Hammer Museum and ICA LA Go On a Witch Hunt

The Hammer Museum at UCLA and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA) are presenting Witch Hunt, an incisive international survey of 16 critically acclaimed artists whose practices deploy feminist, queer, and decolonial strategies to explore current and historical political events, social conditions, and artistic legacies. Leonor Antunes, Yael Bartana, Pauline Boudry & Renate Lorenz, Candice Breitz, Shu Lea Cheang, Minerva Cuevas, Vaginal Davis, Bouchra Khalili, Every Ocean Hughes (formerly Emily Roysdon), Laura Lima, Teresa Margolles, Otobong Nkanga, Okwui Okpokwasili, Lara Schnitger, and Beverly Semmes animate a range of current global feminist thought and action through painting, sculpture, video, photography, sound, and performance. The exhibition features many newly commissioned works and major projects that are making their United States or west coast debut. Organized by Connie Butler, Hammer chief curator, and Anne Ellegood, ICA LA Good Works Executive Director, with Nika Chilewich, Hammer curatorial assistant, Witch Hunt will be on view at both institutions from October 10, 2021 to January 9, 2022.

“Witch Hunt is a presentation of powerful projects by 16 radical and brilliant artists. Connie and Anne have dedicated much of their curatorial careers to supporting the practices of women artists and the political urgencies facing women more broadly. Witch Hunt makes a major contribution to the discussion.” said Hammer Museum director Ann Philbin.

“Anne and I felt it was urgent to center women artists in Africa, South and Central America, and within the United States, expanding the scope of feminist art history and practice we had previously written about and curated. It’s exciting to collaborate with the international list of artists in Witch Hunt, many of whom are showing their work for the first time in Los Angeles.” said Connie Butler.

Anne Ellegood says, “Connie and I started talking about this exhibition many years ago, and it is thrilling to finally see it coming to life. While COVID delayed the original dates of Witch Hunt, the artists’ timely, critical, and essential projects in some sense feel even more vital today, and we are proud to showcase their important works. At ICA LA, we are delighted to be collaborating with the Hammer to present Witch Hunt at both of our museums, co-produce a range of public programs, and cross-pollinate our audiences.”