Made In L.A. 2018 @ The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles

Made In L.A., the Hammer Museum's exceedingly comprehensive biennial just celebrated the opening of its fourth installment, and it's decidedly the best one yet. Curated by the Hammer's senior curator, Anne Ellegood and Erin Christovale, the newest member of the Hammer's curatorial team, the show features 33 artists from widely diverse backgrounds who employ immensely disparate media and span an age gap of 68 years. While the biennial doesn't proclaim any particular theme, almost all of the work presented is new and was made in response to the predicaments of the present. Much has happened since the last installment of 2016, and our collective experience has been marked by devastating fires, hurricanes, earthquakes and drought, government-mandated religious bigotry, deportations sans due process, countless recorded accounts of police brutality against black and brown citizens, countless school shootings, etc. Heavily steeped in political and social response as it may be, though, there's nothing didactic or sanctimonious about it. Instead the thread that connects all of these works together is one that explores the idea of citizenship in the present moment. In it we see stories of our past, how they led to the present, how they define who we are, and determine what is in store. A collective moment to "count using only your breath" as taisha paggett instructs us to do on a handwritten note taped to a microphone. She is one of several artists who will be performing and activating the space throughout the run of the show. Throughout the summer there will also be numerous lectures and walkthroughs with the curators, so there are plenty of reasons to take your time and come back a few times. Artists featured include: Carmen Argote, James Benning, Diedrick Brackens, Carolina Caycedo, Neha Choksi, Beatriz Cortez, Mercedes Dorame, Celeste Dupuy-Spencer, Aaron Fowler, Nikita Gale, Jane Gordon & Megan Whitmarsh, Lauren Halsey, EJ Hill, Naotaka Hiro, John Houck, Luchita Hurtado, Gelare Khoshgozaran, Candice Lin, Charles Long, Nancy Lupo, Daniel Joseph Martinez, MPA, Alison O'Daniel, Eamon Ore-Giron, taisha paggett, Christina Quarles, Michael Queenland, Patrick Staff, Linda Stark, Flora Wiegmann, Suné Woods, and Rosha Yaghmai. To learn more about lectures, performances and programming related to Made In L.A., visit the Hammer. The exhibition will be on view through September 2, 2018 at The Hammer Museum 10899 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles. photographs by Oliver Kupper

Made in L.A. 2016 "a, the, though, only" Opening Night @ Hammer Museum In Los Angeles

This is what we talk about all the time. "Los Angeles is having an artistic Renaissance," we say. "Now is the time to be in LA." But what do we mean when we say that? Are we talking about fine art, galleries like Hauser and Wirth and Venus over Manhattan opening up shop in Downtown LA? Are we talking about artists who are moving here from Paris, New York, London? What about subculture, the undercurrent of this city, are we seeing the realization of young, bright, radical minds, or were they there all along? It is difficult to recognize history as it happens, predominately because of the fluidity of geography, time, and language. "Los Angeles" means many different things. "Art" means many different things. The 26 artists exhibiting at the Hammer Museum's Biennial "Made in L.A." expand the curbs of the city's "Renaissance." Walking through the various galleries of the Hammer one finds paintings, embroideries, light installations, fashion designs, ephemera, performances, videos, magical objects, cans of Budweiser and more. In one room one sees the dark, natural-history-museum-esque objects of the wrinkling and toothless Kenzi Shiokava. The next room plays a film by 26-year-old Martine Syms, in which the artist reads Black Power articles on her iphone in the dentists office. "Los Angeles" means a lot of things. "Art" means a lot of things. An exhibition featuring "Los Angeles Artists" can only be dynamic, extensive, and provocative. Perhaps the best description of this diverse work is the exhibition's subtitle, "a, the, though, only." Los Angeles is not a dictatorial force over artists who are passive conduits for its agenda. It is the in-between word - the preposition - the place where things and people move, imagine and create. Made in L.A. 2016 "a, the, though, only" will be on view until August 28, 2016 at the Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Blvd. Los Angeles, CA. Text and photographs by Keely Shinners. 

Watch The Artist Announcement for Made in L.A. 2016 "a, the, though, only" @ The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles

The third iteration of the Hammer’s biennial exhibition continues to highlight the practices of artists working throughout Los Angeles and the surrounding areas. As part of an ongoing series, Made in L.A. 2016 "a, the, though, only" addresses Los Angeles as a center of activity inseparable from the global network of art production and reveals how artists move fluidly between contexts and respond to their local conditions. Subtitled by the minimalist poet and writer Aram Saroyan as his contribution to the exhibition, Made in L.A. 2016 "a, the, though, only" extends into such disciplines as dance, fashion, literature, music, film, and performance. Rather than a unifying regional aesthetic, sensibility, or identity historically associated with Los Angeles, Made in L.A. 2016 focuses on artists from different disciplinary backgrounds, allowing individual projects and bodies of work to shape the overall exhibition. It features condensed monographic surveys, comprehensive displays of multiyear projects, the premiere of new bodies of work, and newly commissioned works from emerging artists. Made in L.A. 2016 "a, the, though, only" will be on view from June 12 to August 28, 2016 at Hammer Museum, 10899 Wilshire Boulevard