Leasho Johnson
Chicago Reader

In his review of Dancing the Revolution: From Dancehall to Reggaetón at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Jesus J. Montero examines the exhibition's ambitious exploration of dancehall and reggaeton as cultural, political, and artistic forces. Curated by Carla Acevedo-Yates, the exhibition brings together contemporary artworks, archival materials, photography, music, and film to trace the influence of Caribbean sound cultures on identity formation, migration, resistance, and social movements across generations.

 

Among the artists featured, Leasho Johnson receives particular attention through Perplexity of the Consumed, a large-scale installation that the artist describes as "an entire venue" rather than a singular encounter. Montero highlights Johnson's engagement with Black queer social spaces, emphasizing how abstraction functions both as a formal strategy and a means of protection. "It's a queer party," Johnson explains, "a place where queer bodies come together," while noting that obscurity and concealment are integral to the work's construction and meaning.

 

The article further explores Johnson's relationship to Caribbean music as a site of resistance and collective memory. Drawing connections between his layered painting process and the histories embedded within colonial economies, particularly through the symbolism of sugarcane, Johnson describes his practice as one of accumulation, burial, and revelation. As he reflects, "My approach to painting is a lot about forgetting and burying certain things," positioning his work within the exhibition's broader consideration of how music, community, and cultural expression become vehicles for survival, visibility, and liberation.