It all started with a back-to-school party in an unspectacular Bronx apartment building. DJ Kool Herc, also known as Clive Clampell, and his sister Cindy Campbell had a simple idea — earn some money for new clothes, according to a 2013 Paste Magazine story.
But as Herc played funk and soul tracks at that party in August 1973, something far larger was born: hip-hop. This month, seemingly the whole world is celebrating 50 years since that historic moment.
The Saint Louis Art Museum is no exception.
On Saturday, SLAM’s exhibit The Culture: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art in the 21st Century opens with a block party from noon to 5 p.m. outside the museum. The party — which includes a stage featuring St. Louis hip-hop artists such as Preacher in the Trap featuring Blvck Spvde & Tef Poe, Agile One and many more — is a callback to Herc’s revelry.
“In the five decades that followed, [hip-hop] has expanded out of a movement born out of the experiences of Black and Latinx youth in the Bronx with uniquely hyper-localized American roots to become an undeniable global force exerting influence on music, fashion, technology, the performing arts and, of course, contemporary visual arts,” said Min Jung Kim, Barbara B. Taylor Director of SLAM, at a preview event on Thursday.
SLAM’s 130-object exhibit examines hip-hop’s impact. Co-organized with the Baltimore Museum of Art, The Culture was curated collaboratively by Asma Naeem, chief curator and interim co-director of the Baltimore Museum of Art; Gamynne Guillotte, chief education officer at the Baltimore Museum of Art; Hannah Klemm, associate curator of modern and contemporary art at SLAM; and Andréa Purnell, audience development manager at SLAM.
The show features artworks from everyone who’s anyone in the scene. That means pieces that have been influenced by hip-hop culture — like Hassan Hajjaj’s Cardi B Unity (which, yes, stars Cardi B) or Hank Willis Thomas’ Black Power print of diamond-encrusted fronts that literally spell out “Black Power” — as well as objects that are seamlessly a part of it, such as Kimora Lee Simmons’ Baby Phat tracksuit. There is plenty of local representation as well, with pieces from artists from St. Louis (keep reading for more details on that) and Baltimore.
Every SLAM exhibit features too much to touch on in one story, and The Culture is positively bursting at the seams. Instead, consider this a preview of three featured items that have strong St. Louis ties — and then get yourself to SLAM for a much deeper dive.
A Great Day in St. Louis by Adrian Octavius Walker, 2022; archival pigment print
“It itself references the 1958 photograph A Great Day in Harlem by Art Kane, featuring jazz greats like Dizzy Gillespie,” Purnell said, explaining that co-curator Naeem had wondered what it might look like today.
Walker’s photograph is the answer to that. With the help of St. Louis musician Mvstermind, he gathered 116 St. Louis hip-hop artists on art hill at 3 p.m. on a Sunday to create his version — only he did his in color, to demonstrate St. Louis’ vibrancy.
Purnell says the photoshoot had the feel of a family reunion. “Many of them had never been in the same place at the same time and had seen each other on stage but never all together,” she said. There were hugs and tears.”
Walker, who grew up in the Jeff-Vander-Lou neighborhood but now lives in Chicago, works as an art director at Getty Images. His work has been exhibited widely, including at the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C. and at the Luminary in St. Louis. Learn more at adrianowalker.com.
EXTENSIONS by Yvonne Osei, 2018, single-channel video
In Yvonne Osei’s video EXTENSIONS, a woman takes the practice of adding the eponymous hair product to the extreme. Osei filmed the piece in her hometown of Accra, Ghana. In it, a woman in a colorful dress sits as two other women braid in pigtails, adding hair extension after hair extension, way beyond the point of absurdity.
“She really captured in the videos performative culture, everyday culture of the tradition of hair braiding,” Klemm said. “Throughout the video, the braids on the sitter’s head grow longer and longer and the camera pulls back. In the end, the braids are so long that they drag behind her as she walks through the city, with her hair literally stopping traffic.”
Osei graduated from Wash U’s MFA program in 2016 and was a Romare Bearden fellow at SLAM after school. Currently, she’s a curator-in-residence at the Center for Creative Arts, adjuncts at Webster and is represented by the Bruno David Gallery. Osei was one of the 2023 artists in the Great Rivers Biennial at the Contemporary Art Museum and has exhibited internationally. For more information, see brunodavidgallery.com/artists/58-yvonne-osei.
Arches & standards (Stockley ain't the only one) by Kahlil Robert Irving, 2018/2020; glazed and unglazed ceramic, luster, found and personally constructed
Kahlil Robert Irving’s sculptures meld together unlikely found and created objects to create unsettling chimeras that address the legacy of colonialism on culture. His piece in the exhibit, Arches & standards (Stockley ain’t the only one), references both St. Louis and national history. An actual silver arch rises above the rest of the sculpture.
“He's really referencing also police violence, police brutality and traditions and histories of decorative arts and their connection to the legacies of colonialism,” Klemm said. “It's an amazing materially diverse piece that is worth delving into and spending some time with.”
Like Osei, Irving is a Wash U MFA graduate and a former CAM biennial honoree. He’s from San Diego and came to Missouri for his BFA studies at the Kansas City Art Institute. His work has been shown at the Museum of Modern Art, the Whitney Museum and more and is collected everywhere from the Kansas City Art Institute to the Riga Porcelain Museum in Latvia. For more information, see kahlilirving.com.
The SLAM Block Party takes place from noon to 5 p.m. on Saturday, August 19, in front of the museum. It’s free to attend, as is the exhibit on that day. For more details about the event or the exhibit, see slam.org/exhibitions/the-culture-hip-hop-and-contemporary-art-in-the-21st-century.
This story has been updated.
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