Review | Rashid Johnson at the Guggenheim Museum of Art

Rashid Johnson's most expansive institutional presentation to date, A Poem for Deep Thinkers, is on view at the Guggenheim Museum until January 18, 2026. 

The moment you walk into the museum you begin to be immersed in the environment that Johnson is creating. Plants hang down from the ceiling, mimicking his Sanguine sculptures. 

A Poem for Deep Thinkers occupies the spiraling rotunda of the Guggenheim with undeniable force, ambition, and vulnerability. The exhibition engages directly with the museum’s iconic architecture, inviting viewers into a layered exploration of interior space—both physical and emotional. Johnson, known for his multimedia practice rooted in themes of identity, anxiety, and Black intellectual history, uses the Guggenheim’s circular form to guide visitors through an unfolding narrative of presence and reflection. 

As you ascend the ramp into the rotunda, you are met with large-scale works tucked inside the first gallery of the museum. As you make your way up the ramp, you are confronted with paintings, photos, sculptures, videos, and other mixed media works until you get to the top, where Johnson's classic and, in this case site-specific, Sanguine sculptures are all around you. 

At the heart of the show is a new body of large-scale Bruise paintings and Surrender paintings, as well as immersive installations that transform the museum into a site of contemplation and openness. The title of the show is poetic and evocative, suggesting an invitation to step into a slower, more considered space. 

The paintings, made with a dense mix of materials, evoke physical and emotional wounds. Their textured surfaces, filled with symbolic imagery and gestural marks, suggest a blend of personal and collective histories.

Equally impactful are the bronze sculptures. Contorted and expressive, they sit on tiled plinths that reference both classical pedestals and contemporary altars. These figures convey a strong tension between vulnerability and strength, presence and collapse, and bring a powerful physicality to the institutional space.

I first saw Rashid Johnson's work nearly a decade ago at a gallery in Chelsea. They have and always will be something that I could spend an immense amount of time with. Exploring every shelf of his installations, looking at all the markings of his Anxious Men paintings, or all the details in his collage works.

This exhibition does a good job of highlighting the breadth of Johnson's works, while allowing for the viewer to take their time with each piece. Even on a crowded day, going around the rotunda of the museum did not feel overwhelming like it has at other times. There seemed to be space for everyone in the galleries, as well as the little nooks that house Johnson's video works.

Johnson’s use of living plants, books, shea butter, and video throughout the exhibition draws from his well-established material vocabulary. These elements are meant to feel organic, evolving, and lived-in, offering moments of intimacy that contrast with the scale of the museum itself. While the Guggenheim’s architecture is monumental, Johnson’s work manages to introduce warmth and immediacy into the space.

A Poem for Deep Thinkers does not present a linear narrative. Instead, it opens up a meditative space in which the viewer can consider how Black interior life is shaped by and resists structures of power, visibility, and expectation. Johnson’s strength lies in creating environments where multiple ideas can coexist: beauty with pain, intellect with emotion, vulnerability with monumentality. 

A Poem for Deep Thinkers is an excellent example of how an artist's intention can come to life in an institutional space. With such a long run time, you will not want to miss this exhibition.