In New York, Rashid Johnson Plants a Profound Solo Show in the Guggenheim Rotunda

“We hadn’t seen these grand gestures since before the height of the COVID pandemic, so we’re all so excited to have the museum return to form as a building that inspires artists to take risks and play with the architecture,” says Naomi Beckwith, deputy director and Jennifer and David Stockman Chief Curator of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum. Beckwith co-curated “A Poem for Deep Thinkers” with Andrea Karnes, interim director and chief curator of the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, where the exhibition will be on view from March 8 through October 4, 2026, before traveling to the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago.

Beckwith continues, “Rashid Johnson’s particular intervention is a wonderful echo of Frank Lloyd Wright’s desire to always have living plants in the building. Like Wright, Rashid believes that a museum is a living, breathing entity that can house vivacity and life—not just still objects.”

Hidden among Sanguine’s vegetation is a piano, which will be activated with performances throughout the exhibition’s run. A robust series of performances and public programs (cultural partners include the Academy of American Poets and Harlem School of the Arts) will also take place on a stage that Johnson designed for the rotunda floor.

“I’ve thought a lot in my work about platforming. I’ve had many opportunities to have my voice amplified as an artist, and I really like the idea that you can create a stage for people in different communities to have a voice,” says Johnson. In 2022, for example, he presented a participatory installation called Stage at MoMA PS1 that drew on the history of the microphone as a tool for protest and public oratory. “I see this as an opportunity for me to learn from them and understand how other people are seeing the world.” (A former member of the Guggenheim’s board of trustees, Johnson has also been a supporter and funder of the museum’s internship program.)

With so much to ponder in his works, as well as in future performances, the artist urges visitors to return to the exhibition. “Just give me two days,” he says. “Two visits.”

“Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers” is on vew at the Guggenheim through January 18.