Seven Rooms and a Garden

In the exhibition Seven Rooms and a Garden, the work of American artist and filmmaker Rashid Johnson (b. 1977, Chicago) is in conversation, confrontation, and at times collusion with the collection of Moderna Museet. Each room—and the garden—stages an encounter based on the personal, political, and art historical relationships that unfold in his practice.

Abstraction as a source of life
For Rashid Johnson, abstraction is a source of life. In his Bruise paintings or the more recent God series, both of which are included in the exhibition, the abstract painterly mark is an expression of a spiritual or psychological journey. His monumental installation Home (2023), made especially for the exhibition, finds form for Black intellectual and cultural histories—in sheabutter sculptures, books, and the growth of plant life. Or the abstract gesture manifests in subtle interventions, from rearranging the architecture of the museum to introducing images, sounds, and scenographies that reset the space of Moderna Museet. In all the works and interventions in Seven Rooms and a Garden, Johnson explores abstraction as an art historical lineage, a political necessity, or a personal appeal.  

Home
The domestic space is an important context and source of inspiration for Johnson, and serves as a model for the exhibition Seven Rooms and a Garden. Johnson says: “I’ve always been interested in the domestic. And kind of hijacking things that we’re familiar with and essentially occupying them.” His recent film Black and Blue (2021), which features prominently in the exhibition, is a case in point. Mainly situated in the artist’s home, the work depicts the life of the protagonist, played by Johnson himself, as he goes through his daily routines of eating, driving, exercising, spending time with his family, and sleeping. A tension is felt in Black and Blue between what is public and private, what is familiar and unknown, what is expected and what actually occurs. In this unconventional self-portrait, Johnson returns the gaze to the intimate endeavors of being human.

The artist’s home in Black and Blue is expanded in the exhibition to seven rooms and a garden—an interior of Rashid Johnson’s practice, inhabited by artists in Moderna Museet’s renowned collection.  

Encounters
We invite you to meet Rashid Johnson—through his own work and the work of nearly forty artists within and beyond Moderna Museet’s collection, including Soufiane Ababri, Louis Armstrong, Amiri Baraka, Louise Bourgeois, Tony Cokes, John Coltrane, De La Soul, Jean Dubuffet, Elliott Erwitt, Samuel Fosso, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Marcia Hafif, David Hammons, Every Ocean Hughes, On Kawara, Sol LeWitt, Klara Lidén, Lee Lozano, Ernest Mancoba, Henri Matisse, Santiago Mostyn, Maia Cruz Palileo, Jackson Pollock, Sun Ra, Robert Rauschenberg, Niki de Saint Phalle, Melissa Shook, Cauleen Smith, The Clash, Salman Toor, Cy Twombly, Snežana Vučetić Bohm, Andy Warhol, Stanley Whitney, and Frank Zappa.

Conversations and public program
Seven Rooms and a Garden includes a variety of activities and events. On Friday, September 29, at 3:30pm, Rashid Johnson and Moderna Museet curator Hendrik Folkerts will be in conversation about the exhibition. On Saturday, September 30, at 1:00 pm, renowned cellist Svante Henryson is performing in the exhibition. Subsequently, there will be a musician playing once a month in the exhibition space, as well as a continuing program of lectures, workshops, and performances.

As part of the exhibition, a free pocketbook designed by Julia Born is available to visitors, comprising a conversation between Rashid Johnson and writer Kevin Quashie.

Seven Rooms and a Garden is curated by Hendrik Folkerts, Curator of International Contemporary Art and Head of Exhibitions, Moderna Museet, Stockholm.

The exhibition is generously supported by The Terra Foundation for American Art and The Rashid Johnson Exhibition Circle.

Seven Rooms and a Garden is the third chapter of the museum’s new collection display where artworks from Moderna Museet’s collection are presented in three large-scale thematic exhibitions. Together, the exhibitions explore a variety of art historical narratives, replacing the earlier chronological format. Over time, the audience will thus encounter more works from Moderna Museet’s renowned collection.