"Made in L.A." Biennal Opens at the Hammer Museum

Made in L.A.: 2012, Los Angeles's first biennial, multi-month art exhibition hosted by the Hammer Museum and LAXART, opened last night at the Hammer with a jaw-dropping 2,750 people in attendence. 

Intended to showcase the talent of up-and-coming and/or undervalued artists (read: WOMEN! QUEER WOMEN!), the biennial features the work of over 60 L.A. based artists. Made in L.A. is "a snapshot of what's happening in this city now," Annie Philbin, director of the Hammer Museum, told the Huffington Post in a recent interview. 

Here are some artists whose work you can check out at the biennial: 

(Kate Costello, Amy & Jennifer, 2010. Chromogenic print. 16 1/2 x 13 in. (41.9 x 33 cm))

Kate Costello: "Collapsing the roles of the artist, model, muse, and viewer, the intimate photographs explore the role of female subjectivity in the representation of women. A loosely connected community of studio models working in Los Angeles assume poses based on various art historically significant paintings (all picturing women but painted by men) in front of graphic drawings that Costello based on her sketchbook studies. Her untitled sculpture confronts another kind of subjectivity, calling attention to our bodies’ relationships to architectural space by demarcating its own sculptural presence."

(Meg Cranston, Rock Bottom, 2005. Paper, gelatin silver prints, varnish.)

Meg Cranston: "With levity and a great deal of wit, Meg Cranston has for many years investigated the intersections between individual and shared experience and how imagery and objects acquire meaning in our culture. With an eye equally enamored of color theory, design, fashion, and supermarket advertising, she makes energetic collages pairing found imagery with monochromatic abstract forms. Having moved to Los Angeles in the 1980s, she has become conversant with the city’s history and finds much inspiration in its cultural life."

(Analia Saban. The New York Times (with Ruptures), 2011. Ink on paper. 26 x 22 1/2 in. (66 x 57.2 cm))

Analia Saban: "Analia Saban deconstructs paintings in order to explore their making. She pours acrylic into silicone molds of objects in her studio, creating sculptural paintings that play with the idea that paintings are two-dimensional representations of three-dimensional objects. For her New York Times series, Saban programmed a laser cutter to remove the outlines of individual letters and images from thick white paper, running the paper through a printing press so that its contents appear to be bleeding."

(Erika Vogt, "Geometric Persecution," 2010)

Erika Vogt: "Working with drawing, sculpture, and video within precisely composed installations, Erika Vogt the intersection of science and the supernatural in multilayered spaces that feature subjects as wide-ranging as a pair of scissors and the devil. Her project Grounds and Airs (2011–12) is inspired in part by a fascination with systems of exchange and currency. For Notes on Currency (2012), Vogt uses a mimeograph machine for the first time to create instant multiples that are then used as a ground for drawings."

+++

Made in L.A. 2012 can be seen at the Hammer Museum, LAXART in Culver City, and the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall Park from June 2–September 2, 2012.