On View: Ohio Now: State of Nature
moCa Cleveland | January 30 – May 31, 2026
Following its critically acclaimed run at the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) in Cincinnati, the landmark exhibition Ohio Now: State of Nature arrives at moCa Cleveland. This ongoing exhibition series, a premier collaboration between the CAC and moCa, connects the most vital contemporary voices working across the state today.
As a featured artist in this institutional survey, Charmaine Spencer presents two significant works that explore the urgency of environmental justice: Arms and the landmark installation Amendment. Originally commissioned for the 2018 CAN Triennial, Amendment is featured here in a renewed context—addressing toxic, post-industrial spaces through sculptural, nutrient-rich "guerrilla sculpture gardening."
Spencer’s work joins a curated selection of Ohio-based artists whose practices investigate humanity’s relationship with the environment. By participating in this high-level dialogue between Ohio's two leading contemporary museums, Spencer continues her inquiry into how we nourish both the soil and social equality.
Amendment, 2018
moCa Cleveland
Materials: Driftwood, clay, soil, jute
Air, 2024
This close-up highlights the vibrant, compressed texture of Air 2024, a monumental commission. The body of the work is built from the foundational growth and effort of the Project a Black Planet: curatorial proposals, meeting notes, theory documents, and the color images of artist works used to map the exhibition’s themes.
Woven into this dense, multicolored architecture are poetry, musical scores, and handwritten letters to the ancestors from the curators, staff, and artist. Suspended from the base of this collective history are African lost-wax filigree brass trade beads and vintage brass bell beads, strung on brass wire and faux leather cord—physically anchoring the spiritual and intellectual labor of every artist considered for the project.
Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica
Air 2024 was commissioned by the Art Institute of Chicago for the landmark exhibition Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica. For this historic survey, Charmaine Spencer presents a major, large-scale sculptural installation that contributes to the gallery’s architectural landscape. Project a Black Planet is the first exhibition of its kind expressly devoted to modern and contemporary cultural activity through a pan-Africanist lens, exploring the political and cultural solidarity of African and African diasporic peoples worldwide.
As one of the core commissions for this ambitious project, Spencer’s work explores the intersection of materials and identity on a global stage. The piece manifests the foundational growth and effort of the exhibition’s development, transforming its archives into a resonant vessel that serves as a spiritual conduit between past and present—a focal point for ancestral connection.
Following its debut at the Art Institute of Chicago, this international exhibition is currently traveling to world-class institutions, with Spencer’s work featured at:
The Art Institute of Chicago: exhibited December 15, 2024 – March 30, 2025
Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona: On exhibition November 6, 2025 – April 6, 2026
The Barbican Centre, London: On exhibition June 11 – September 6, 2026
KANAL-Centre Pompidou, Brussels: On exhibition November 28, 2026 – Spring 2027
Upon the conclusion of this global tour, the commissioned work will return to Chicago to join the permanent collection of the DuSable Black History Museum, ensuring its legacy as a permanent part of this historic cultural survey.