Los Angeles Contemporary Archive (LACA)

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Los Angeles Contemporary Archive (LACA) is a public archive and library located in Chinatown dedicated to contemporary art making. Through its online and in-person submission process, the archive preserves contemporary art ephemera contributed by artists. LACA focuses on art materials related to process: how artists create artworks, organize, and pay the bills. This ephemera allows artists to learn from one another’s experiences and to privilege one another’s needs and desires.

For Made in L.A. 2023, LACA has created an installation called break room, which serves as a public rest area remixed and reshuffled with selections from archival collections. The installation shows a complicated artistic life and the ways in which we dream up possibilities of living differently.

Los Angeles Contemporary Archive (LACA) was started by Hailey Loman, and its collections have been built and maintained by a growing community of artists for over a decade. These collections include materials—studio leases, contracts, pay stubs, performance apparel, set pieces, police reports, text messages, and class syllabi—that enable us to learn from one another’s experiences and create new works that privilege the desires and needs of our communities before those of galleries and museums. LACA's project at the Hammer is supported by and organized with Andrew Freire, Saida Largaespada, Nicholas Gaby, Keko Jackson, and Hugo Cervantes.