Rashid Johnson in conversation with Eleanor Nairne

Born in Chicago in 1977, Rashid Johnson is among an influential cadre of contemporary American artists whose work employs a wide range of media to explore themes of art history, individual and shared cultural identities, personal narratives, literature, philosophy, materiality, and critical history. After studying in the photography department of the Art Institute of Chicago, Johnson’s practice quickly expanded to embrace a wide range of media – including sculpture, painting, drawing, filmmaking, and installation – yielding a complex multidisciplinary practice that incorporates diverse materials rich with symbolism and personal history. 

Recent solo exhibitions include Rashid Johnson: The Hikers, Hauser & Wirth, New York NY (2019), Rashid Johnson. Anxious Audience, The Power Plant, Toronto, Canada (2019) and Rashid Johnson. Los Senderistas, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico (2019). Johnson’s artwork is in the permanent collections of many public institutions including: the Art Institute of Chicago; Brooklyn Art Museum; Guggenheim Museum; Metropolitan Museum of Art; National Museum of African American History and Culture; Studio Museum in Harlem; Walker Art Center; and the Whitney Museum of American Art.

Eleanor Nairne is Curator at Barbican Art Gallery, London, where her recent exhibitions include Lee Krasner: Living Colour (2019), Basquiat: Boom for Real (2017) and Imran Qureshi: Where the Shadows Are So Deep (2016). She was previously Curator of The Artangel Collection at Tate, working with artists including Francis Alÿs, Yael Bartana, Jeremy Deller, Mike Kelley, Tony Oursler and Catherine Yass. She is a contributor to the London Review of Books, the New York Times and frieze.