Made in L.A. 2016: a, the, though, only

Made in L.A. 2016: a, the, though, only is the third iteration of the Hammer’s biennial exhibition highlighting the practices of artists working throughout the greater Los Angeles area. As part of an ongoing series, the exhibition addresses Los Angeles as a center of activity inseparable from the global network of art production, revealing how artists move fluidly between contexts and respond to their local conditions. Rather than present a unifying regional aesthetic, sensibility, or identity historically associated with the city, Made in L.A. 2016 focuses on artists from different disciplinary backgrounds, allowing individual projects and bodies of work to shape the overall exhibition. It features condensed monographic surveys, comprehensive displays of multiyear projects, and the premiere of new commissions from emerging artists, while extending into such disciplines as dance, fashion, literature, music, and film.

The artist and poet Aram Saroyan was tasked with providing a subtitle for the exhibition. His poem—“a, the, though, only”—has been a guide for thinking about the many different singularities and approaches represented by a venture of this nature. As such, the site of the subtitle becomes an integral part of the exhibition’s ever-expanding reach beyond the museum. Other contributors considered the distribution of the exhibition to the same effect, venturing into territories that meet the needs of their work and creative output as established by their respective practices. Whether in the form of the Internet, public access television, or the social spaces of daily life and the broader expanse of the city, a number of contributions are as dependent upon their physical remove and displacement as they are on the conventions of museum display. Though an exhibition of this variety appears to be interdisciplinary in its scope, the boundaries between disciplines remain duly intact. The modes of self-examination and critical reflexivity that are particular to each are therefore met on their own terms, according to their distinct rules of engagement.

Made in L.A. 2016: a, the, though, only is organized by Hammer curator Aram Moshayedi and Hamza Walker, director of education and associate curator, Renaissance Society, with January Parkos Arnall, curatorial assistant, Public Engagement and MacKenzie Stevens, curatorial assistant.

Press Release: Hammer Museum Announces 26 Artists for Upcoming Biennial Made in L.A. 2016: a, the, though, only, January 20, 2016