Rashid Johnson
Stay Black and Die
September 9 - October 8, 2005
opening Friday, September 9, 6-9pm
Monique Meloche is pleased to present her second solo exhibition with
Rashid Johnson. Stay Black and Die takes it title from the first work
in the series "Things I need to do" -- an aggressive spray enamel
on felt piece which premiered at LISTE 05: The Young Art Fair in Basel.
This literary-minded artist has always placed an importance on his often
elaborately titled works. However, Johnson has a small but significant
set of works where text is employed visually beginning with the large-scale
NEGRO 2001 (a unique Van-Dyke process photo of cotton seeds and black-eyed
peas) to I Talk White 2003 (a photograph of text written with Luster's
Pink Lotion) to I wish I was white 2004 his first spray enamel piece made
for Johnson's solo project at LISTE 04. Although trained as photographer,
Johnson has considerably expanded his practice to also include video,
sculpture, and collaborative projects. A site-specific installation expanding
on his broken table series Homage to Chinua Achebe will be the central
focus of the exhibition vying for the attention of a life-size nude portrait
of the artist as an homage to the painter Barkley Hendricks.
Rashid Johnson (b. 1977 Chicago, lives NY) received his BFA in photography
from Columbia College and continued graduate studies at the School of
The Art Institute of Chicago 2003-05. Previous exhibitions include Freestyle
curated by Thelma Golden at the Studio Museum in Harlem 2002, The Square
Circled curated by Olukemi Ilesanmi at the Walker Art Museum, Minneapolis
2003, Only Skin Deep curated by Coco Fusco at the International Center
of Photography NY 2003, and A Perfect Union...More or Less curated by
Hamza Walker at The Renaissance Society Chicago 2004. Johnson is currently
featured in the International Bienniale of Contemporary Art in Prague
(thru Sept. 11, 2005), Crossings: 10 artists from Kaohsiung & Chicago
at the Chicago Cultural Center (thru Oct. 9) and traveling to the Museum
of Fine Art Kaohsiung, Taiwan (Nov. 2005), and WISH at the Center of Contemporary
Art Seattle (CoCA) (thru Oct. 9). Upcoming exhibitions include the PAN
Contemporary Art Museum Italy http://www.palazzoartinapoli.net/ concurrent
with a solo show at 404 arte contemporanea also in Naples (Oct 2005).
Johnson was just invited by the Studio Museum to participate in their
Harlem Postcard Project this November. In 2006 Johnson will participate
in the first Luanda Triennial in Angola entitled "The Color Line"
curated by Odili Donald Odita. In addition to a number of important private
collections internationally, Johnsons' work is in such public institutions
as the Whitney Museum NY, Studio Museum in Harlem, Art Institute of Chicago,
Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Columbia College Chicago, Detroit
Institute of Art, Smith College Massachusetts, and Allen Memorial Art
Museum at Oberlin College.
