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 initiative: 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 artists. 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.
The Art Institute of Chicago, Project a Black Planet's exhibition banners.
Project a Black Planet's lobby title wall with exhibition description
Air at the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA).
The Art Institute of Chicago, Project a Black Planet's exhibition banners.
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 in Chicago, this international exhibition is currently traveling to world-class institutions, with Spencer’s work featured at:
The Art Institute of Chicago | December 15, 2024 – March 30, 2025
Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) | November 6, 2025 – April 6, 2026
The Barbican Centre, London | June 11 – September 6, 2026
KANAL-Centre Pompidou, Brussels | 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.
Ohio Now: State of Nature
moCa Cleveland | January 30 – July 31, 2026
Following its critically acclaimed run at the Contemporary Arts Center (CAC) in Cincinnati, the landmark exhibition Ohio Now: State of Nature traveled to moCa Cleveland. This exhibition series, a premier collaboration between the CAC and moCa, connected vital contemporary voices working across the state to explore environmental themes.
As a featured artist in this institutional survey, Charmaine Spencer presented two significant works that explored the urgency of environmental justice: Arms and the landmark installation Amendment. Mounted prominently on the main title wall, this three-piece installation was hand-sculpted using a nutrient-rich mixture of red, white, and black clay combined with organic worm castings, compressed paper pulp and driftwood.
Originally commissioned for the 2018 CAN Triennial, Amendment was featured at moCa Cleveland in this renewed context—addressing toxic, post-industrial spaces through sculptural "guerrilla gardening." Spencer’s work joined a curated selection of Ohio-based artists whose practices investigated humanity’s relationship with the environment, continuing her deep inquiry into how we nourish both the soil and social equality.
Amendment — moCa Cleveland
Installed directly on the main title wall for Ohio Now: State of Nature, this four-part installation serves as the premier threshold work of the exhibition, acting as the very first artistic encounter upon entry into the museum gallery.
NEW WORK | Co-presented by the Cleveland Museum of Art and FRONT International, for the 2025 FRONT Art Futures, Fellowship Exhibition.
Charmaine Spencer | The Fifth Vessel
A monumental inquiry into the physical form as a sanctuary for human intellect and collective accountability. Rooted in themes of structural permanence and ancestral reflection, these symbolic vessel structures offer a physical safe haven for our most sacred intangible values: honor, discernment, and ethical truth.
Confronting the complex realities of our past and present, Spencer’s newest work maps the pathways toward sustainable, shared wisdom—suggesting that by deeply examining our choices, we possess the power to shape a better future.
Co-presented by the Cleveland Museum of Art and FRONT International, the landmark exhibition New Work: FRONT Fellows Show served as the capstone to the three-year Art Futures Fellowship. Hosted at the museum’s satellite gallery, Transformer Station, this premier institutional showcase featured new, site-specific installations by four celebrated Northeast Ohio artists.
As the sole artist featured in the venue's Crane Gallery, Charmaine Spencer presented her monumental installation, The Fifth Vessel. As documented in a dedicated feature review by the CAN Journal, the installation utilized raw geological matter and organic materials to construct five large, container-like architectural forms that evoked a powerful bodily and spiritual presence.
Rooted in pre-colonial African cultural forms and metaphysical traditions, The Fifth Vessel established a physical sanctuary for intangible values like honor and collective accountability. Profiled by The Plain Dealeras a critical conversation between personal histories and collective futures, this institutional exhibition explored themes of space, material permanence, and ancestral reflection.
PRIZM Art Fair | In conjunction with Art Basel Miami Beach
Miami, FL — December 3 – December 8, 2024
Earth is distinctly characterized by the inclusion of Otjize (traditional red clay), known as the "guardian," bound with natural reed grass and hemp.
From Seed to Root | Solo Exhibition, The Sculpture Center, Cleveland, OH — January 21 – March 5, 2022
This exhibition served as the critical catalyst for my invitation to participate in the FRONT International Triennial (2022–2023). It was during this exhibition that curators from the Akron Art Museum reviewed the work on-site, directly leading to the subsequent museum installation of three sculptures from my elemental series.
Conceptualized from highly anthropomorphized African spirit or ancestor vessels traditionally crafted by women, these works use the expressive characteristics of natural elements. The raw materials and structural processes are deeply symbolic of the cycle of life, bridging the worlds of the human and the spirit through earth, water, air, and fire.
These structures serve various ritual functions, acting as an axis for prayer or meditation, joining ceremonies, healing the sick, safeguarding the community, and activating ancestral wisdom. The positive intervention of these protective spirits is considered vital to maintaining communal harmony, health, and well-being.
Choir, Installation view of the site-specific sculpture at Quaker Square, Akron, OH, presented in partnership with Curated Storefront for the FRONT International Triennial. Composed entirely of repurposed architectural wood lath, the modular installation investigates social conditioning by altering its physical form with each specific spatial iteration.
Reconstruction
Water, Air and Fire
Reconstruction
FRONT International Triennial (2022)
Theme: Oh, Gods of Dust and Rainbows
Presented across multiple premier regional institutions, this massive contemporary survey explored art as a vehicle for healing, social connection, and material transformation. As a featured triennial artist, Charmaine Spencer presented concurrent, site-specific installations at the exhibition’s primary museum venues, investigating how raw geological matter and structural forms engage with public memory.