LOS ANGELES — The seventh iteration of Made in L.A., the Hammer Museum’s biennial exhibition showcasing artists working within the larger Los Angeles space, accommodates few surprises. The curators’ self described “no-methodology methodology” ends in a scattered exhibition that feels bland and curatorially unimaginative.
Regardless of this, the present accommodates some sturdy work, particularly in circumstances the place the artists have been given their very own rooms — for instance, Hannah Hur’s beautiful five-panel set up “Suspension” (2025), put in in a vault-like gallery. Every painted panel consists of a grid of faint white strains dotted with white flower-like patterns. The interplay between the grid and the flower motif creates a way of spatial confusion when viewing the work. This impact is just enhanced by the room’s structure: The strains within the cement ground and the curved shadows solid from a panel, which seems to be floating in midair, grow to be a significant a part of the viewing expertise. Hur’s quiet work transforms one’s notion of each the viewer’s bodily house and the areas she creates inside every portray.
Set up view of Hanna Hur, “Suspension” (2025), acrylic, coloured pencil, Flashe, and pigment on canvas
Na Mira disorients histories and mythologies in “Sugungga (Hello)” (2025).” The work references a Korean allegory wherein a sick dragon king making an attempt to treatment itself lures and is subsequently tricked by a rabbit. Two movies are projected onto reverse sides of a holographic glass — one filmed in a cab driving across the outdoors perimeter of a walled former navy constructing, constructed by the Japanese military and later used as a US navy base, and the opposite displaying an inflatable rabbit sculpture within the grounds. These projections collapse inside and out of doors. They solid ghostly shifting shadows and distorted imagery across the room and onto different viewers. The story of Korea’s occupiers is actually embodied by this one constructing, and the work’s complicated boundaries solid the viewer as each sufferer and complicit co-conspirator, as each inside and out of doors programs of energy.
Gabriela Ruiz, “Collective Scream” (2025), acrylic, gouache, pastel, coloured pencil, acrylic pens, epoxy clay, metallic hooks, metallic pipes, metallic {hardware}, LCD displays, TV monitor, roll-up gate, LED streetlamp, and surveillance digital camera on wooden panel
Different highlights embody Amanda Ross-Ho’s hilarious and poignant outsized replicas of her father’s residential nursing house door adorned with seasonal decorations, Carl Cheng’s singular erosion machines, and Patrick Martinez’s set up of a ruined and graffiti’d cinderblock construction, “Battle of the City on Fire” (2025).
And not using a clear curatorial thesis, Made in L.A. reverts to the default modus operandi of enormous museum group exhibitions, which is so as to add legitimacy and cultural capital to artists who’ve already been vetted by the market or different establishments. At the same time as a relative newcomer to Los Angeles (I moved right here about 5 years in the past), most of the artists included are already acquainted to me and have been displaying usually all through town. I’d like to see the following Made in L.A. go “off menu” a bit of extra.
Na Mira, “Sugungga (Hello)” (2024), two-channel Hi8 and HD video, holographic glass, 14 min.
Patrick Martinez, “Battle of the City on Fire” (2025), stucco, cinder blocks, neon, acrylic paint, spray paint and latex home paint on scorched panel
Carl Cheng, “Alternative TV #9” (1979–2016), plastic chassis, acrylic water tank, LED lighting and controller, electrical elements, conglomerated rocks, and plastic vegetation
Bruce Yonemoto, “Broken Fences” (2025), displays, lacquer, wooden
Amanda Ross-Ho, work from the collection Untitled Thresholds (FOUR SEASONS) (2025)
Alake Shilling, “Is there hope for me once more” (2025), glazed ceramic
Made in L.A. 2025 continues on the Hammer Museum (10899 Wilshire Boulevard, Westwood, Los Angeles) by way of March 1, 2026. The exhibition was organized by Essence Harden and Paulina Pobocha, with Jennifer Buonocore-Nedrelow.
