Rindon Johnson (born 1990, California) is an American artist, poet and writer. Johnson has based his work on language and its slippery nature. He uses animal hides, animation, virtual reality, wood and vaseline to consider capital accumulation and the systemic violences that maintain it. Johnson has exhibited his sculptures and videos internationally in Europe, the United States, and Australia, and is a published author. As of 2026, Johnson is a faculty member and associate chair of painting at the Milton Avery Graduate School of the Arts at Bard College.
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Early life and education
Johnson was born in the unceded territory of the Ohlone peoples, in San Francisco, CA in 1990. He is an alumnus of the Department of Photography and Imaging (DPI) in the NYU Tisch School of the Arts and received his MFA from Bard College.
Works
Johnson is the author of several books including The Law of Large Numbers, published by SculptureCenter, Chisenhale Gallery and Inpatient Press in 2021, the chapbook, No One Sleeps Better Than White People, published by Inpatient Press, and the virtual reality e-book, Meet in the Corner. In 2017, Johnson collaborated with multidisciplinary artist Ser Serpas on Shade the King, a book of stream-of-consciousness-inspired poems by Johnson and abstract drawings by Serpas, published by Capricious.
Rindon Johnson participated in the 60th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia curated by Adriano Pedrosa. In 2024, Johnson presented his largest solo exhibition to date, Best Synthetic Answer, at the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai, China. His work has been shown internationally, including solo presentations at Albertinum, Dresden (2022), SculptureCenter in New York (2021), and the Julia Stoschek Collection in Düsseldorf (2019).
Johnson has written for a number of online and print art publications such as The Brooklyn Rail, Cultured Magazine, Hyperallergic, and Artforum and has lectured on art and theory at Bruce High Quality Foundation University, Princeton, UdK Berlin and UCLA.
Exhibitions
Solo exhibitions
Find Spot, Kunsthall Bergen, Bergen, Norway, 2025
Seven Whale Road, Cibrián, San Sebastián, Spain, 2025
Why tell a dead man the future, CC Strombeek, Brussels, Belgium, 2025
Best Synthetic Answer, Rockbund Museum - Shanghai, China, 2024
Five, Max Goelitz, Berlin, Germany, 2023-24
Andromache Freya Rocket Suki Nomad Pete Kimmy Z River Chloe Ali Robert Maple Tigger Theodosia Martha Nate, COMA Gallery, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, 2023
The Bells Pursuing One Another, Albertinum, Dresden, Germany, 2022
Cuvier, Francois Ghebaly, New York, New York, New York, USA, 2022
Law of Large Numbers: Our Bodies, SculptureCenter, Long Island City, New York, USA, 2021
Law of Large Numbers: Our Selves, Chisenhale Gallery, London, United Kingdom, 2021
The Valley of the Moon, Francois Ghebaly, Los Angeles, California, USA, 2021
Circumscribe, Julia Stoschek Collection, Düsseldorf, Germany, 2019
Well, Covered, AALA Gallery, Los Angeles, California, USA, 2018
A Din, A Hand, Beacon Sacramento, Sacramento, California, USA, 2017
