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| Ishi Glinsky and collaborators, Inertia—Warn the Animals, 2023 |
The sixth installment of the Hammer's "Made in L.A." biennial opened this weekend. The press release identifies the themes as "urban visual culture, domestic intimacy, materials and processes rooted in tradition, and expansive archival and collective practices." My quick take is that this may be remembered as the Indigenous biennial. Multiple Native American artists are represented with compelling work. Somewhat related to that, this may also be the most rural of biennales, with the high desert and wildland-urban interface commanding attention. Diana Nawi and Pablo José Ramírez organized, with assistance from Ashton Cooper.
"Made in L.A. 2023: Acts of Living" runs through Dec. 31, 2023. The subtitle is taken from a statement by Noah Purifoy, recorded on a plaque at 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."
With the show sprawling across three levels of a newly expanded campus, it's easy to miss some of the art. The hand-out map is helpful.
Ishi Glinsky's Inertia—Warn the Animals (top of post) will be one of the show's social media stars. It's also a serious, multi-layer piece about transformation. Edvard Munch's The Scream became Ghostface of the Scream franchise, rendered in turquoise mosaic like an Aztec skull or a Native American trinket sold at roadside stands in Glinsky's native Arizona. Glinsky organized a multi-tribal super-group of Indigenous artists to create Inertia. The back contains bells (and a bullhorn) of warning.
Another large-scale Glinsky piece was in this summer's "Ecstatic: Selections from the Hammer Contemporary Collection."
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| Verso detail of Inertia—Warn the Animals |
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| Devin Reynolds, untitled, 2023 |
The lobby staircase has two Devin Reynolds paintings of the So. Cal. dream gone bad, each in blue monochrome and found poetry ("DIRGE / DEAD TIDE / WHITHER AWAY OLD MOON").
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| Dominique Moody, NOMAD, 2015–23 |
You'll either see the Reynolds paintings or Dominique Moody's NOMAD first, depending on which way you enter the museum. Moody's mobile tiny-home-studio is parked outside on Lindbrook Drive, and the artist will be present on certain Sundays to allow visitors to enter the space.
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| Paige Jiyoung Moon, Carlos and Mia at 7:45 A.M., 2021 |
There's a fair amount of realistic painting of L.A. domesticity. Paige Jiyoung Moon's acrylic-on-panel paintings are small; Tidawhitney Lek's acrylic and oils on canvas are large.
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| Tidawhitney Lek, Relatives, 2022 |
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| Joey Terrill, Isamu Noguchi's "California Scenario", 1984–85 |
Joey Terrill channels 1980s illustrator Patrick Nagel to address AIDS and the realities of gay Latinx life. A 9-part painting pays homage to Isamu Noguchi's California Scenario in Costa Mesa.
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| Jessie Homer French, Fireweed, 2022 |
Jessie Homer French draws on Grandma Moses and Edward Hicks for her post-apocalyptic peaceable kingdoms. Fireweed is among the first to bloom after a wildfire. Here it forms a millefleur tapestry among carbonized tree trunks.
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| Pippa Garner, Happy Parking!, 1996 |
Among the outliers is Pippa Garner, a comic draftsperson marrying neoclassical precision to a Mad magazine sensibility.
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| Works in glitter and rhinestones by Young Joon Kwak |
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| Nancy Evans, Fleurs du Mal, 2018 |
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| Akinsanya Kambon, The Birth of the Vanguard, 2016 |
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| Guadalupe Rosales, Chasing the Sun, 2023 |
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| Melissa Cody, Deep Brain Stimulation, 2011 |
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| Victor Estrada, The Spirit of the Living and the Dead and Cotton Candy Posada, 2017 |
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| Kang Seung Lee, Untitled (Elysian), 2023 |
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| Kang Seung Lee and Julie Tolentino, Christmas cactus from Archive in Dirt, 2019– |
This Christmas cactus was propagated from one owned by slain San Francisco supervisor Harvey Milk.
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| Ryan Preciado, Pope Cabinet, 2021 |
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| Kyle Kilty, It Could Be, Frankly, 2022 |
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| Roksana Pirouzmand in her Between two windows, 2023 |
On opening Sunday, artist Roksana Pirouzmand performed silently inside her Between two windows, built into the gallery walls, while Teresa Tolliver conversed with visitors. Tolliver is apparently the show's only artist who knew Noah Purifoy.
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| Teresa Tolliver, seated |
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| Roksana Pirouzmand, Until All Is Dissolved, 2023 |
Comments
Way before then, some critics razzed the paint-splotch canvasses of Jackson Pollock. Or artists more famous for creative drive than necessarily conventional technical skill. But decades later, I can recognize the works of either Basquiat or Pollock. Not as easily for certain other artists who display more technical finesse.
However, it's still the works of a Moon, French, Garner and Lee that make me pause and want to spend more time in front of. That's why a Lucas Museum compared with a Broad or MOCA (treacle art or nouveau art notwithstanding) may take more hours to wander through.