Artist Rashid Johnson has used multiple media and materials to create works that examine race, masculinity, identity, aesthetics, and (he says) his own anxiety. Now, Johnson's career is the focus of an exhibition at the Guggenheim New York, "A Poem for Deep Thinkers." Correspondent Alina Cho reports.

New York

Rashid Johnson, an acclaimed artist known for his use of diverse materials and exploration of themes such as race, masculinity, identity, and anxiety, is the subject of a career survey at the Guggenheim Museum in New York. Johnson describes his creative process as involving both addition and subtraction, using materials like shea butter and black soap to create layered works that invite conversation and introspection.

Johnson's background, including his upbringing in Chicago and early experiences with photography and graffiti, informs his art. He emphasizes vulnerability and emotional honesty, both in his work and in his approach to life. Johnson and Guggenheim curator Naomi Beckwith highlight the importance of art as a source of potential joy and connection, regardless of the viewer's level of art education.

Rashid Johnson on art as a source of potential joy

To contributor Alina Cho and the artist Rasheed Johnson whose work is on display at an iconic museum. Let's start me further to the left. Keep going. Keep going. Stop. It's not wrong to call Rasheed Johnson's Brooklyn studio a construction zone. He is, after all, constructing art. I think it's interesting that you say you're throwing things at the work but you're also subtracting. For me, in the way that I work, subtraction is really kind of essential. Applying, you know, significant layers of paint to a surface and then marking it by removing it. So kind of taking something away as a way to kind of suggest addition. Using a variety of mediums and materials, including shea butter and black soap, the 47-year-old's works create conversations around race, masculinity, identity, and anxiety. Didn't you say you were born anxious? Oh yeah, it's been from go. My anxiety is really, it mirrors my fear. You know, I'm afraid. You know, I have things I'm afraid of. Can I articulate them? Maybe sometimes. Give it a go. You know, I'll tell you what I'm not afraid of. Okay. I'm not afraid to be vulnerable. Vulnerability and ambition fueled his work early on. A child of Chicago, his mother worked as a poet and professor. His father ran a small electronics company. Young Rashid dabbled in graffiti and photography. I was photographing around Columbia College, which I was a student at at the time. There was, you know, a real influx of men who had been displaced. What I found interesting about that whole experience though, was that at 19, you took those photos to a gallery and said, give me a show. I think I told them that if they weren't willing to show the work that I would, I would find somebody who I think would. It worked. What did you think when that happened? I'm onto something? Yeah, very much so. Have you had time to take it all in? You know, I'm still in the process of kind of unpacking it. This year, Rashid Johnson finds himself on a bigger stage. You've said it's a little like a family reunion. It is. And every family reunion is fairly complicated. He's reuniting with the artwork he made in some cases decades ago at this career survey at New York City's Guggenheim Museum. So this is a work that I call anxious audience. And of this body of work, this is the largest example. And it's really an illustration or a depiction of kind of collective anxiety. Johnson is a master of repetition. Get up close, you really see the detail and the scraping. The scraping, the gesture. There are films, a large shelf-like installation, and a shower of hanging plants. How did you get those in there? How did you install those plants? Overnight and very carefully. Naomi Beckwith is the Guggenheim's deputy director and chief curator. One of the most important thing that Rashid does as an artist is keep one eye on the world, but also one eye on himself. Many artists are sort of responding to the conditions of what's happening. And you can see Rashid walking through that as well. But I don't know any other artist who is just very honest and focused about where he is emotionally and psychologically. How do you feel about the person who might not be educated about art, who looks at a piece of yours and says, I just love the way it looks? I love that person. And I think that there is a lot of confusion around what and how arts education functions. We've been painting and drawing and marking surfaces since we were kids, all of us, you know. It's so great to hear you say, in some ways, that's enough. It is. The first thing that I learned to love outside of my family was art. When you have that experience and you get so much direction from it and you get to fulfill your curiosity, it gives you a lifetime of potential joy.

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East Coast of the United States

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Breakdown