Apr 232 min read

6 Pieces from the Hammer Museum's Made in LA Show that Live Rent Free in My Mind

As a recent resident of Los Angeles County, I’ve taken it upon myself to learn about the art historical context of the greater Los Angeles area as quickly as possible. Given I had a job until recently that was all consuming emotionally and mentally, I found it difficult to keep my lifetime routine of weekends spent at my local museums.

So after a year and a half of feeling off-kilter, I decided to invest in a few museum memberships with the reasoning:

at best I'll find that I’m better at using a museum membership than a gym one and at worst I’ll have donated towards arts institutions in my hometown whose public programs are supported by donors like me.*

Plus, it would help round out my visual literacy and provide present context for the past art movements, galleries, and history of greater Los Angeles.

I decided to join LACMA and the Hammer Museum pick the winner at the end of the 12 month run. Well, while LACMA had a great year, particularly with the AfroAtlantic Histories show from the São Paulo Museum of Art and the Instituto Tomie Ohtake. However, the Hammer's Made in LA biennial show (every other year) had many pieces that lives rent free in my mind. And when I'm having a day that feels uninspired, here are a few of the pieces I look up in my personal art gallery in the cloud:

1. Ishi Glinsky

Inertia - Warn the Animals, 2023

With contributions by artists: Teresa Baker (Mandan/Hidatsa), Prudy Correa (Acoma Pueblo), Della Cruz (Tohono O'odham), Fred Cruz (Tohono O'odham), Demian DinéYazhi’ (Diné), River Garza (Tongva), Tytianna Harris (Diné), Sheridan MacKnight (White Earth Chippewa/ Hunkpapa Lakota), Eric-Paul Riege (Diné), Sarah Rosalena (Huichol), Bobby Dues Wilson (Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota)

2. Jackie Amézquita

El suelo que nos alimenta, 2023

Made from soil sourced from144 neighborhoods in the LA region combined with corn masa (dough), limestone, salt, and copper, her work feels like a monument to the daily life around the city. Notably, though, is her stated interest in chronicling the undocumented citizens of Los Angeles, who form a central part of the daily functioning of the region, but often go unseen.

3. Guadalupe Rosales

Untitled installation, 2023

I love when I see something and ask, how did they do THAT?! And here's an installation where I absolutely wondered aloud with a friend and quickly made up my own explanation as to how the bullet could be suspended in so many layers of plexiglass in the image below:

How. did. she. do. it?

Fortunately for me, I actually got to meet Rosales in person and ask. Surprising no one but me, my imagined technique absolutely was nowhere close to the reality. Ha.