Shea Sells By The Guggenheim

Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers
On view through January 2026, the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum presents a major solo exhibition of works by Chicago-born artist Rashid Johnson. Spanning nearly three decades of his career, the exhibition brings together close to 90 works, offering the public a comprehensive opportunity to engage with Johnson’s artistic practice.

Rashid Johnson’s practice is anchored in a material drawn from the intimate textures of his own life, transformed into signifiers of broader cultural histories. Shea butter, for instance, occupies a central role in his work. A familiar substance within the home, it is at once a deeply personal reference and a diasporic marker, imported from West Africa and widely used across African-American communities. It’s brilliant and wholesome, giving insight into Johnson’s upbringing and reinterpreting it into physical material. Black soap, another recurring element (and historically West African), functions in a similar way. Both sincere and estranged, pointing to the absurdity and yet the power of substituting a material for lived experience. Within Johnson’s installations, it becomes a poetic tale of inheritance and belonging, embodying the complex interplay between the personal and the collective. Through this use of matter, Johnson collapses distinctions between cultural memory and historical narrative, allowing his chosen objects to resonate with multiple interpretations.

This powerful exhibition was curated by The Guggenheim’s Deputy Director Naomi Beckwith in collaboration with Andrea Karnes, Chief Curator of The Modern Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas. Addition credit to Faith Hunter, curatorial assistant for the Guggenheim.