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

On view through July 16, 2023

Coinciding with the 50th anniversary of the birth of hip hop, this exhibition captures the extraordinary influence hip hop has had on contemporary culture through more than 90 works of art and fashion by some of today’s most important and celebrated artists and iconic brands. Explore the past two decades of hip hop through a wide range of painting, sculpture, photography, installations, video, and fashion.

Visit artbma.org/theculture for reservations.

The Culture Catalog Essays, interviews, and images of works from The Culture. Available at the BMA Shop and shop.artbma.org.

Co-organized by the Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) and Saint Louis Art Museum (SLAM), the exhibition 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 Culture is further supported by an advisory committee comprising experts and artists across a wide range of disciplines, including Martha Diaz, Founder and President of the Hip-Hop Education Center; Wendel Patrick, professor at the Peabody Music Conservatory at Johns Hopkins University; Tef Poe, rapper and activist; Hélio Menezes, anthropologist and curator of Afro-Atlantic Histories; and Timothy Anne Burnside, public historian and Museum Specialist in Curatorial Affairs at the National Museum of African American History and Culture.

This exhibition is generously supported by the Ford Foundation, the Henry Luce Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and the National Endowment for the Arts. Additional support is provided by The Alvin and Fanny B. Thalheimer Exhibition Endowment Fund, the Victor J. Schenk Trust, Patricia Lasher and Richard Jacobs, Lorayne and Jim Thornton, Clair Zamoiski Segal, George Petrocheilos, Paul L. Oostburg Sanz and Tonya Robinson.

Beats, rhymes, culture and finances for this exhibition are generously provided by hip-hop ambassadors “DJ Fly Guy” Flynn & Nupur Parekh Flynn, inventor of BAGCEIT®

This exhibition is located in the Alvin and Fanny B. Thalheimer Galleries and The Saidie A. May Wing, the East Lobby, and the Contemporary Wing.