What Does Gê Viana’s Radiola de promessa Bring to the Hammer, and How Do You Visit?

Short answer

Gê Viana’s Hammer Project brings an installation and new sculpture, including the short film Radiola de promessa (Radio of promise, 2025), to the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. The film connects everyday life in rural Maranhão, northeast Brazil, with reggae, ancestral rhythms and cultural memory. The exhibition runs from September 19, 2026, through February 7, 2027. Admission is free, with no advance reservation needed for an individual visit.

Key facts

• Exhibition: Hammer Projects: Gê Viana.
• Where: Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90024.
• Dates: September 19, 2026-February 7, 2027.
• Hours: Tuesday-Sunday, 11 am-6 pm; closed Mondays and on July 4, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day. All times are local to Los Angeles.
• Admission: free; groups of 10 or more should register as a self-guided tour.
• Work to start with: Radiola de promessa, 2025, single-channel video, color and sound, 13 minutes 7 seconds.
• Organized by: Erin Christovale, curator, with Azul Silverio, curatorial assistant.

What is Radiola de promessa about?

According to the Hammer, the film documents everyday life in rural parts of Viana’s home state of Maranhão. The museum places faith, sound and belonging at its center, describing how reggae carries the land’s cultural memory. It presents the body as a repertoire of ancestral African rhythms, songs, dances and memories that brings the past into the present.

That context matters before treating the soundtrack as background music. The museum’s account asks us to consider sound alongside bodies, places and remembered practices. This is a specific account of Viana’s work in Maranhão, not a claim that one film represents all Afro-Brazilian life.

Who is Gê Viana, and what else is in the exhibition?

Viana works across collage, sound, video and installation. The Hammer describes a practice that moves between domestic, urban and rural spaces, combining analog and digital collage with painting and early twentieth-century photographic processes. Her work addresses material culture, oral history and syncretism, the meeting and blending of traditions, within the African diaspora across Brazil.

The exhibition includes an installation and new sculpture as well as the film. The Hammer identifies it as Viana’s first institutional presentation in the United States. Its online description does not provide a full object checklist, so this guide does not invent a sculpture title, material or room-by-room route.

How might you watch the film?

These are questions proposed by Antre, not instructions from the artist or museum. They are a starting point, not a test.

1. Give sound its own attention. What do you hear before you decide what an image is showing?
2. Notice the relationship between movement and rhythm. Do they reinforce each other or pull your attention in different directions?
3. Keep the setting specific. What does the museum’s information about Maranhão add to what you can see and hear?
4. Return to one moment after reading the label. What changes when the context arrives?

The listed running time is 13:07. That is the film’s duration, not a promise of a scheduled screening or a complete visit length. This approach is one form of cultural mediation: bringing context into the encounter without deciding every meaning in advance.

How do you plan a visit to the Hammer?

The museum is at the corner of Westwood and Wilshire boulevards in Westwood Village. Admission is free and advance reservations are not necessary for an individual visit. Groups of 10 or more should register. Regular gallery hours are Tuesday-Sunday, 11 am-6 pm; check the museum’s visit page for changes and holiday closures before leaving.

The Hammer lists an accessible ramp at its Lindbrook Drive entrance and accessible parking on level P1. Construction for the Metro Purple Line expansion may affect traffic on Wilshire Boulevard. Consult the museum’s current directions rather than assuming an arrival time from this guide.

What else can you read before going?

Two earlier Antre guides cover Huguette Caland at the Hammer and Mavis Pusey at the Hammer. They offer other entry points into the museum’s program. The Pusey guide’s opening-day walkthrough is a past event, not an upcoming booking opportunity.

FAQ

Is the Gê Viana exhibition free?

Yes. The Hammer states that admission is free and no advance reservation is necessary for an individual visit.

When does it close?

Hammer Projects: Gê Viana runs through February 7, 2027.

How long is Radiola de promessa?

The Hammer’s caption lists the single-channel video at 13 minutes 7 seconds. This is not a scheduled screening time.

Is the museum open on Mondays?

No. Regular gallery hours are Tuesday-Sunday, 11 am-6 pm. Holiday closures also apply.

Is the Hammer a commercial gallery?

It is a museum. A commercial art gallery has a different role in exhibiting and selling art; this guide makes no claim that works in the Hammer exhibition are offered for sale.

About Antre

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Sources

• Hammer Projects: Gê Viana: exhibition dates, work description, running time and curators.
• Hammer Museum: Hours & Directions: admission, hours, group visits, location and access information.