September 27, 2001

From October 26, 2001 through March 3, 2002, the Bronx Museum of the Arts will present "One Planet Under a Groove: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art." The first exhibition to examine the impact of hip-hop culture on contemporary visual art, it will feature the work of 30 visual artists based in the U. S., Latin America, Europe, and Japan, including more than 60 works of paintings, sculpture, drawings, photographs, installations, and videos. All pieces were created in the past 20 years by artists who have been influenced by hip-hop music and its culture. Prominent artists in the exhibition include Jean-Michel Basquiat, David Hammons, Keith Haring, Chris Ofili, Adrian Piper, and Gary Simmons.

Although graffiti art, DJing, rapping, and breakdancing have all received popular and critical attention, "One Planet Under a Groove" is the first exhibition devoted to visual artists whose work is informed by elements of hip-hop culture. Previous hip-hop exhibitions have focused on historically significant artifacts, such as CDs, videos, and clothing, but the Bronx Museum show features works by visual artists that draw from the aesthetic, political and social contexts of hip-hop culture. The participating artists span several artistic generations which roughly correlate with different moments in the evolution of hip hop. Their work shares similar cultural and historical roots, yet has been shaped by their own perspectives. Some of the earliest works in the exhibition from the 1980's by artists Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring helped to define a visual hip-hop aesthetic with frenetic styles literally evoking the "cutting" and "scratching" techniques of the early hip-hop DJs. Works from the early 1990's by artists such as Mel Chin, Renee Green, and Gary Simmons take a more political perspective and subvert common assumptions or stereotypes about hip-hop culture.

The exhibition also features new work by emerging artists such as Sanford Biggers, Juan Capistran, Luis Gispert, and Susan Smith-Pinelo. And there is work created expressly for the exhibition. For example, The Hip-Hop Project (2001) by New York-based Nikki S. Lee is a series of photographs of the artist engaging in various activities with select members of the New York hip-hop community.

Part of a year-long celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Bronx Museum of the Arts, "One Planet Under a Groove" is organized by Bronx Museum Curator Lydia Yee and Guest Curator Franklin Sirmans. An illustrated catalogue accompanies the exhibit. It includes essays by the curators and cultural critic Greg Tate, a staff writer at the Village Voice and writer-at-large for VIBE. After its presentation at the Bronx Museum, the exhibition is scheduled to travel to several venues throughout the U.S.

"One Planet Under a Groove: Hip Hop and Contemporary Art" is made possible through major support from the Rockefeller Foundation and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. Nikki S. Lee's Hip-Hop Project is made possible, in part, by the Bronx Museum of the Art's Collaborative Art Projects (CAP) with the generous support of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, Metropolitan Life Foundation and EAB.

The Bronx Museum of the Arts is a twentieth-century and contemporary art museum, founded in 1971, to serve the culturally diverse populations of the Bronx and the greater New York metropolitan area. The Museum has a long-standing commitment to increasing and stimulating audience participation in the visual arts through its Permanent Collection, special exhibitions, and education programs. "One Planet under a Groove" reflects the Museum's on-going efforts to expand critical discourse and to provide a progressive forum for cross-cultural dialogue. The museum receives ongoing general operating support from The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs with the cooperation of Bronx Borough President Fernando Ferrer and the New York City Council; the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development; the Bronx Delegation of the New York State legislature, as well as private supporters.