Upon entrance at the Hammer Museum, a bright blue mural cascades down the staircase, depicting familiar scenes of Los Angeles, captivating the eyes of museumgoers…
Tall palms trees juxtaposed by chain link fences, Lincoln Blvd.’s Swartz Glass Co. and Culver City’s controversial Martin B. Retting gun store are all collaged by artist Devin Reynolds to encompass Los Angeles’ quintessence—a broader community composed of microcultures.
“Made in L.A. 2023: Acts of Living,” is a biennial presentation of contemporary art currently on display at UCLA’s Hammer Museum. The show features mixed media works by 39 L.A.-based intergenerational artists and groups.
Co-curated by independent curator Diana Nawi and Hammer curator Pablo José Ramírez, the exhibition, sponsored by Bank of America, opened to the public on Oct. 1 and will continue to be on display at the Hammer until Dec. 31.
Tidawhitney Lek, an artist from Long Beach, has three of her paintings featured in the exhibition. Lek’s impeccably detail-oriented art draws inspiration from her Cambodian-American identity—an identity she once struggled to embrace while studying at Long Beach Community College.
Now, Lek prefers to let her art do the talking.
“I don’t always have the words to articulate the space I’m floating in, but it just seems like the paintings do such a great job in expressing that,” she shared. “Once I left school, with no eyes on me, I finally was able to comfortably unravel what it is that I represent in my own studio.”
As a first-generation American, Lek relayed the importance of driving microcultural narratives full speed into artistic spheres. “My work is usually set in a domestic space because my conversation is built around family and history,” said Lek.
The now 30-year-old painter strides into “Made in L.A.” with confidence and feels proud to be in a show that puts her work in dialogue with the diverse lived experiences of Angelenos.
“Refuge,” one of Lek’s featured paintings, is composed from her father’s memories of The Khmer Rouge. The painting depicts a younger generation of women looking through a mirror at an explosion in the landscape of Cambodia. This is Lek’s way of bridging the narrative between older generations and the generations to follow.
Museum-goer, Theo Hargis, visited the Hammer Museum to finally see some of his favorite L.A.-based artists’ work in-person. He left the exhibition moved by the storytelling abilities present in the figuration landscapes of painter Michael Alvarez.
“Michael [Alvarez’s] work is just beautiful,” Hargis said. “He really tells a story about his upbringing in Los Angeles and physically seeing the different materials he molds into his work gives it so much more complexity. As an aspiring painter, it was inspiring to see.”
Inspiration is exactly what this year’s “Made in L.A.” co-curator Diana Nawi hopes viewers takeaway. Having gone from attending art school at UCLA to now curating artwork for the Hammer feels like a full-circle moment,as Nawi said she now enjoys “talking about art rather than making [it].”
Alongside her co-curator Pablo José Ramírez, Nawi conducted hundreds of artist interviews to curate this year’s show. Ultimately, they selected work that would seamlessly blend into one another and prompt storytelling from various pockets of L.A..
Nawi knows that this exhibition alone cannot speak for every artist in L.A. However, she and Ramírez are optimistic that this exhibition will foster curiosity. “Our hope is you could come see “Made in L.A.” and then go back out into L.A. and see a hundred other artists and have some context for what they are doing in their practice.”
While the primary focus of this particular “Made in L.A.” show is the art on display, the Hammer will also host a variety of public programs, including performances, artist talks and screenings. Events begin on Tuesday, Oct. 10. with a guided discussion on “Eastside Sound: Lowrider & Soul.” The full list of events is posted on the Hammer Museum’s website.