Past | Hammer Museum

Grainy video still of artist Ulysses Jenkins singing into a microphone

Ulysses Jenkins: Without Your Interpretation

Feb 6 – May 15, 2022 This is a past exhibition

The first major retrospective of the groundbreaking Los Angeles video and performance artist.

Photo of a sculpture of a form with a human face, and behind it an exploded view of a human figure suspended from the ceiling, in an orange-hued room

Hammer Projects: Kiyan Williams

May 28 – Aug 28, 2022 This is a past exhibition

The first solo museum exhibition for artist Kiyan Williams, an installation of sculptural forms, is a meditation on the notion of the “ruined” body and its potential to transcend and generate new futures.

Life-sized white plaster figures of a girl climbing the stairs and a principal with arms crossed, both with antlers on their heads

Karon Davis: Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection

Feb 11 – Apr 9, 2023 This is a past exhibition

This installation of three figures rendered in Davis’s familiar lexicon of plaster and wire remarks on the long and continuing legacies of violence in American schools.

Illustration of a human foot with the text "Human Garbage" written on top.

A Decade of Acquisitions of Works on Paper – Part II

May 22 – Aug 21, 2022 This is a past exhibition

The second presentation in the Hammer's works on paper gallery includes prints, drawings, and photography-based works by artists such as Robert Gober, Sonia Gomes, Jasper Johns, Nam June Paik, and Barbara T. Smith.

A digitally-processed image of nature

Refik Anadol: Machine Hallucinations: Nature Dreams

Oct 8 – Nov 8, 2022 This is a past exhibition

This AI data sculpture draws upon more than 300 million images to create multisensory experience that commemorates the inherent beauty of the planet Earth.

Drawing of a nude woman lying among a blue background.

Picasso Cut Papers

Oct 1 – Dec 31, 2022 This is a past exhibition

Spanning the full career of the artist, Picasso Cut Papers is devoted to a little known yet foundational aspect of Pablo Picasso’s artistic practice.

Abstract landscape painting with a nude figure.

Bob Thompson: This House Is Mine

Oct 11, 2022 – Jan 8, 2023 This is a past exhibition

The first major survey of the visionary US painter in more than 20 years makes its Los Angeles debut.

View of Hammer Projects: Janiva Ellis at the Hammer Museum

Hammer Projects: Janiva Ellis

Sep 24, 2022 – Jan 22, 2023 This is a past exhibition

The New York–based artist's first exhibition in Los Angeles centers on a single painting that responds to the architecture of the Hammer vault gallery.

Installation photograph of Hammer Projects: Eric-Paul Riege

Hammer Projects: Eric-Paul Riege

NOV 13, 2022–FEB 19, 2023

Diné artist Eric-Paul Riege presents a new installation in woven sculpture, video, and performance.

A black and white photo portrait of writer Joan Didion using her turtle-neck sweater to cover her face

Joan Didion: What She Means

OCT 11, 2022–FEB 19, 2023

Curated by Hilton Als, Joan Didion: What She Means is an exhibition as portrait, a narration of the life of one artist by another.

Two hands, seen in close up, pass a strawberry between them

Permanent collection

Full Burn: Video from the Hammer Contemporary Collection

Full Burn unfolds as a series of discrete looped encounters and thematic pairings pulled from the Hammer’s ever-expanding collection of video and other time-based media.

Mar 11 – Sep 10, 2023 This is a past exhibition

Mural-scale painting showing silhouettes of racial atrocities

Permanent collection

Kara Walker: Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection

With her 12-foot painting in the round, Walker uses the silhouette to cast shadows on conventional thinking about race representation in the context of discrimination, exclusion, sexual desire, and love.

Jul 8 – Sep 3, 2023 This is a past exhibition

Hammer Projects: Simone Leigh, installation view, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, September 17, 2016–January 8, 2017. Photo: Brian Forrest.

Permanent collection

Ecstatic: Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection

A selection of works from our collection that highlight the central role that drawing and sculpture occupy within Los Angeles and the broader field of contemporary art.

Jun 10 – Aug 27, 2023 This is a past exhibition

Painting of a nude female form, seen in a psychedelic, exploded view

Permanent collection

Together in Time: Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection

Presented in conjunction with the unveiling of the Hammer’s building expansion, this exhibition is the largest presentation of the Hammer Contemporary Collection in the museum’s history.

Mar 26 – Aug 20, 2023 This is a past exhibition

Web of red twine wraps Hammer Museums entire walkway

Hammer Projects

Hammer Projects: Chiharu Shiota

The inaugural exhibition in the Hammer’s redesigned lobby envelops the area with a unique and visceral installation.

Mar 26 – Aug 20, 2023 This is a past exhibition

A gallery wall covered in drawings, with a headless mannequin sitting against it

Permanent collection

Kaari Upson: Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection

At once familiar and foreign, Upson’s works merge personal and collective traumas, desires, fears, and fantasies.

Apr 22 – Jun 18, 2023 This is a past exhibition

A warped checkerboard patter of black and cream rectangles

Featured exhibitions

Bridget Riley Drawings: From the Artist's Studio

The first and most extensive museum exhibition dedicated exclusively to Bridget Riley’s drawings in over half a century.

Feb 4 – May 28, 2023 This is a past exhibition

Permanent collection

Cruel Youth Diary: Chinese Photography and Video from the Haudenschild Collection

Pioneering Chinese photography and video from the 1990s and early 2000s featuring Cao Fei, Weng Fen, Xu Zhen, Yang Fudong, Zhu Jia, and more.

Feb 15 – May 14, 2023 This is a past exhibition

Life-sized white plaster figures of a girl climbing the stairs and a principal with arms crossed, both with antlers on their heads

Permanent collection

Karon Davis: Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection

This installation of three figures rendered in Davis’s familiar lexicon of plaster and wire remarks on the long and continuing legacies of violence in American schools.

Feb 11 – Apr 9, 2023 This is a past exhibition

A black and white photo portrait of writer Joan Didion using her turtle-neck sweater to cover her face

Featured exhibitions

Joan Didion: What She Means

Curated by Hilton Als, Joan Didion: What She Means is an exhibition as portrait, a narration of the life of one artist by another.

Oct 11, 2022 – Feb 19, 2023 This is a past exhibition