LOS ANGELES — The Hammer Museum’s biannual exhibition, Made in LA, offers a glimpse into the contemporary art scene across the region, striving to shape the diverse and expansive artistic environment. Curators Essence Harden and Paulina Pobocha, during the upcoming exhibition open to the public on October 5, leaned into the complexities of LA’s art scene, emphasizing that the city’s “dissonance is perhaps its most distinguishing feature.”
Through numerous studio visits, Harden and Pobocha managed to uncover common themes. “If there is any single thread in this show, it is historical,” Harden stated to Hyperallergic, challenging the common portrayal of LA as a place that overlooks its past. “It is about histories.”
These histories encompass a range from personal experiences to collective narratives, local reflections to global contexts; layers of memory interwoven through concrete and asphalt, or treasured as personal reminiscences. Ahead of the exhibit’s launch, Hyperallergic spotlights five of the 28 featured artists, all of whom explore narrative and memory uniquely.
Freddy Villalobos (b. 1989, Los Angeles)
Freddy Villalobos’s installation, titled “waiting for the stone to speak, for I know nothing of adventure” (2025), channels the death of iconic soul artist Sam Cooke to delve into historical themes, merging LA’s past, present, and future. The centerpiece is a lengthy video capturing a late-night drive along Figueroa Street, leading from the Hacienda Motel—the site where Cooke was gunned down in 1964—to the local morgue. This nearly two-hour single take navigates through space and time, from the historically African American sector of South Central where Villalobos was raised, extending northward to areas currently reshaped by the University of Southern California’s expansion, and reaching the LA Live entertainment complex alongside the well-known graffiti towers, seen as symbols of a “failed future,” according to Villalobos.
The installation features a bass-heavy soundtrack emerging from pedestals coated with gleaming automotive paint and purple neon, upon which rest abstract limestone frescoes predicted to erode over time, as sound vibrations reduce their ornate surfaces to dust. By reexamining this pivotal event through a modern lens, Villalobos draws connections between Cooke’s cultural and political era and our present circumstances.
“The change we’re hoping for feels within our reach,” Villalobos reflected, echoing Cooke’s civil rights anthem from 1964, “A Change Is Gonna Come.”
Patrick Martinez (b. 1980, Pasadena)
Drawing from the physical landscape of Los Angeles, Patrick Martinez creates his monumental sculptural painting “Battle of the City on Fire” (2025), inspired by the city’s rich architectural and mural traditions. Spanning 70 feet, this sculpture mimics a deteriorating cinder-block wall, layered with historical references. The work’s focal image pays homage to a battle mural sourced from Cacaxtla, an archaeological site in Mexico, connecting LA’s mural legacy to centuries-old murals found elsewhere in the Americas. Martinez envisions the depicted warriors as ancestors to the local Mexican and Central American populace and critiques current severe immigration crackdowns. “As I was developing this piece, people were disappearing and being taken away right outside in the world; families were being dissolved,” he remarked.
The mural is partially covered with graffiti tags, painted stucco, and neon accents, reminiscent of the through-the-ages layering seen on urban storefronts. He includes accurate renderings of bougainvillea, a native Mexican plant that flourishes in LA. “At first glance, it’s like a landscape, but once you discern the figures, it becomes evident they are either being buried or emerging,” he explains.
Widline Cadet (b. 1992, Pétion-Ville, Haiti)
Widline Cadet’s work embodies a blend of carefully crafted portraits and archival family photos, presented within uniquely shaped frames as components of expansive installations. Having relocated to the US from Haiti during her childhood, Cadet’s fragmented portrayals illustrate a diasporic connection, granting equal significance to spontaneous memories alongside professional images. Her piece “Shifting Skies” (2025) features a dozen pictures in half-circle frames, designed reminiscent of a pinwheel or the arrangement of breeze blocks popular in both Southern California and Haiti. This tangible connection, alongside the region’s flora and the climate, created a familiar ambiance for Cadet after her move to LA from New York three years prior. “I’ve never resided in a place that reminds me of my home so much,” she shared.
Her perspective emphasizes LA’s identity as fluid and diverse, shaped by numerous global influences. “LA is an international city with global repercussions,” highlighted Harden. “It’s far from isolated.”
Ali Eyal (b. 1994, Baghdad, Iraq)
Ali Eyal, who was raised in Baghdad amidst the American occupation, infuses his paintings with themes of loss and reflection. His large-format canvases draw from personal accounts, depicted in metaphorical styles that resemble dreams. “And Look Where I Went” (2025) stems from his visit to the 9/11 Memorial in New York last year—a site he had previously avoided due to its deep sorrow. Nearby, he engaged in dialogue with an Egyptian vendor selling hot dogs who had just immigrated to America. Staring into the memorial’s waterfalls, Eyal felt a resurgence of childhood innocence as the harrowing memories of war and sectarian violence flooded back. “It continues; it is still happening,” he maintained.
Amanda Ross-Ho (b. 1975, Chicago)
Amanda Ross-Ho’s “Untitled Thresholds (FOUR SEASONS)” (2025) also emerges from personal storytelling, yet is made accessible through a lens of abstraction. The piece features four oversized doors that replicate the entrance to her father’s room at his nursing home. Ross-Ho amplified these doors to 170%, meticulously reenacting years of scuffs and wear with each paint detail. Seasonal decorations typically spotted in institutional settings to brighten spaces adorn the doors, with Ross-Ho enlarging them too, creating a temporal disarray that intentionally skews any perception of linearity.
“It originates from my own story, but it’s not exclusively about my dad. I contemplate the nature of time and how these elements operate,” she explained. “Time serves as my primary medium and overarching concern, forming both my material and theme.”
