Head for the hills! includes many recent acquisitions and highlights the Hammer Museum’s ongoing commitment to building a collection that reflects a wide range of voices, perspectives, and artistic practices. The exhibition features works by both local and international artists, spanning a broad spectrum of mediums, from painting and sculpture to video and installation.

Borrowing its title from a 1974 piece by artist John Knight—a slideshow composed of advertising texts taken from the real estate section of the Los Angeles Times—the exhibition draws attention to how everyday language and imagery can be transformed into conceptual artworks. Knight’s work serves as a conceptual anchor, illustrating how the ordinary can become a site for critical and poetic engagement.

Through a variety of approaches, the featured artists explore the intersection of the personal and the universal. By foregrounding the local, the intimate, and even the banal, the exhibition invites viewers to consider how meaning is constructed through place, memory, and cultural narratives. Head for the hills! ultimately underscores the museum’s dedication to collecting art that resonates both within and beyond its immediate context.