Rashid Johnson at Richard Gray & Monique Meloche

One of the artists who always makes my pulse rate go up and never ceases to amaze me is Mr. Johnson, a young Chicago native who lives in NYC and has a studio in Brooklyn.

His two new shows reveal a different side of his art that I have never seen before, more charged and more personal.

Funny, introspective, personal, performative, post-black

The "new escapist promised land garden and recreation center" show a softer side of Mr. Johnson, more spiritual and more cryptic.

Calling on black power but in a non-serious way , jokingly laughing at Utopia and it's promises of some far away garden (eden), and how it always kind of fails.

Also aware of the dangers of a promised dream ( i have a dream), someplace better than this place.

Sun Ra, outer worldly as is space is the place, arriving here on earth not from earth but some other place -- the spiritual aspect of his work.