Rashid Johnson

Rashid Johnson
Rashid Johnson at the Rubell Family Collection in December 2008
Born	Rashid Johnson 1977
Nationality	American
Education	Columbia College Chicago School of the Art Institute of Chicago
Occupation	Artist
Years active	1996-present
Known for	Painting, Photography, Film and Sculpture
Home town	Chicago, Illinois U.S.
Spouse(s)	Sheree Hovsepian
Children	1

Rashid Johnson (born 1977) is an African-American artist who produces conceptual post-black art. Johnson first received critical attention when examples of his work were included in the exhibition "Freestyle," curated by Thelma Golden at the Studio Museum in Harlem in 2001—when he was 24. He has studied at Columbia College Chicago and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work has been exhibited around the world and he is held in collections of many of the world's leading art museums.

In addition to photography, which is where Johnson began, he presents audio (mostly music), video and sculpture art. Johnson is known for both his unusual artistic productions and for his process. He is also known for combining various science with black history so that his materials, which are formally independent, are augmented by their relation to black history. He was a 2012 Hugo Boss Prize finalist.

Johnson was born in Illinois to an academic and scholar mother, Dr. Cheryl Johnson-Odim, and a former Vietnam-war veteran father, Jimmy Johnson, who was an artist but worked in electronics. His parents divorced when he was 2 years old. His mother remarried a man of Nigerian descent. Johnson said that growing up his family was based in afrocentrism and that his family celebrated Kwanzaa.

Johnson was raised in the Wicker Park neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois, as well as Evanston, Illinois. A photography major, he earned a 2000 Bachelor of Fine Arts from Columbia College Chicago and a 2005 Master of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. While at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, one of his mentors was Gregg Bordowitz.