The New Escapist Promised Land Garden and Recreation Center is Rashid Johnson’s 3rd solo show at moniquemeloche. Johnson returns to his hometown to transform the gallery into a mystical, recreation space remixing black history with references to alchemy, divination, astronomy and other sciences that freely combine the natural and spiritual worlds.
“I’m thinking of this show as a creolized orgy between Sun Ra, Paul Gaugin. Kazmir Malevich, Debra Dickerson and Eldridge Cleaver (if his soul were no longer on ice). Mix in some green plants, shea butter, black soap and serve.” Rashid Johnson summer 2008.
New photographs, sculptures, and “paintings” are only part of this site-specific installation.
Rashid Johnson (b. Chicago, 1977, lives NY) is a conceptual artist who works in myriad media including sculpture, photography and video, among others. He received his MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2005) and his BFA from Columbia College, Chicago (2000). His work has been exhibited at the Art Institute of Chicago; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Detroit Institute of Arts; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; the Corcoran Museum of Art, Washington D.C.; the Institute of Contemporary Photography, New York; the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York; the Wadsworth Athenaeum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT; the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago where he had a solo exhibition. Upcoming exhibitions include 21: Selections of Contemporary Art from the Brooklyn Museumopening September 19, a solo exhibition at galeria annarumma 404, Milan, Italy in November, and 30 Americans at the Rubell Family Collection, Miami in December.
