Surrounded by three decades of his work in the iconic rotunda of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Rashid Johnson likens the experience to a family reunion. “I always see art as the objects you’ve birthed as an artist,” he shares with Vogue ahead of “Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers” (on view through January 18, 2026), his first solo show at the New York museum. Featuring more than 90 pieces, the mid-career retrospective is also the most extensive exhibition of his career so far. “When your artworks travel for a show like this,” he says, “it’s like being a parent who gave their children away—and now they’ve come back. It’s deeply gratifying in some ways, and in others, it’s emotionally complex.”
For nearly 30 years, artist Rashid Johnson (b. 1977, Chicago) has cultivated a diverse body of work that draws upon an array of disciplines such as history, philosophy, literature, and music. This major solo exhibition highlights Johnson’s role as a scholar of art history, a mediator of Black popular culture, and as a creative force in contemporary art.
Almost 90 works—from black-soap paintings and spray-painted text works to large-scale sculptures, film, and video—will fill the museum’s rotunda, including Sanguine, a monumental site-specific work on the building’s top ramp with an embedded piano for musical performances. Additionally, a dynamic program of events, developed in collaboration with community partners across New York City, will activate a sculptural stage on the rotunda floor.
The exhibition is organized by Naomi Beckwith, the Guggenheim’s Deputy Director and Jennifer and David Stockman Chief Curator, and Andrea Karnes, Chief Curator, Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Texas, with additional support from Faith Hunter, Guggenheim Curatorial Assistant.
