The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century

The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century presents a sweeping art history of hip hop culture and its myriad expressions across the globe. This multidisciplinary and multimedia exhibition examines the resounding impact of hip hop on contemporary art and culture, including its unique contributions to innovations in music, visual and performing arts, fashion, and technology. To illuminate the depth of hip hop’s influence, the exhibition will feature immersive installations, fashion, painting, sculpture, photography, and video, showcasing the complex, expansive, and international allure of one of the 20th and 21st century’s great cultural movements.

The Culture will prominently showcase iconic paintings not previously exhibited in St. Louis by some of the art world’s most famous practitioners, including Jean-Michel Basquiat and Mark Bradford, as well as works by artists represented in the SLAM collection, such as Julie Mehretu and Carrie Mae Weems. Other featured artists include Nina Chanel Abney, Derrick Adams, Jordan Casteel, Kudzanai Chiurai, William Cordova, Hassan Hajjaj, Lauren Halsey, Arthur Jafa, Deana Lawson, Hank Willis Thomas, and others.

The exhibition will include significant examples of fashion, including looks from Virgil Abloh’s collections for Louis Vuitton, legendary streetwear brand Cross Colours, as well as a range of music ephemera. To further illuminate hip hop’s influence, the exhibition incorporates artists with deep ties to local communities. St. Louis and Missouri artists include Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola, Damon Davis, Jen Everett, Aaron Fowler, Kahlil Robert Irving, Shabez Jamal, Yvonne Osei, and Adrian Octavius Walker.

The Culture will explore a series of themes, emphasizing pressing issues in the hip hop industry, such as the complex relationship between capitalism, commodification, and racial identity; hip hop culture’s connection to gender, sexuality, feminism, appropriation, and misogyny; as well as hip hop’s relationship to the art world and the art market.

The Culture is organized by the Saint Louis Art Museum and the Baltimore Museum of Art. Conceived and developed as a collaborative effort that engages with both museums’ curatorial and education departments, The Culture will emphasize community access and engagement as core to the exhibition experience This open dialogue will elevate connection to local communities and facilitation of collaborative exhibition development. Designing a strategic approach to curating that includes outside perspectives further recognizes the importance of communities having a say in the way their story is told. ​

As part of the planning for this exhibition, the Baltimore Museum of Art and SLAM have engaged a global advisory committee of experts comprising hip hop’s leading thinkers: academics, musicians, fashion designers, visual artists, and curators who have been helping the curatorial team refine exhibition themes, adhere to the ethos of hip hop, and be accessible to the local community and beyond.

The exhibition is accompanied by a comprehensive catalog with contributions from more than 50 artists, writers, scholars, curators, and arts leaders.

The Culture is curated by Hannah Klemm, SLAM’s former associate curator of modern and contemporary art; and Andréa Purnell, SLAM’s audience development manager; Asma Naeem, the Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director of the Baltimore Museum of Art; and Gamynne Guillotte, the BMA’s former chief education officer with Rikki Byrd, the BMA’S curatorial research fellow and Carlyn Thomas, the BMA’s curatorial assistant.

This exhibition is generously supported by the Ford Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

In St. Louis, The Culture is made possible by the William T. Kemper Foundation.

The Garage Lab

Located in Sculpture Hall, The Garage Lab by Gary Simmons recalls the structure of a typical suburban garage set up with amps and equipment for band practice. In addition to constructing the garage’s wooden frame, Simmons lined the interior with historic and contemporary concert posters collected over many years from around the world. The digitally altered posters also include nods to the St. Louis hip-hop scene.

Created as a space for community interaction, The Garage Lab will serve as a venue for live performances by poets, musicians, dancers, and DJs during the exhibition. When the space is not being activated by performances, video playback of previous productions will be displayed on a nearby monitor. For more information on The Garage Lab, visit the SLAM Blog.

This performance lineup will be updated throughout the run of the exhibition:

• August 27 at 2 pm and 3 pm – Saint Louis Story Stitchers Artists Collective,  DJ UP, a new DJ + Dance premiere performance celebrating Hip Hop’s 50th Anniversary (as part of Family Sunday)
• September 8 at 6 to 7 pm – Sir Eddie C, hip hop performance (as part of the Music at the Intersection Kickoff Party)
• September 9 at 2 pm and 2:30 pm – MJ Imani with 314 Movement Lab, dance performance (as part of the Educator Open House)
• September 10 drop in from 1 pm to 4 pm – Saint Louis Story Stitchers Artists Collective, beat-making workshop (as part of Family Sunday)
• September 29 at 8 to 8:20 pm – Winners of CKDC’s Beat Kill Jam Dance Competition, dance performance (as part of SLAM Underground: REMIX)
• October 1 drop in from 1 pm to 4 pm – Saint Louis Story Stitchers Artists Collective, Experience Peace in the Prairie through Spoken Word Poetry and Storytelling (as part of Family Sunday)
• October 4 at 10:45 am – Gregory Maurice, spoken word performance (as part of Exploring with the Artist)
• October 20 at 5 pm – Just Rich and the Homies, musical performance
• October 27 at 7:45 pm – Ryan, the Person, DJ set (as part of SLAM Underground: DRIP)
• November 3, 7:30 pm – Harris Stowe State University Poetry Club, spoken word performance
• November 4 at 2 pm – Syna So Pro, musical performance
• November 10 at 6 pm – Cheeraz Gormon, spoken word performance
• November 12, 1:30 pm-3:30 pm – DJ Blaze, DJ set (as part of Family Sunday)
• November 26, 1 pm- 3 pm- DJ Erik Sensation STL, DJ set (as part of Family Sunday)
• December 10 at 11:30 am- DJ Reggie and the Dancing Santas, dance performance (as part of Winter Celebrations)
• December 10 at 2 pm – Saint Louis Story Stitchers Artists Collective, DJ and dance performance celebrating Hip Hop’s 50th Anniversary (as part of Winter Celebrations)
• December 16 at 11 am – St. Louis Shakespeare Festival, musical selections from Q Brothers Christmas Carol, a hip-hop adaptation of the Dickens classic
• December 17 at 1:30 pm – Aloha Mischeaux, musical performance

Podcast

Kazi Society and the Saint Louis Art Museum presents That’s Art, a podcast discussing hip hop’s influence on contemporary art and society and how hip-hop culture has become a mainstream phenomenon. That’s Art can end with a question mark or an exclamation point, but by the time you’ve seen the exhibition The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century, That’s Art will end with a period.

Listen on various podcast platforms including Apple Podcast, Amazon Music, iHeart, and Spotify.