Museum  November 7, 2023  Carlota Gamboa

10 Standout Works from the 2023 Made in L.A. Biennial

Created: Tue, 11/07/2023 - 09:57
Author: rozalia
Courtesy of the artist. Various Small Fires, Los Angeles / Dallas / Seoul, and MASSIMODECARLO, Milan / London / Paris / Beijing / Hong Kong

Made in L.A. is the Hammer Museum at UCLA's much-anticipated biennial and also its temperature-check on the L.A. art scene. For this year's biennial, called Acts of Living, curators Diana Nawi and Pablo José Ramírez hope to spark a reparative conversation between community histories and collective isolation. 

"We believe that all the practices we’re representing at the biennial have to do with life and how the artistic work is rooted in people's community,” said Ramírez during the walk-through preceding the show's opening in early October. “It’s not thinking about production for production’s sake.”

The show opened shortly before Museum Director Ann Philbin announced her retirement after 25 years of tenure. Responsible for eliminating the admissions fee in 2014 and increasing the annual budget from $6 million to $28 million, Philbin acquired more than 4,000 works of
contemporary art under her leadership and has been instrumental in transforming the institution into a relevant space. A successor has not yet been announced.

On view until December 31, Acts of Living takes its title from a quote by artist Noah Purifoy that is 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.” Illustrating this concept, the curators brought together 39 artists in a varied ensemble of
local microcosms. Here are ten highlights. 

1 of 10
Courtesy of Roger Gastman and the Hammer Museum UCLA
Michael Alvarez, Gnarmageddon (Ode to Jkwon), 2016.
Michael Alvarez, Gnarmageddon (Ode to JKwon), 2016

Portraiture stands out with pieces like Michael Alvarez’s (b. 1983, Los Angeles) Gnarmageddon (Ode to JKwon), which pays homage to East Los Angeles through the lens of the artist's personal history. Using a combination of oil, pencil, oil pastel and spray paint, he captures the essence of forms in movement, and his bustling skater scene gets to live in a space of temporal ambiguity, making the work all the more personal.

Image credit: Michael Alvarez, Gnarmageddon (Ode to Jkwon), 2016. Oil, spray paint, oil pastel, pencil, and collage on panel. 60 × 72 in. (152.4 × 182.9 cm).

 

2 of 10
Courtesy of the artist and Steve Turner, Los Angeles
Paige Jiyoung Moon, Nap Time with Mia, 2022. Acrylic on wood panel. 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm). Courtesy of the artist and Steve Turner, Los Angeles.
Paige Jiyoung Moon, Nap time with Mia, 2022

Stylistically akin to Alverez, Paige Jiyoung Moon’s (b. 1984, Seoul) acrylic on wood panel shares a tone in Nap time with Mia (2022), illustrating a mother cradling her baby in a nursery full of toys, gadgets, and two abandoned slippers in the corner. A single light illuminates the pair from above. 

Image caption: Paige Jiyoung Moon, Nap Time with Mia, 2022. Acrylic on wood panel. 16 × 20 in. (40.6 × 50.8 cm). 

 

3 of 10
Courtesy of the artist. Various Small Fires, Los Angeles / Dallas / Seoul, and MASSIMODECARLO, Milan / London / Paris / Beijing / Hong Kong
Jessie Homer French, Urban Coyotes, 2023
Jessie Homer French, Urban Coyotes, 2023

The self-described “regional narrative painter” Jesse Homer French  (b. 1940, New York) navigates questions of intimacy by juxtaposing the natural with the constructed. In the 2023 piece, Urban Coyotes, a pack of the L.A. dogs are seen grazing a trail with downtown as their backdrop, illuminating the assembly of their life around human-made structures, and vice versa.

Image credit: Jessie Homer French, Urban Coyotes, 2023. Oil on artist canvas, 24 x 42 in. (61 x 106.7 cm). 

 

4 of 10
Courtesy of the artist and Sow & Tailor, Los Angeles
Tidawhitney Lek, Refuge, 2023
Tidawhitney Lek, Refuge, 2023

Tidawhitney Lek’s (b. 1992, Long Beach, California) stylized renditions of first-generation Cambodian experience employs internet-era pastiche and simultaneity. The 2023 triptych, Refuge features a perforated wrought iron entry emblematic of Los Angeles on the left, with a high-heeled foot peeking in from the outside. On the right, a neon pink plastic muck bucket and a metallic pencil sharpener sit beneath a matching window. Between these two domestic scenes, a soldier stands in front of a family huddled together, watching explosions in the distance, referencing Pol Pot’s devastating regime. 

Image caption: Tidawhitney Lek, Refuge, 2023. Acrylic, pastel, glitter, and oil on canvas. Overall dimensions: 72 × 144 in. (182.9 × 365.8 cm); Canvas/Panel (A): 72 × 48 in. (182.9 × 121.9 cm); Canvas/Panel (B): 72 × 48 in. (182.9 × 121.9 cm); Canvas/Panel (C): 72 × 48 in. (182.9 × 121.9 cm).

 

5 of 10
Courtesy of the artist
Roksana Pirouzmand,  Between Two Windows, 2023
Roksana Pirouzmand,  Between Two Windows, 2023

Iranian-American artist Roksana Pirouzmand’s (b. 1990, Yazd, Iran) site-specific installation, Between two windows also speaks to the experience of exile. Pirouzmand performs from within a wall as the audience witnesses her from either side; one window representative of the one in her Los Angeles home, the other of her grandmother’s home in Iran. The artist grips pictures and bits of newspaper as a wind-machine blows them away from her. 

Image caption: Roksana Pirouzmand, Between two windows, 2023.  45 × 50 in. (114.3 × 127 cm).
 

6 of 10
Courtesy of the artist
Installation view of Miller Robinson's Ímah hum, Do you see it?
Miller Robinson,  Ímah hum, Do you see it?, 2023

A three-part performance, Ímah hum, Do you see it? by Miller Robinson (b. 1992, Lodi, California) (it/its) also lives solely within the gallery space. The artist spends an afternoon rearranging and “accumulating impact” to its installation as Robinson moves around the audience. The practice is grounded in the artist's Karuk and Yurok heritage. 

Image caption: Installation view of Miller Robinson's Ímah hum, Do you see it? 

 

7 of 10
Courtesy of the artist
Teresa Baker, Trace, 2021
Teresa Baker, Trace, 2021

Teresa Baker (b. 1985, Watford City, North Dakota), a Mandan/Hidatsa artist, uses a combination of natural fibers and astroturf to create abstract landscapes. Her works question forms of colonial mapmaking by challenging the viewer’s perspective on representation. Both through her chosen materials and simple motifs, like ovals and triangles as seen in the 2021 piece Trace, Baker reclaims what it looks like to carve out space for oneself. 

Image caption: Teresa Baker, Trace, 2021

 

8 of 10
Courtesy of the artist
Nancy Evans, Fleurs du Mal (Evil Flower), 2018
Nancy Evans, Fleurs du Mal (Evil Flower), 2018

The poetic pastorals by Venice Beach local Nancy Evans (b. 1949, Los Angeles) capture the passing of geologic time with layers of acrylic paint poured onto the canvas. One of her “Lunar Paintings”, inspired by the supermoons that took place between 2014 and 2020, Fleurs du Mal depicts a bulbous flower curving under a single star. 

Image caption: Nancy Evans, Fleurs du Mal (Evil Flower), 2018. Acrylic on canvas. 64 × 64 in. (162.6 × 162.6 cm). 

 

9 of 10
Courtesy of the artist
Victor Estrada, Big Rock Candy Mountain, 2017
Victor Estrada, Big Rock Candy Mountain, 2017

Victor Estrada’s (American, b. 1956) parallel universes illustrate surreal worlds derived from existence in Los Angeles. Big Rock Candy Mountain, 2017, displays bubblegum-esque figurations that combine the imperceptible with the real. A crow standing near a stream at the foreground of the canvas is the only recognizable form, while the surrounding cartoonish swirlings feel more akin to ghosts than objects.  

Image caption: Victor Estrada, Big Rock Candy Mountain, 2017. Oil on canvas on panel. 48 × 60 in. (121.9 × 152.4 cm).

 

10 of 10
Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Elon Shoenholz.
Esteban Ramón Pérez
Esteban Ramón Pérez, Chimalli De Mis Ojos, 2022

From Esteban Ramón Pérez’s (b. 1989, Los Angeles) indigenously inspired takes on sculptural leather-work, to a raffle of a five-hour tour of the San Fernando Valley in the back of Vincent Enrique Hernandez’s family Volvo, narratives become interrelated. As glimpses into different definitions of the “domestic” come alive from room to room, each piece in the show gains strength from the art which surrounds it. The environment created by “Acts of Living” is one that defies the isolation of a white wall, and asks a viewer to take in the vibrancy of multiplicity. 

Image credit: Esteban Ramón Pérez, Chimalli de Mis Ojos, 2022. Necalli leather boxing gloves, peacock blade and eyelet tail feathers, chile de arbol, chile Cora, wood, copper,
jute. 48 x 24 x 24 in. (121.9 x 61 x 61.0 cm). 

 

About the Author

Carlota Gamboa

Carlota Gamboa is an art writer based in Los Angeles.

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