Los Angeles, CA — The Hammer Museum announced today the 39 artists, collectives, and organizations participating in the upcoming Made in L.A. 2023: Acts of Living. This is the sixth iteration of the Hammer’s biennial exhibition highlighting the practices of artists working throughout the greater Los Angeles area. Organized by curators Diana Nawi and Pablo José Ramírez with Luce Curatorial Fellow Ashton Cooper, the exhibition is on view October 1 – December 31, 2023. The presenting sponsor for the exhibition is Bank of America.

Hammer Museum director Ann Philbin said, “Made in L.A. 2023: Acts of Living emphasizes that art is inseparable from everyday life and community, informed by a wide range of cultural histories. Diana and Pablo have selected 39 artists and collectives whose inspiring work we are thrilled to present in nearly every gallery and space in our newly renovated museum.” 

Curator Pablo José Ramírez shared, “Made in L.A. 2023 takes its cues from the ethos of Los Angeles, a place where a multiplicity of cultures coexist and where, as an artist said to us, ‘one is always a visitor.’ The artists and collectives we included in this biennial represent a wide range of art being made in the city but also a diversity of stakes of making art.” Struck not only by the range of media and ideas they encountered, Nawi and Ramírez noted the way in which the conversations they had revealed the breadth of reasons people cited for creating work, who they create work for, and what the impact of that work might be within their larger communities. These practices embrace the value of craft, materiality, performance, and collectivity. The biennial situates art as an expanded field of culture that is entangled with everyday life; community networks; queer affect; and indigenous and diasporic histories.    

Made in L.A. 2023: Acts of Living takes its title from a quote by the renowned Los Angeles artist Noah Purifoy which is inscribed on a plaque at the Watts Towers: “One does not have to be a visual artist to utilize creative potential. Creativity can be an act of living, a way of life, and a formula for doing the right thing.” The history of Watts Towers—built by Simon Rodia over the course of 33 years and then preserved by the local South L.A. community, including Purifoy, to become a hub for arts education—embodies this ethos and offers a salient metaphor for this biennial. Curator Diana Nawi explained, “The Watts Towers are an example for the way in which creative work can be intimately tied to one’s everyday life and to individual practice, hold space for community, and ultimately resonate far beyond itself.”

The next edition of Made in L.A. 2023 proposes a wide-ranging network of artistic affinities, legacies, and dialogues through intergenerational constellations formed through shared visual and material languages. The exhibition will highlight themes that emerged around vernacular aesthetics, the language of urban visual culture and domestic intimacy, materials and processes that are rooted in tradition, expansive archival and collective practices. Taken together, these practices suggest art can be an act of preservation and memorialization as well as a space for playfulness, satire, and sheer wildness.

“As the center of the world’s creative economy, Los Angeles is an exciting hub for so many artists who bring their diverse backgrounds and experiences to their works. The Hammer’s upcoming Made In L.A. biennial and the latest Angeleno artists selected to be featured will be a tremendous opportunity for these under-recognized artists and for the Southland’s tourism – two reasons why Bank of America continues to support this exciting exhibition,” said Raul A. Anaya, president, Bank of America Los Angeles.  

After making nearly 200 studio visits, as well as visiting numerous gallery and museum exhibitions during their research, the curators selected 39 artists, collectives, and organizations to represent a cross-section of Los Angeles. Made in L.A. 2023 features new works from the majority of artists in the exhibition including Marcel Alcalá, Sula Bermúdez-Silverman, Jibz Cameron, Ishi Glinsky, Young Joon Kwak, Tidawhitney Lek, Maria Maea, Roksana Pirouzmand, Ryan Preciado, Guadalupe Rosales, and Chiffon Thomas. These artists work across mediums, encompassing sculpture, assemblage, paintings, drawing, ceramics, performance, and installation. The exhibition will also include significant presentations by artists who have been working for more than four decades, including Victor Estrada, Nancy Evans, Akinsanya Kambon, Jessie Homer French, and Teresa Tolliver. These will be shown alongside historical work from Luis Bermudez, Pippa Garner, and Joey Terrill. AMBOS: Art Made Between Opposite Sides, Mas Exitos, and Los Angeles Contemporary Archive (LACA) will present projects derived from practices based on community engagement and archival materials. Both Dominique Moody and Vincent Enrique Hernandez will adapt ongoing projects that take place in the public sphere for the exhibition. The museum galleries will be organized in sections that reflect shared themes and formal interests. These groupings, each of which highlights the work of artists with long-standing practices, proposes an expansive network of imagined artistic inheritances and legacies. 

Participants
•    Marcel Alcalá b. 1990, Santa Ana, California
•    Michael Alvarez b. 1983, Los Angeles, California
•    AMBOS: Art Made Between Opposite Sides est. 2016, Tijuana, Mexico/San Diego, California
•    Jackie Amézquita b. 1985, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
•    Teresa Baker (Mandan/Hidatsa) b. 1985, Watford City, North Dakota
•    Luis Bermudez b. 1953, d. 2021, Los Angeles, California
•    Sula Bermúdez-Silverman b. 1993, New York, New York
•    Jibz Cameron b. 1975, California
•    Melissa Cody (Navajo/Diné) b. 1983, No Water Mesa, Arizona 
•    Emmanuel Louisnord Desir b. 1997, New York, New York
•    Victor Estrada b. 1956, Burbank, California
•    Nancy Evans b. 1949, Los Angeles, California
•    Pippa Garner b. 1943, Evanston, Illinois
•    Ishi Glinsky (Tohono O'odham) b. 1982, Tucson, Arizona
•    Vincent Enrique Hernandez b. 1998, Los Angeles, California
•    Dan Herschlein b. 1989, Bayville, New York
•    Jessie Homer French b. 1940, New York, New York 
•    Akinsanya Kambon b. 1946, Sacramento, California
•    Kyle Kilty b. 1976, South Lake Tahoe, California
•    Young Joon Kwak b. 1984, New York, New York
•    Kang Seung Lee b. 1978, Seoul, South Korea
•    Tidawhitney Lek b. 1992, Long Beach, California
•    Los Angeles Contemporary Archive (LACA) est. 2013
•    Maria Maea b. 1988, Long Beach, California
•    Erica Mahinay b. 1986, Santa Fe, New Mexico
•    Mas Exitos est. 2010
•    Dominique Moody b. 1956, Augsburg, Germany
•    Paige Jiyoung Moon b. 1984, Seoul, South Korea
•    Esteban Ramón Pérez b. 1989, Los Angeles, California
•    Page Person b. 1972, Atlanta, Georgia
•    Roksana Pirouzmand b. 1990, Yazd, Iran
•    Ryan Preciado b. 1989, El Monte, California
•    Devin Reynolds b. 1991, Venice Beach, California
•    Miller Robinson (Karuk/Yurok) b. 1992, Lodi, California
•    Guadalupe Rosales b. 1980, Redwood City, California
•    Christopher Suarez b. 1994, Long Beach, California
•    Joey Terrill b. 1955, Los Angeles, California
•    Chiffon Thomas b. 1991, Chicago, Illinois
•    Teresa Tolliver b. 1945, Los Angeles, California
 

MOHN AWARDS
Funded through the generosity of Los Angeles philanthropists and art collectors Jarl and Pamela Mohn, The Mohn Award ($100,000) and the Career Achievement Award ($25,000) will be selected by a professional jury, and the Public Recognition Award ($25,000) will be determined through a public vote. All the artists in the exhibition are eligible to receive the awards. In 2020 Kandis Williams received the Mohn Award; Monica Majoli received the Career Achievement Award, and MR. WASH received the Public Recognition Award In 2018 artist Lauren Halsey received the Mohn Award; Daniel Joseph Martinez received the Career Achievement Award, and EJ Hill received the Public Recognition Award. Dancer Adam Linder received the Mohn Award in 2016, Alice Könitz received it in 2014, and Meleko Mokgosi received it in 2012.

CATALOGUE
Made in L.A. 2023: Acts of Living is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue that includes essays from each curator, 39 commissioned artist entries that speak to each artist’s broader practice, and a photo essay by participating artist, Vincent Enrique Hernandez. The catalogue also includes an excerpt from Guadalupe Rosales’ forthcoming publication, East of the River. The catalogue is designed by Los Angeles-based designers IN-FO.CO and distributed worldwide by DelMonico Books?Prestel.

ABOUT MADE IN L.A.
The Hammer’s biennial exhibition series Made in L.A. focuses exclusively on artists from Los Angeles with a primary focus on emerging artists. The Los Angeles biennial debuts new installations, videos, films, sculptures, performances, and paintings commissioned specifically for the exhibition and offers insight into the current trends and practices coming out of Los Angeles, one of the most active and energetic art communities in the world. Made in L.A. began in 2012 with a second iteration in 2014 and a third in 2016, and followed the tradition of the Hammer Invitational exhibitions, which occurred every two years and included Snapshot (2001), International Paper (2003), Thing (2005), Eden’s Edge (2007), Nine Lives (2009), and All of this and nothing (2011).  

Made in L.A. 2012 was organized by a team of curators from the Hammer Museum and LAXART: Hammer senior curator Anne Ellegood, Hammer curator Ali Subotnick, LAXART director and chief curator Lauri Firstenberg, LAXART associate director and senior curator Cesar Garcia, and LAXART curator-at-large Malik Gaines. 

Made in L.A. 2014 was cocurated by Hammer chief curator Connie Butler and Los Angeles-based independent curator Michael Ned Holte.

Made in L.A. 2016: a, the, though, only was cocurated by Hammer curator Aram Moshayedi and Hamza Walker, former director of education and associate curator at the Renaissance Society in Chicago and currently director of LAXART in Los Angeles. 

Made in L.A. 2018 was organized by Anne Ellegood, senior curator, and Erin Christovale, assistant curator, with MacKenzie Stevens, curatorial associate. Performances are coordinated by Vanessa Arizmendi, curatorial assistant.

Made in L.A. 2020 was organized by independent curators Myriam Ben Salah and Lauren Mackler, with the Hammer’s Ikechukwu Onyewuenyi, assistant curator of performance. Made in L.A. 2020 was organized by the Hammer Museum in partnership with The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

CREDIT 
Made in L.A. 2023: Acts of Living is organized by curators Diana Nawi and Pablo José Ramírez, with Ashton Cooper, Luce Curatorial Fellow.

Made in L.A. 2023: Acts of Living is presented by Bank of America.

BANK OF AMERICA:

The exhibition is made possible by the Mohn Family Foundation and members of the Hammer Circle. Major support is provided by Mark Sandelson, and The Fran and Ray Stark Foundation. Additional support is provided by Bill Hair and the Pasadena Art Alliance. Made in L.A. 2023: Acts of Living is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

ABOUT THE CURATORS
Diana Nawi works as an independent curator based in Los Angeles. She serves as a curatorial consultant for Orange Barrel Media, and most recently was a guest curator and curatorial advisor for The Contemporary Austin. Alongside Naima J. Keith, she was co-artistic director of Prospect.5: Yesterday we said tomorrow (2021), a New Orleans-based triennial that included 51 artists across 17 venues. Her projects as an independent curator include Michael Rakowitz: Dispute Between the Tamarisk and the Date Palm at REDCAT, Los Angeles; Mark Bradford: Los Angeles at the Long Museum, Shanghai; and Adler Guerrier: Conditions and Forms for blck Longevity at the California African American Museum, Los Angeles. Nawi previously served as associate curator at Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), assistant curator on the Abu Dhabi Project of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, and fellow at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art. She received her BA from the University of California, Los Angeles, with a major in fine art and minors in art history and Chicana/o studies, and her MA from the Williams College Graduate Program in the History of Art. Nawi is the editor of a number of catalogues including McArthur Binion: DNA, which was published in 2021. Her writing has appeared in publications for the Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore, MOCA GA, Marrakech Biennial, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, National Gallery of Jamaica, New Museum, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and the Studio Museum of Harlem, among others.

Pablo José Ramírez is a curator and an author based in Berlin. Most recently he was the inaugural adjunct curator of First Nations and Indigenous art at Tate Modern. His work explores non-western ontologies, brown and indigenous histories; and the politics of non-colonial aesthetics.  He holds an MA in contemporary art theory from Goldsmiths, University of London. In 2015 he co-curated the 19th Paiz Biennale: Transvisible with Cecilia Fajardo-Hill. Among his recent exhibitions are Beyond, The Sea Sings: Diasporic Intimacies and Labour, Times Art Center, Berlin; La Medida del Silencio: Lawrence Abu Hamdan, NuMu, Guatemala (2020); The Shores of the World: on communality and interlingual politics, Display, Prague (2018); Guatemala Después, co-curator, Sheila C. Johnson Design Center, Parsons School of Design, New York (2015); and This Might be a Place for Hummingbirds, (with Remco de Blaaij) Center for Contemporary Arts, CCA, Glasgow (2014). Ramírez was the recipient of the 2019 Independent Curators International/CPPC Award for Central America and the Caribbean and is currently the editor in chief and co-founder of Infrasonica, a curatorial platform dedicated to the research around non-western sonic cultures. Ramírez has lectured internationally for the Museo Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, The National Museum of Oslo, MUAC, Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellin, Gasworks, ParaSite, Kunstintituut Melly (FKA Witte de With), University of Cape Town, Cambridge University, University of Chicago, and The New School, among others. He has published extensively including pieces for Artforum, e-flux, Arts of the Working Class, Artishock, and a number of museum catalogues and books. Ramírez was part of the curatorial council  of the 58th Carnegie International.