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The Dead Lecturer

February 22, 2008- March 29, 2008

Reception: February 22, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm

Rashid Johnson

Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery

526 W 26th St

Young artist seeks audience to enjoy poly-conscious attempts at post-medium condition production.

Must enjoy race mongering, disparate disconnected thoughts and sunsets (really). Familiarity with the work of Sun Ra, Joseph Beuys, Rosalind Krauss, Richard Pryor, Hans Haacke, Carl Andre and interest in spelunking the death of identity a plus. I’m looking for an audience with a good attention span that is willing to stay with me through the good and the bad. I enjoy creating videos, producing sculptures, and making photographs. My interest are costuming, Sam Greenlee novels, Godard films and masturbation. Ability to hold conversation using only rap lyrics, and a sense of humor a must.

— Rashid Johnson

Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery is pleased to present The Dead Lecturer, the first New York solo exhibition by Rashid Johnson, running from February 22 to March 29, 2008. An opening reception will be held on Friday, February 22, from 6-8 pm.

Titled after a book of poems by LeRoi Jones (later Amiri Baraka), the exhibition reflects Johnson’s multifaceted engagement with what David Hammons termed “cultural abstraction.” Using sculpture and tightly cropped photographs, the artist explores the semiotic systems and iconography of a mythic secret society of African-American intelligentsia within a metaphysical landscape removed from time and history.

Functioning as investigative reporter and archivist as well as artist, Johnson deploys materials including steel, shea butter, black soap, wax, mirrors, wood, together with found objects to form an installation that effortlessly shifts between media, emphasizing the poetic cadence of his work. Mysticism and nostalgia create interplay among smoke-shrouded portraits, symbolic substances, and menacing forms.

Rashid Johnson studied at Columbia College, Chicago (1996-2000) and the School at the Art Institute of Chicago (2004-2005). His exhibitions include Freestyle, curated by Thelma Golden (2001, The Studio Museum in Harlem, NY); A Perfect Union...More or Less, curated by Hamza Walker (2004, Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, IL); and recently, Color Line, curated by Odili Donald Odita (2007, Jack Shainman Gallery, NY). Upcoming exhibitions include the Magdeburger Kunstmuseum, Magdeburg, Germany (2008, solo) and the Contemporary Arts Center Cincinnati (2008). He lives and works in New York.

Art Reviews of The Dead Lecturer

New York Times March 28, 2008

Holland Cotter

"Rashid Johnson took the title of his auspicious New York solo debut from a 1964 book of poems by LeRoi Jones, now Amiri Baraka, that he produced during a transitional phase in his career, between his associations with the Beat movement and black nationalism. Mr. Johnson’s show, which generates its own poetry, suggests a transitional phase in art right now, a time when art can be about racial themes, but also be removed from them, free to play with contradictions...."

Books and DVDs related to artists in this show

Location   Gallery Nicole Klagsbrun Gallery Address 526 W 26th St, #213 New York (Chelsea) NY, 10001 United States Phone 212-243-3335 Fax 212-243-1059 Hours Tue-Sat 10-6 Nearby: All 27 galleries at 526 W 26th St

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