The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum’s landmark 1959 building, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright, has always presented singular opportunities for living artists to engage with its sculptural spiraling ramp and central oculus illuminated by a domed skylight.

“It’s an institution that gives agency to solo exhibitions in ways unlike any other museum,” said Rashid Johnson, the multidisciplinary artist who served on the Guggenheim’s board from 2016 to 2023. “It’s a collaboration between the artist and inherently the architect.”

Next spring, Johnson will get to take on the entirety of Wright’s dramatic rotunda in a midcareer survey that opens April 18 and remains on view through Jan. 18, 2026. Titled “A Poem for Deep Thinkers,” it will include almost 90 works in photography, video, film, mixed-media paintings, sculpture and installation that scale the space and explore themes of identity, social alienation and rebirth in ways both political and deeply personal.

Johnson, 47, is one of the most influential voices of his generation and has expanded the cultural conversation around race in America through his art, advocacy and institutional stewardship. He stepped down as a Guggenheim trustee last year before proceeding with plans for this show to avoid the appearance of a conflict of interest.

(Similarly, Kasseem Dean, the producer and D.J. known as Swizz Beatz, resigned from the board of the Brooklyn Museum before its exhibition “Giants: Art From the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys” went on view this year.)