Press release

Recognized as one of the leading voices of his generation, Rashid Johnson’s new works in this exhibition at our Paris gallery, which span painting, sculpture and film, demonstrate the artist’s longstanding interest in the concepts of interiority and self-reflection. The exhibition marks the gallery debut of two new bodies of painting, the closely-related Soul Paintings and God Paintings, both series that Johnson has developed over the past year. Alongside and evolving out of the works on canvas are two new series of bronze sculptures, their roughly-modeled surfaces bearing witness to the artist’s hand in a way that has dominated his sculptural practice in recent years. Also on display is the artist’s latest film, ‘Sanguine,’ exploring relationships of attention and care among three generations of the artist’s family: his father, himself and his son.

Continuing to expand his distinctive visual lexicon, this exhibition exemplifies the artist’s interest in animism, the belief in which all things, including inanimate objects, have souls. Through the concept of animism, the artist connects to a reality beyond the physical, building an expansive vision of the universe in which all objects, including the paintings and sculptures on view, are imbued with spiritual life.