Born in Evanston, IL, Rashid Johnson is considered as one of today’s most prolific voices in post-black modernism. The works of Johnson convey an array of topics within the African-American diaspora including finding individual identity among a strong social collective, exploring concepts of masculinity, addressing personal history, and bringing awareness to matters within philosophy and literature. His wide range of multidisciplinary talents includes photography, sculpture, painting, drawing, installation, and filmmaking in which the materials used are rich in symbolism relating to his personal and the collective African-American experience. 

Johnson received a BFA in photography from Columbia College Chicago in 2000 and received an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2005. In 2012 Johnson received the High Museum of Art’s David C. Driskell Prize, which honors contributions in the field of African American art. The same year, he was short-listed for the Hugo Boss Prize by the Guggenheim Museum.

Johnson’s work has been featured in solo presentations at a number of institutions, including the Indianapolis Museum of Contemporary Art (2005); SculptureCenter, New York (2009); Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (2012); Miami Art Museum (2012); and High Museum of Art, Atlanta (2013). He has participated in group shows at The Studio Museum in Harlem, New York (2001, 2009, and 2012); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2003); and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2004), as well as in the Venice Biennale (2011). Johnson lives and works in New York.