The Hammer Museum’s biennial Made in L.A. exhibition is a celebration of local artists, with work meticulously selected from those active in the greater Los Angeles area. This year’s opening, however, had a noticeably more prudent tone than previous entrances of this series. “This has been an extremely challenging year for Angelenos,” Hammer Museum Director Zoë Ryan lamented in her welcome speech. In January, devastating wildfires tore through multi-generational homes and countless acres of the West Coast's natural splendor, as well as several weeks' worth of militarized police and federal troop deployments in the beginning of the summer, as protestors roared their disapproval of ICE raids occurring in their local communities. 

Most recently, freedom of speech is being levied in the minds of our zeitgeist, and calls from radical political pundits and elected officials for the deconstruction of museums and their displays of truth are rampant. Ryan, however, assured that the Hammer’s mission remains, exemplifying that “art and ideas for a more just world is one of the core principles of our mission. Our commitment to artists is inherent in one of our own country's core principles, the freedom of expression. Without that freedom, artists, and by extension, all of us who experience the arts, are constrained from reflecting on the past, as well as being able to imagine what the future could be.” 

Made in L.A. curators Essence Harding and Paulina Pobocha began planning the exhibition with an approach emblematic of the hard-fought year Angelenos were dealt with. Pobocha explained, “We deliberately purged any preconceived notions we may have held. We had no…thematics that we were looking to populate. Instead, what we wanted to do was visit as many studios as we possibly could, see as much art as we were able, and have as many conversations as time would allow.” Essence and Paulina noticed that the work they encountered, while diverse in scope, was narratively iterative and brimming with motifs from other Angeleno artists that came before them. This approach of letting the art find them allowed for a display as sprawling, immense, and surreal as the city itself. 

While having no formal direction to traverse the exhibition with, there is a specific starting point. A recreation of Alonzo Davis’ iconic mural Eye on ‘84 sits on the stairwell behind museum-goers approaching the gallery entrances. The mural was commissioned for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games hosted in the city and lived on the Harbor 110 Freeway, a place where roadway infrastructure some three decades prior tore apart neighborhoods and fractured the lives of many in those underserved communities. 

Regardless of the gallery one begins in, they will be met with pastels on canvas, metal, animal textiles, rows of ceramics, neon signage, and even spaces shrouded with silence. Each room takes on a unique feeling, the pieces put alongside one another help to recontextualize the thematics of their existence. From Pat O’Neill’s sculpture work modernizing the programmatic LA architectural movement from the late 20s-30s, to Gabriela Ruiz’s mixed-media crescendo of the current privacy-state, flesh and technology a cataclysm of symbiosis, the exhibition’s 28 artists intricately weave fable and truth alike. 

2025 was an inflection point for this city. The work of Made in L.A. represents generations of artists and mediums, showcasing that the societal issues plaguing the city are not new, nor fundamentally different from their predecessors. They are continuous, demanding to make progress. For an exhibition whose ideation began with no specific intention, its execution is as strong-willed and decisive as this city’s resilience.

The Made in L.A. 2025 Exhibition will be on display for public viewing at The Hammer Museum from October 5th, 2025, through March 1st, 2026.