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, Forrest Kirk, Rodney McMillian, Arcmanoro Niles, Thomas J Price, Michael Queenland, Jamilah Sabur, Paul Mpagi Sepuya, Shikeith, Cauleen Smith, Kara Walker, Eric Wesley, Fred Wilson, Brenna Youngblood, and others.
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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)Single-channel, digitized 35mm film, and 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), 2000-2001Works on paper - 2 parts; MAP (pencil and pen on graph paper), Painting (acrylic and mixed media on paper). MAP: dimensions variable, installed Painting: 26 x 19 inches. 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. Sheet: 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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![A Black woman lays on a bed, and a black man stands at the foot of the bed, both in their underwear, in a room tinted turquoise]()
Arcmanoro Niles, Show Me I'm Not Shattered (Try To Ignore the Elephant Somehow), 2020Oil, acrylic and glitter on canvas.. Overall: 81 × 66 in. (205.7 × 167.6 cm). Hammer Museum, Los Angeles. Gift of Gelena and Keith Wasserman.
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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 paint/medium, and spray paint. Overall: 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 Juan Manuel Silverio, curatorial assistant.