Rashid Johnson, a young promising artist from Chicago, made an auspicious debut in the exhibition “Freestyle” (2001), a show that formally established the genre referred to as post-black art. Conceived by Curator/Director Thelma Golden, Johnson pushed the boundaries of American art and what it means to be black in the post civil rights era. African American artists are redefining the black experience in context of the complex socio-political climate and placing it in a broader cultural narrative.
Johnson, now 40, is one of its chief proponents exploring black heritage through his family and personal history using a cross-disciplinary approach linking photography, video, painting, and sculpture. Johnson’s work is also deeply rooted in conceptualism and abstraction. Process is key and experimentation with materials such as shea butter and black soap; staples in West African culture are signatures of his artistic style.
Installation view of Rashid Johnson: Fly Away/2016
All this comes together in a beautifully executed exhibition “Fly Away” at Hauser & Wirth, in a series of new sculptures and paintings that focus on identity in light of recent racial tensions and the resulting fear and need for escapism. Aptly titled, it takes its name from a 1929 spiritual song, “I’ll Fly Away,” by Albert E, Brumley that invokes death as a way to reach a land of never ending joy (“I’ll Fly Away” a song reinterpreted over the past several decades including country western singer Johnny Cash and rapper Kanye West.)
“Fly Away” is well served by its installation in the gallery’s cavernous, column free space and soaring ceilings. Johnson, with an eye for spatial relationships added moveable walls to create distinct galleries hanging some nine paintings, three wall-mounted sculptures as well as a large-scale freestanding grid structure made of black metal.
Untitled Escape Collage
Starting with Anxious Audiences an extension of the exhibition Anxious Men held at The Drawing Center last fall, six-large scale black and white paintings repeat a series of similar genderless faces paired together each with a haunting expression that could be construed as fear or anger, but which Johnson alludes to as collective anxiety. Made directly on the floor, Johnson arranged panels of white tiles and used black soap and melted wax to compose their faces leaving the occasional blank space for the viewer, who he hopes joins in as a witness to draw their own conclusions as to meaning.
Up next, Escape Collages, a group of colorful paintings conjures up a joyful mood. Here Johnson used custom-made wallpaper from stock photographs of tropicalia (a Brazilian artistic movement from the 60s), and repeats black soap and wax materials splattered over colored tiles. Images of palm trees leave little doubt that escape to a peaceful place counters Johnson’s anxieties. In a new multi-media series, Falling Men, his customary materials, white ceramic tiles, red oak flooring, mirror fragments, black soap and wax render upside down abstract figures free falling from mid-air inspired by stick figures from video games which occupied Johnson in his youth.
Antoine’s Organ
Lastly, Antoine’s Organ, a 30-foot-tall scaffolding showcases various elements that inform the artist’s creativity presents a fine coda to the exhibition. Integrated into the lush vegetation in hand crafted ceramic vessels and decorated by Johnson is an array of personal objects from books, television screens streaming early videos, and shea butter sculptures. At the center, high on a platform musician Antoine Baldwin will periodically play on an upright piano (check the gallery for the schedule).
Through October 22, 2016, Hauser & Wirth, 511 West 18th St., NYC, 212-790-3900, hauserwirth.com
Photo Credits (in order of appearance):
Opening Photo:
Installation view of Rashid Johnson: Fly Away/2016
Hauser & Wirth New York, 18 Street
Photo: Martin Parestain
Installation view of Rashid Johnson: Fly Away/2016
Hauser & Wirth New York, 18 Street
Photo: Martin Parestain
Rashid Johnson
Untitled Escape Collage
2016
© The artist
Courtesy Hauser & Wirth
Rashid Johnson
Antoine’s Organ
2016
Photo: Martin Parsekain
© The artist
Courtesy Hauser & Wirth
