Look at Rashid Johnson’s friezes of square-headed figures, rendered in paintings, mosaics, and with black soap and wax, and you may think of those midcentury Rock ‘Em Sock ‘Em Robots, or Philip Guston’s unblinking Everymen, or a motherboard haunted by the heads of humans. Johnson, who was born in Chicago in 1977, often refers to these figures as “Anxious Men” or “Broken Men”—emotional states that suggest the out-of-body quality of Black life in America, the endless otherness and injustice. “The healing process starts with the negotiation of blunt force trauma,” Johnson told The New York Times in 2021. “It’s the story of recovery.” This major show, which originated at the Guggenheim, presents 70 key artworks by Johnson—paintings, sculptures, film, and video. —Laura Jacobs
Arts Intel Report
Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers
Rashid Johnson, Self-Portrait with My Hair Parted Like Frederick Douglass, 2003.
When
Nov 7, 2026 – Apr 25, 2027
Where
Etc
Photo: Nathan Keay, © MCA Chicago