Rashid Johnson, The Reader, 2008, a photograph

Museum of Contemporary Art ChicagoNear North Side / Streeterville

Rashid Johnson: A Poem for Deep Thinkers

Now showing7 November 2026 – 25 April 2027$22

More than 70 works span the Chicago-born artist's career, from his New Negro Escapist Social and Athletic Club photographs to the Anxious Men and Broken Men series.

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On now All of November 2026

Preview: written before the show opened

Somewhere inside Antoine's Organ, a black steel grid thick with plants, books and video screens, there's a hidden piano. On set dates, musicians improvise from inside it for 30 minutes at the top of the hour. Space is tight, so the MCA asks you to keep moving during a set: the one gig in Chicago where leaving mid-song is polite.

Around it are more than 70 works in the Griffin Galleries, from the New Negro Escapist Social and Athletic Club photographs to black soap and wax reliefs and the Anxious Men and Broken Men series. It's the Chicago-born artist's third MCA solo show, after 2002 and 2012.

Reviewing the larger Guggenheim run in 2025, ARTnews called it "revelatory", while Hyperallergic's Seph Rodney saw books everywhere and wondered "where the apprehended knowledge shows up." The Organ has books of its own, so judge for yourself. Admission covers it ($22, $19 for Chicago residents, free 18 and under), and Tuesdays run to 9pm, free for Illinois residents from 5pm.

Editor's pick

Antoine's Organ, a steel grid of plants, books and video screens, hides a piano that musicians play from inside. Around it hang 70-plus works from the Chicago-born artist's career. ARTnews called the larger Guggenheim version "revelatory".

Look for

Antoine's Organ
A black steel scaffold grid filled with plants in Johnson's handmade ceramic pots, books, domestic objects and monitors looping his early films, with a piano hidden at its centre.
The Reader (2008)
Johnson lies on a chaise longue in a white robe, holding a red-covered book up so it hides his face.
Self-Portrait with My Hair Parted Like Frederick Douglass (2003)
Johnson poses with the abolitionist's hairstyle in a print over four and a half feet tall, big enough, ARTnews noted, to see every pore.
The New Negro Escapist Social and Athletic Club
Black-and-white portraits of members of a fictional club of Black intellectuals, inspired by the ideas of W.E.B. Du Bois.
The Anxious Men
Faces drawn in black soap and wax, their eyes scratched round and round in tight circles and their mouths a grid of gritted abrasions.

Good for

Evening Visits
Nerding Out

With kids

Free for anyone 18 and under. Family Day: Hibernate, Meditate (12 December, 11am to 3pm) is built around Johnson's work, is free to attend and has ASL interpretation.