The imposing totemic busts of Rashid Johnson’s Stacked Heads, one balanced atop the other, are constructed from bronze coated in a glossy black patina. Johnson created the work’s textured surface using incised marks, including expressive faces, recalling the artist’s distinctive, sometimes violent manipulation of softer, more malleable materials such as shea butter, black soap, and wax. “I always think about sculpture as an opportunity to draw in space,” Johnson has explained about his process. “My natural instinct is to put my hands in material.”

Johnson works across media, from ceramic and paint to performance and film, to address themes of history, cultural identity, and the psychological impact and complexity of our current sociopolitical moment. Part of the artist’s ongoing Anxious Men series (2015–), Stacked Heads speaks to a collective sense of uneasiness or apprehension. About the series, Johnson has said, “In a cathartic sense . . . I started making these characters that were real representations of my emotional state.” During the growing season, grasses and ferns native to Storm King’s ecosystem spring from cracks and crevices in the sculpture like abstracted facial features or leafy green hair. Johnson frequently uses plants in his work, creating a dialogue between humanmade and organic elements so as to instill in viewers feelings of empathy. As he has said, “I always thought it was interesting to make something that people had to take care of.”