David Hammons: A Sculptor of Urban Echoes David Hammons, born in Springfield, Illinois on July 24, 1943, is an American artist whose work has profoundly shaped the landscape of contemporary art since the late 1960s. His career, marked by a deliberate resistance to conventional artistic practices and a deep engagement with social commentary, centers around the manipulation of everyday objects—discarded materials, hair clippings, bottle caps—to create sculptures, performances, prints, and installations that confront issues of race, identity, and urban experience. Hammons’s approach is characte…