In 1992 the Jamaican scholar and theorist Sylvia Wynter penned a seminal text titled “‘No Humans Involved’: An Open Letter to My Colleagues.” The title refers to an internal code that was used by the Los Angeles Police Department, usually in relation to cases that disproportionately involved Black and Brown Angelenos who were often identified as sex workers, gang members, or drug traffickers. The code became public knowledge in 1992, shortly after the trial and ultimate acquittal of the four police officers charged with the use of excessive force in the brutal beating of Rodney King. In her open letter, written to her colleagues as a call to action, Wynter argues that academia is partly to blame for this horrific event and its aftermath, which forever changed the cultural and social landscape of Los Angeles, because academic institutions uphold and disseminate problematic constructs of race, gender, class, sexuality, and other categories that continue to overdetermine our lived experience and justify or deny our humanity. She asks, “How did they come to conceive of what it means to be both human and North American in the kinds of terms (i.e. to be White, of Euro American culture and descent, middle-class, college-educated and suburban) within whose logic the jobless and usually school drop-out/push-out category of young Black males can be perceived, and therefore behaved towards, only as the Lack of the human, the Conceptual Other to being North American?”

No Humans Involved expands on Wynter’s ideas, showcasing the work of seven artists and collectives whose practices disrupt and interrogate Western modes of humanism, highlight the limits of corporeal identity, and prioritize the nonhuman or antihuman as a point of departure. Featuring works of sculpture, performance, installation, and multimedia by Eddie Aparicio, Tau Lewis, Las Nietas de Nonó, Sondra Perry, SANGREE, WangShui, and Wilmer Wilson IV, artists whose conceptual explorations provide a contemporary response to Wynter’s original call to action.

No Humans Involved is organized by Erin Christovale, associate curator, with Vanessa Arizmendi, curatorial assistant.

Witch Hunt offers an incisive survey of complex and impactful practices by some of the most influential artists working today and includes newly commissioned works as well as major projects that have yet to be shown on the West Coast or in the United States. Witch Hunt marks the Los Angeles museum debut of Leonor Antunes, Shu Lea Cheang, Minerva Cuevas, Bouchra Khalili, Laura Lima, Otobong Nkanga, and Okwui Okpokwasili.

Artists

Leonor Antunes (Portuguese, b. 1972)

Yael Bartana (Israeli, b. 1970)

Pauline Boudry (Swiss, b. 1972)

& Renate Lorenz (German, b. 1972)

Candice Breitz (South African, b. 1972)

Shu Lea Cheang (American, b. 1954)

Minerva Cuevas (Mexican, b. 1975)

Vaginal Davis (American, b. 1969)

Every Ocean Hughes (formerly Emily Roysdon) (American, b. 1977)

Bouchra Khalili (Moroccan, b. 1975)

Laura Lima (Brazilian, b. 1971)

Teresa Margolles (Mexican, b. 1963)

Otobong Nkanga (Nigerian, b. 1974)

Okwui Okpokwasili (Nigerian American, b. 1972)

Lara Schnitger (Dutch, b. 1969)

Beverly Semmes (American, b. 1958)

The exhibition is a collaboration between the Hammer Museum and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA), and works are on view at both sites.

Witch Hunt is organized by Connie Butler, Hammer Chief Curator and Anne Ellegood, ICA LA Good Works Executive Director, with Nika Chilewich, Hammer Curatorial Assistant. The exhibition is organized by the Hammer Museum and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA).

Politically inspired illustrations to accompany conversations about society’s most pressing issues.

Love is a refutation of the intellect in many instances. We cannot reason love into being. This characteristic of love is akin to the felt harmonic rhythm of music, in that it grabs ahold of us from deep within our bodies and becomes the foundation for resonance. On top of this foundation, we build both odes to love’s beauty and monuments to its devastation. When we remove cerebral resistance, when we let go in sex or in music or in the act of art-making, we become true conduits for powerful energy greater than ourselves. Now is a good time to move toward a conception of love as available dynamism we all can tap.

“The Nature of Nature,” solo exhibition by New York-based artist, Colleen Herman. Herman’s first showing at L’editions temporary Los Angeles brick-and-mortar space. As indicated by the exhibition’s title, the works herein are a deep dive as if into the very molecules humming through the natural world.

The fifth iteration of the Hammer’s acclaimed biennial bridges east and west with complementary presentations at the Hammer and The Huntington.

Works by 30 Los Angeles–based artists are presented at both institutions—two versions that make up the whole. The exhibition features new installations, videos, films, sculptures, performances, and paintings, many commissioned specifically for the exhibition.

Funded through the generosity of Los Angeles philanthropists and art collectors Jarl and Pamela Mohn, three awards totaling $150,000 are given to artists in the exhibition: the Mohn Award, the Career Achievement Award—both of which are selected by a professional jury—and the Public Recognition Award, which is determined through votes cast by visitors to the exhibition. Visitors vote at both exhibition locations. Learn about the award winners.

Made in L.A. 2020 is organized by independent curators Myriam Ben Salah and Lauren Mackler, with the Hammer’s Ikechukwu Onyewuenyi, assistant curator of performance.

Design in Collaboration with Studio Ella

Series of illustrations for Marja Hansen digital EP releases

Design for Allie Crow Buckley’s premiere album

Brand identity and packaging design for Troupe Beauty.

Photos by Adam Rindy

Insert designed for limited edition fragrance partnership between Heretic Parfum and acclaimed drag performance artist Violet Chachki.

photo by: Ruven Afanador

Logo design for debut album from Terri Terri. Artwork by Brittany Bogan.

https://territerri.bandcamp.com/releases

Logo and title design for Los Angeles based musician Gothic Tropic.

Custom typography inspired by textura or Gothic bookhand, a script used throughout Western Europe from approximately 1150 until the 17th century.

Written & Directed by Cecila Della Peruti

Photographed, Edited, & Produced by Nick Morr

Executive Producers Marc Nicolas and Erik Donley

Associate Producers Bree Beavoir and McKee Floyd

A Telexist Production

Old Flame Records

Insert designed for limited edition fragrance partnership between Heretic Parfum and world famous burlesque dancer Dita Von Teese.

photo by: Ruven Afanador

Proposed Tapatio marketing campaign

Photography by Sydney Mills

Copy by Gwenmarie White

Latinas Out Loud celebrates the richness of Latin American sounds of the past and present. Musical performances by Sotomayor (Mexico City), Sin Color (Los Angeles), Lido Pimienta (Toronto), and Francisca Valenzuela (Santiago). DJ sets by Sister Mantos and Chulita Vinyl Club.

DAMAROSA is a female art collective comprised of diverse women across the United States and Mexico. DAMAROSA is designed to trace contemporary feminine aesthetics through historical works, presenting essential female authors alongside up-and-coming artists and filmmakers. DAMAROSA reexamines the work of influential women in literature, and explores their prose through various mediums and intersectional frameworks.

DAMAROSA seeks to celebrate the significant role of women throughout art, literature, and politics, while also spotlighting a new generation of influential female voices. Through our exhibitions, catalogues, and zines, DAMAROSA’s goal is to create an open platform for inquiry, discussion, and debate.

Los Angeles-based artist Sam Falls fills the Hammer’s lobby walls with lush landscape paintings made in all of California’s National Forests.

For California Flora (National Forest Condensation Wall), Los Angeles-based artist Sam Falls traveled to all nineteen National Forests in California to create a map of sorts that depicts the state’s flora, from the ocean to the desert, from volcanic topography to the forest floor. Working outdoors, Falls covers large canvases with vegetation from the sites he visits—Ponderosa pine trees, California buckwheat, deer fern, and wild bluegrass (to name a few)—and sprinkles them with dry pigments ranging from vibrant blues and bright yellows to more earthy hues, and then leaves them outside, exposed to the environment overnight. The condensation from rain or dew covers the surfaces in a process not unlike that used to create a photogram, requiring exposure over time so that only silhouettes of the flora remain amidst beautiful washes of color. Displayed together, the works are an immersive yet intimate portrait of the state of California that speak to the incredible heterogeneity of the landscape while compelling us to appreciate, care for, and maintain our invaluable ecosystems.

Hammer Projects: Sam Falls is organized by Anne Ellegood, senior curator, with MacKenzie Stevens, curatorial assistant.

Hammer Projects is presented in memory of Tom Slaughter and with support from the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation.

Hammer Projects is made possible by a gift from Hope Warschaw and John Law. Generous support is also provided by Susan Bay Nimoy and Leonard Nimoy. Additional support is provided by Good Works Foundation and Laura Donnelley.

The People’s United Nations (pUN) General Assembly, presented as part of Hammer Projects: Pedro Reyes, is an experimental gathering of volunteers enlisted to represent the 195 member and observer states of the UN. Over the course of two days, the volunteer delegates test Reyes’s hypothesis that conflict-resolution techniques used in social psychology, theater, and art can help solve the world’s most challenging problems, from climate change, to fair wages for women, to food shortages.

Hammer Projects: Pedro Reyes is organized by senior curator Anne Ellegood and MacKenzie Stevens, curatorial assistant. The People's United Nations (pUN) General Assembly is organized in collaboration with Allison Agsten, former curator, Public Engagement, and January Parkos Arnall, former curatorial assistant, Public Engagement. The pUN delegates are researched and coordinated by curatorial project consultant Carolina Guillermet. First conceived and presented at the Queens Museum in 2013, whose building was the site of the United Nations from 1946-1950.

Hammer Projects: Pedro Reyes is supported by Bettina Korek and Alexandra Shabtai.

As a member-supported organization, the Hammer relies on philanthropic contributions to sustain free programming—ensuring that thought-provoking art and ideas continue to be accessible for all.

Featured membership collateral:

Benefits brochure

ID cards

Tote bag

Waterbottle

Notebook and pen set

Logo and album cover design for Los Angeles-based band Haim’s debut album Forever (2013). The logo is still in use for various performance and merchandising objects.

New York–based artist Kevin Beasley transforms the Hammer Museum’s Vault Gallery into an elaborate environment inspired by Bernini’s Baroque altarpiece in Saint Peter’s Basilica and an infamous image of Black Panther Huey P. Newton.

Hammer Projects: Kevin Beasley is organized by Anne Ellegood, senior curator, with MacKenzie Stevens, curatorial assistant. 

Hammer Projects is presented in memory of Tom Slaughter and with support from the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation.

Hammer Projects is made possible by a gift from Hope Warschaw and John Law. Generous support is also provided by Susan Bay Nimoy and Leonard Nimoy. Additional support is provided by Good Works Foundation and Laura Donnelley.

Constructed over a period of 4 months, Consumption Jacket is made entirely from receipts and labels collected from every purchased or consumed good. In addition to the physical sculpture, there is a journal which archives each receipt and label chronologically in an effort to show how stress can influence the creative process.

Logo design for Magic Market Week. The logo was debuted in an editorial campaign featuring photography by Hedi Slimane.

http://wwd.com/business-news/media/hedi-for-business-7129659/

The New York–based artist Jeanine Oleson (b. 1974, Astoria, OR) works with photography, performance, film, video, sound, and installation, exploring themes including audience, language, spirituality, memory, music, and alienation. Following her residency at the Hammer, Oleson presented a work related to research on the conditions of copper usage in late capitalism and the irreconcilable contemporary relationship between bodies, labor, resources, and art.

This exhibition is organized by chief curator Connie Butler with Emily Gonzalez-Jarrett, former curatorial associate.

Hammer Projects is presented in memory of Tom Slaughter and with support from the Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation.

Hammer Projects is made possible by a gift from Hope Warschaw and John Law. Generous support is also provided by Susan Bay Nimoy and Leonard Nimoy. Additional support is provided by Good Works Foundation and Laura Donnelley.

The Hammer Museum's Artist Residency Program is supported by The Kayne Family Foundation and Susan Bay Nimoy and Leonard Nimoy. Jeanine Oleson’s A Human(e) Matter is a project of Creative Capital, with additional in-kind support from Diane and Michael Silver.

Have you ever found an artwork that surprised you, confused you, or inspired you? If you’ve visited a museum with contemporary art, maybe you have. To help families and other visitors create meaningful connections to this kind of artwork, the Hammer Museum created the Discovery Guide. This guide can help lead visitors to discover all kinds of art and ideas through eye-opening activities.

Promotional materials created for the free screenings of the 2014 World Cup games at the Hammer Museum’s Billy Wilder Theater.