SPACE IS THE PLACE: Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection
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SPACE IS THE PLACE is a Hammer Contemporary Collection exhibition that takes its title from the 1973 studio album and 1974 film by Sun Ra (1914–1993), a Black American experimental jazz composer and musician known for his radical and esoteric views on Black liberation. The selected works in the exhibition consider “space” as a conceptual framework, through the themes of afro-futurism, belonging, placemaking, and the act of taking up space. SPACE IS THE PLACE comprises installations, paintings, sculptures, photographs, and multi-media works by nearly thirty artists. Artists in the exhibition include Edgar Arceneaux, Nayland Blake, Mark Bradford, Ben Caldwell, Coleman Collins, Alonzo Davis, Danielle Dean, Fred Eversley, Kohshin Finley, Lauren Halsey, Juliana Huxtable, Arthur Jafa, Shaniqwa Jarvis, Forrest Kirk, Rodney McMillian, Arcmanoro Niles, Thomas J Price, Michael Queenland, Betye Saar, Jamilah Sabur, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Shikeith, Cauleen Smith, Eric Wesley, Fred Wilson, and Brenna Youngblood.
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![Scum, by Nayland Blake, 1990]()
Nayland Blake, Scum, 1990Ink on chalkboard. 48 × 72 1/4 × 1 3/4 in. (121.9 × 183.5 × 4.4 cm). Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Gift of Alan Hergott and Curt Shepard. Photograph by Robert Wedemeyer
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![The back of a bust of Nefertiti, with a subtitle reading "the idea that the objectified could and did resist."]()
Coleman Collins, Specular fiction, 2024 (still)HD video. 8 min. Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Purchased with funds provided by Karen Hillenburg. Photo by Evan Walsh
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![Colorful abstracted image in red and indigo]()
Cauleen Smith, My Caldera, 2022 (still)Digitized 35mm film, color, sound. 19:53 min. Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Purchased with funds provided by Karen Hillenburg
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![On the left, a cork board with a hand-drawn map pinned in pieces; on the right, a drawing of a giant man standing in a cityscape]()
Eric Wesley, Untitled (Everywhere I Have Worked, Lived, and Gone to School (1974-2000), 2000–1Pencil and pen on graph paper, acrylic and mixed media on paper. Dimensions variable. Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Gift of Dean Valentine and Amy Adelson
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![A nude woman with green skin and bright yellow braids kneels on a beach]()
Juliana Huxtable, Untitled in the Rage (Nibiru Cataclysm), 2015Color inkjet print. 40 × 30 in. (101.6 × 76.2 cm). Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Gift of Mihail Lari and Scott Murray
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![Pink object against a white background]()
Fred Eversley, Untitled (cylindrical lens), 2024Cast polyurethane. 87 × 19 × 9 1/2 in. (221 × 48.3 × 24.1 cm). Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Gift of Sean and Alexandra Parker
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![Geometric tiles decorated with cigarette packs with pictures of a baby smoking a cigarette on them]()
Michael Queenland, Untitled (Baby smoking), 2017Marble, granite, ceramic tile, dye sublimation tile, wood, and metal frame. Overall: 80 1/4 × 32 1/4 × 1 in. (203.8 × 81.9 × 2.5 cm). Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Purchase.
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![Three dingy sinks arranged in a triangle on a gray wall]()
Brenna Youngblood, The Backbone of Resentment and Reassurance #3, 2006Color photographs, acrylic medium, spray paint. 72 x 73 1/4 in. (182.9 x 186.1 cm). Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Purchase
SPACE IS THE PLACE: Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection is organized by Erin Christovale, curator, with Azul Silverio, curatorial assistant.
The exhibition is supported by the Pasadena Art Alliance.
All exhibitions at the Hammer are made possible by the Hammer Exhibition Fund. Lead support is provided by Alice and Nahum Lainer. Generous support is provided by Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein, Christine Meleo Bernstein and Armyan Bernstein, and Bill Hair.
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