‘Made in L.A.’ Exhibition Returns To Hammer Museum After Two Years

‘Made in L.A.’ Exhibition Returns To Hammer Museum After Two Years After the devastating wildfires in January 2025, Los Angeles craved a sense of solidarity. Local artists, galleries, and museums flocked to one another, mounting exhibitions that underpinned not just the city’s resilience, but that of its arts community. That’s precisely why the Hammer Museum’s signature biennial show, Made in L.A., matters now more than ever. […] READ: ‘Made in L.A.’ Exhibition Returns To Hammer Museum After Two Years

Art Aug 28, 2025 0 1 Add to Reading List

‘Made in L.A.’ Exhibition Returns To Hammer Museum After Two Years

Pat O‘Neill, “Los Angeles,” from the series “Cars and Other Problems,” ca. 1960s. (Courtesy of the artist)

After the devastating wildfires in January 2025, Los Angeles craved a sense of solidarity. Local artists, galleries, and museums flocked to one another, mounting exhibitions that underpinned not just the city’s resilience, but that of its arts community. That’s precisely why the Hammer Museum’s signature biennial show, Made in L.A., matters now more than ever.

Opening later this fall, Made in L.A. gathers the work of 28 artists, including David Alekhuogie, Pat O’Neill, Kelly Wall, Bruce Yonemoto, and Carl Cheng, among others. This roster offers a sweeping glimpse into LA’s contemporary art scene, meticulously curated by Essence Harden and Paulina Pobocha. The exhibition’s ambitious scope should perhaps come as no surprise; after all, Harden and Pobocha visited studios, artist-run venues, commercial galleries, and museums across the city for more than a year to determine their final selection of artists. The result is both multigenerational and multidisciplinary, encompassing everything from painting, sculpture, and photography to music, film, and choreography.

The Hammer’s most recent iteration of Made in L.A., staged in 2023, naturally focused on the COVID-19 pandemic as an organizing principle. This year, however, the museum decided to zoom into the city itself. That choice is a logical, if not necessary, one—following the wildfires earlier this year, LA demanded some sort of recalibration, an effort to celebrate and uplift the city’s unique urban environment.

“There’s a conversation happening between the artists, the work that they make, and the context in which they make it—the context being Los Angeles,” Pobocha told the Los Angeles Times in a recent interview.

If nothing else, Made in L.A. reveals how differently its artists approach the city, capturing a myriad of creative perspectives. Pat O’Neill’s Los Angeles photograph, for instance, showcases a car crashed into a leafy palm tree, suggesting that LA’s idyllic landscape isn’t immune to disaster—especially when it comes to luxuries such as cars. Widline Cadet, on the other hand, considers LA through the lens of immigration, exploring how her family adapted to the city after leaving Haiti. Like Los Angeles, Cadet’s Shifting Skies is rendered in an intimate black-and-white color palette, depicting an embrace between two women. Here, destruction isn’t at the forefront; instead, tenderness takes center stage, revealing how the city can foster connection and community even for newcomers.

“While there are as many ideas circulating through the show as there are materials, an inquiry into one’s relationship to the city of Los Angeles animates much of the work we will present,” Harden and Pobocha said in a joint statement. “Neither myth nor monolith, this city is many things to many people, and its cacophonous disorder is, perhaps, its most distinguishing feature.”

Zoë Ryan, director of the Hammer Museum, echoed the sentiment: “Every two years, Made in L.A. offers a chance for local and international audiences to celebrate the incredible work being made by artists in this city. I hope this biennial can demonstrate the resilience of artists and this city.”

This year’s exhibition serves as the biennial’s seventh iteration. Made in L.A. will open on October 5, 2025, at the Hammer Museum, and will be on view through March 1, 2026. To learn more and plan your own visit, check out the Hammer Museum’s website.