Rashid Johnson | New Growth @ Marfa Ballroom | Marfa, TX
8 MARCH 2013 - SPRING 2013
Rashid Johnson’s installations, assemblages of paintings, sculptures, photographs and videos, are deep meditations on the cultural phenomena that shape African-Americans as a social group while questioning the uniformity of “black experience.” Proceeding through reference and sheer density of information, Johnson works with both personal and historical loaded objects such as books, record albums, oyster shells and shea butter. Johnson’s work asks the viewer to examine the power behind the relationships of the objects as taxonomic logics. These slippery conceptual surfaces rely on spirit, fiction, fetish and his dedication to craftsmanship, design and historical scholarship.
In New Growth, a solo-exhibition consisting of a never-before-seen body of work, Johnson continues his exploration of African-American intellectual history and pop culture in steel and shea butter sculptures and starscape paintings.
