of theNational Black Arts Festival atCity Gallery East in July and August 2002.[24]George was part of the Corcoran Gallery of Art November 2004 – January 2005Common Ground: Discovering Community in 150 Years of Art, Selections From the Collection of Julia J. Norrell exhibition.[25]George and theCommon Ground exhibition appeared in several other places including theNorth Carolina Museum of Art in 2006.[26]
He took part in the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs artist Open Studio Program rotation in theChicago Landmark/National Register of Historic PlacesPage Brothers Building during the summer of 2003 with a three-week exhibition. He explored the "historical and contemporary nature of photography".[27] At that time, he was represented by George N'Namdi, who owned G.R. N'Namdi, the oldest African-American-owned, exhibiting commercial gallery in the country.[28][29]
In conjunction with the Renaissance Society at theUniversity of Chicago, Rashid Johnson exhibitedThe Evolution of the Negro Political Costume in December 2004. He presented replicas of three outfits worn by African-American politicians. He included a late 1960sdashiki worn byJesse Jackson, a 1980s running suit worn byAl Sharpton in the '80s and abusiness suit worn by thenUnited States Senator-electBarack Obama. The presentation, which invited inspection, was as likely to evoke humorous response to the Jackson dashiki as well as critical commentary about the presentation of political attire.[30]
Johnson explored the theme of escapism at theIndianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art in a show entitledThe Production of Escapism: A Solo Project by Rashid Johnson. He addressed distraction and relief from reality through art and fantasy. Johnson used photos, video and site-specific installation to study escapist tendencies through often with a sense of humor that bordered on the absurd.[31]
Top:The New Negro Escapist Social and Athletic Club (Emmett), unknown; Bottom:The New Negro Escapist Social and Athletic Club (Thurgood), 2008
During the summer of 2005, he took part in aChicago Cultural Center artist exchange program exhibition featuring five emerging Chicagocontemporary artists and five fromKaohsiung,Taiwan. Half of the ten were women (four from Taiwan). As part of theCrossings exhibition almost all artists had their first chance to exhibit in the country of the others. In this forum,Chicago Tribuneart critic Alan G. Artner said Johnson's audio selection imposed his artistry on all the other exhibits since he chose arap song combined with a blunt video.[32][33] Artner became a Johnson detractor in 2005 when Johnson had this and another simultaneous exhibit appearing in Chicago. He described Johnson's exploration of the politics of race as "sloganeering or cute self-advertising" in his two-dimensional works, and his apolitical three-dimensional installations as "glib and superficial" representations. He classified Johnson's work as more suitable for the audience seeking nothing more than Americanpop culture.[34] Artner also derided Johnson's short video contribution to the Art Institute of Chicago'sFool's Paradise exhibition as a "conflation ofgospel singing withbeat boxing ... that says nothing worth saying about race."[35] Other Chicago critics describe Johnson's subsequent work as relatively hip.[36]
The following year, after obtaining his master's degree, he moved to theLower East Side in New York City,[11] where he taught at thePratt Institute.[37] Although he is generally referred to as a photographer and sometimes referred to as a sculptor, in certain contexts, he has been referred to as an artist-magician.[38]
In an ensemble 2006 showing entitledScarecrow, Johnson exhibited a life-sized photographic nudeself-portrait that was supposed to be menacing and abrasive, but that was perceived as interesting and amusing.[39] His Summer 2007 "Stay Black and Die" work inThe Color Line exhibition at the Jack Shainman Gallery left oneart critic fromThe New York Times wondering whether he was viewing a warning or exhortation.[40] However, at the same time he participated in the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art'sFor Love of the Game: Race and Sport in America exhibition that seemed to clearly address manners in which questions about race have been asked and answered on American sports fields of play.[41]
As a post-black artist, his mixed-media work, such as his Spring 2008 exhibitionThe Dead Lecturer, plays on race while diminishing its significance by playing with contradictions, coded references and allusions (E.g.,The New Negro Escapist Social and Athletic Club (Emmett), right).[42] The exhibit was described as "a fictionalsecret society of African-American intellectuals, a cross betweenMensa and theMasons" that was a challenge to either condemn or endorse.[43]
In November 2011, Johnson was named one of six finalists for theHugo Boss Prize.[44][45] In 2012, mega-galleryHauser & Wirth announced their first solo exhibition with Johnson at their Upper East Side location in New York.[46]
In April 2012, theMuseum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, presented Johnson's first major museum solo exhibition in the US, titledMessage to Our Folks.[47] MCA Pamela Alper Associate Curator Julie Rodrigues Widholm curated the exhibition in close collaboration with the artist. The exhibition was a survey of the previous ten years of the artist's work. Additionally, a new work commissioned by the MCA was shown for the first time.[48] The exhibition subsequently travelled to theMildred Lane Kemper Art Museum in St. Louis, and theHigh Museum of Art in Atlanta. The Perez Art Museum Miami, acquired the two-dimensional pieceTribe, produced right after the MCA show was open, in 2013.[49]
In 2013, Johnson was one of the commissioned artists for thePerforma Biennial.
In 2021, the Metropolitan Opera in New York City unveiledThe Broken Nine, Johnson's two-panel mosaic, ceramic, and branded wood work commissioned for the Opera's interior grand tier landings.[50] The same year, Johnson's works were added to the permanent collections of theMuseum of Modern Art and theMetropolitan Museum of Art. He also began serving on the boards of Performa, Ballroom Marfa, and theGuggenheim Museum.
In 2022, Johnson'sSurrender Painting "Sunshine" (2022) sold for $3 million, a record for the artist at auction.[51]
AtBonhams Post-War and Contemporary Art Sale in London of June 2022, Johnson's wax and spray enamel work "Carver", (2012). Sold for £264,900.[52]
Throughout that latter 2010's, Johnson addressed the idea of mental health in multiple series of works, namelyAnxious Men and Anxious Audiences andBroken Men.[53]
Johnson made his directorial debut withNative Son, a film adaptation ofRichard Wright's acclaimed 1940novel of the same name. It was announced in 2018 that Johnson had tapped playwrightSuzan Lori-Parks to adapt the novel into a screenplay,[54][55] and castAshton Sanders in the lead role of Bigger Thomas.[56] The film was produced byA24 and premiered at Sundance Film Festival in January 2019. HBO Films acquired the movie hours before its premiere.[57] Critical reception of the film was mixed. Richard Roeper gave the film a rating of 3/4 stars, and noted the actors' "electric" performances.[58] Troy Patterson wrote in theNew Yorker that the film suffered from "intelligent grappling with a classic text" that is ultimately "obsolete".[59] Jennifer Vineyard wrote in theNew York Times that the movie "isn't a masterpiece" but "has much to admire", citing its "striking visual compositions", "tense atmosphere", and "Sanders' nuanced performance".[60] Review aggregation siteRotten Tomatoes gives the film a score of 61%, based on reviews from 51 critics, and an average rating of 6.10/10, with the general consensus stated as follows: "Native Son's struggles with its problematic source material are uneven but overall compelling, thanks largely to Ashton Sanders' poised work in the central role."[61] Johnson won "Outstanding Directing in a Motion Picture (Television)" at the51st NAACP Image Awards for his work onNative Son.[62]
"I was very proud when Barack got the nomination, ... But I wasn't proud for black people—I was kind of proud for white people."
—Rashid Johnson, comments on thepost black concept in the context of his country electing its first African American president?[15]
Johnson uses "alchemy, divination, astronomy, and other sciences that combine the natural and spiritual worlds" to augmentblack history. According to aColumbia College Chicago publication, Johnson works in a variety of media with physical and visual materials that have independent artistic significance and symbolism but that are augmented by their connections to black history.[13][15] According to the culture publication Flavorpill, he challenges his viewers with photography and sculpture that present the creation and dissemination of norms and expectations.[13] However, theChicago Tribune describes the productions resulting from his processes as lacking complexity or depth.[34]Seattle Post-Intelligencer writer Regina Hackett described Johnson as an artist who avoids the struggles of black people and explores their strengths, while inserting himself as subject in his "aesthetic aspirations" through a variety of forums.[4]
Johnson has garnered national attention for both his unusual subject matter and for his process.[21] In addition to portrait photography, Johnson is known for his use of a 19th-century process[21][12] that usesVan Dyke brown, a transparent organicpigment, and exposure to sunlight. He achieves apainterly feel with his prints with the application of pigment using broad brush strokes.[28] He uses a 8-by-10-inch (20 by 25 cm)Deardorff, which forces him to interact with his subjects.[63]
His use of shea butter and tiles in his, respective, sculptural and mosaic work have significant meaning to Johnson.[64] The former being a "signifier of African identity,"[64] whereas the latter have a more personal connection for him. As a student, a Russian and Turkish Bathouse became a place of refuge, with him viewing the white tiles as a canvas.[64] He would even take his college assigned-reading in there with him.[64]
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