Hank Willis Thomas, Black Power, 2008. Lightjet print, 62.2 x 100.3 cm. © Hank Willis Thomas. Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.
Admission is always FREE for AGO Members, AGO Annual Passholders & Indigenous Peoples. Learn more.
Immersing viewers in the world of hip-hop through contemporary art and fashion, The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century brings together contemporary artists, musicians, designers and stylists to tell the story of the art form and its global impact on visual culture.
Organized on the occasion of Hip Hop’s fiftieth anniversary and featuring contemporary art by some of today’s most important and celebrated artists, including Derrick Adams, John Edmonds, Deana Lawson and Hank Willis Thomas, this dynamic and wide-ranging exhibition highlights the art form’s ongoing conceptual and material innovation. Placing fashion, consumer marketing, music, videos and objects in dialogue with paintings, sculpture, poetry, photography and multi-media installations, the exhibition considers activism and racial identity, notions of bling and swagger, as well as gender, sexuality and feminism.
The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century is co-curated by Asma Naeem, the BMA’s Dorothy Wagner Wallis Director; Gamynne Guillotte, the BMA’s Chief Education Officer; Hannah Klemm, SLAM’s Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art; and Andréa Purnell, SLAM’s Audience Development Manager. The AGO presentation will be organized by Julie Crooks, Curator, Arts of Global Africa and the Diaspora, AGO.
The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century is co-organized by the Baltimore Museum of Art and Saint Louis Art Museum. The Toronto presentation is organized by the Art Gallery of Ontario.
This Spotify playlist features a selection of twenty songs from the soundscape produced by musician Wendel Patrick which can be heard throughout the AGO presentation of The Culture.
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This exhibition tour is generously supported by the Ford Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, and The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
Accessible large-print formats of selected texts for each exhibition content area are available in English and French (coming soon).
Download large print in English (PDF 94 KB) Download large print in French (PDF 131 KB)
