Hail We Now Sing Joy at Milwaukee Art Museum is an exhibition of new paintings and sculptures by acclaimed Chicago native Rashid Johnson.

Using his signature materials of white ceramic tile, red oak flooring, shea butter, black soap, and wax, Johnson examines themes of race, history, yearning, anxiety, and escape and investigates the relationship between art, society, and personal identity. Fourteen of the artist’s large-scale works will fill the Museum’s entire feature exhibition space; their impact is as monumental as their size.

Visitors to the exhibition will immediately encounter Antoine’s Organ. The monumental sculptural installation, inspired by the African diaspora, is filled with signifying objects including books, mounds of shea butter, and hundreds of live plants in ceramic vessels that Johnson hand-built and decorated. Local musicians will play the piano hidden within at scheduled times throughout the run of the exhibition. The work, named for classically trained pianist and music producer Antoine Baldwin, is the largest of the artist’s architectural grid works ever shown in the United States.

Along with “Antoine’s Organ,” this exhibition also feature large-scale works from his latest series, including “Anxious Audience,” “Falling Man,” and “Escape Collage” paintings.

The exhibition is accompanied by a wide program of talks and events. Find more information here 

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www.mam.org