Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers

More than 70 works spanning nearly three decades of Rashid Johnson’s practice come together at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago in A Poem for Deep Thinkers. The survey brings together photographs, large-scale installations, and films, including his black-soap Cosmic Slops paintings and the expressive faces of the Anxious Men and Broken Men series.

Throughout his career, Johnson has drawn on Black intellectual culture and art history to explore questions of identity, anxiety, and freedom. His 2024 film Sanguine turns toward his own family, examining relationships with his father, brother, and son, and incorporating a poem by writer and activist Amiri Baraka.