The Hammer Museum in Los Angeles has named the 27 artists who will participate in its closely watched Made in L.A. biennial, which will open in October. The exhibition focuses on artists who work in the greater LA area.
Well-known artists like Carl Cheng, John Knight, Patrick Martinez, Will Rawls, Amanda Ross-Ho, Leilah Weinraub, and Pat O’Neill, the oldest artist in the show, will show their work alongside rising ones like Widline Cadet, Gabriela Ruiz, Peter Tomka, Freddy Villalobos, and Ali Eyal, the youngest artist included.
The upcoming biennial is slightly smaller than the 2023 edition, which featured 39 artists, but around the same size at the 2020/21 edition, which included 30 participants. By comparison, the 2024 edition of the Whitney Biennial showed the work of 71 artists, while the current edition of Prospect.6 in New Orleans has 49 artists.
The exhibition’s two curators, Essence Harden and Paulina Pobocha, did not announce a title for their exhibition. The focus for their show is to present an intergenerational group of artists who work in a variety of mediums. Featured here will be new work by Knight, a legendary conceptual artist; a new choreography by Rawls; and a stage play by Weinraub produced in collaboration with New Theater Hollywood.
“From the outset of this process, our primary objective was to look at art, and to see as much of it as possible,” the curators said in a joint statement. “We wanted to learn from artists and distill an exhibition from those experiences. While there are as many ideas circulating through the show as there are materials, an inquiry into one’s relationship to the city of Los Angeles animates much of the work we will present. Neither myth nor monolith, this city is many things to many people, and its cacophonous disorder is, perhaps, its most distinguishing feature.”
Now in its seventh edition, Made in L.A. has become known for significantly raising the profile of artists it has included, both those on the rise and underknown stalwarts of the scene. The biennial’s alumni include Lauren Halsey, rafa esparza, Christina Quarles, Luchita Hurtado, Huguette Caland, Kelly Akashi, Ishi Glinsky, Kang Seung Lee, Ryan Preciado, and Joey Terrill.
The 2025 artist list announcement comes as Los Angeles continues to battling multiple destructive wildfires, which have impacted dozens of artists working across the city.
In a statement, Zoë Ryan, the Hammer’s new director, said, “Every two years, the Made in L.A. biennial offers a chance for local and international audiences to celebrate the incredible work being made by artists in this city. Los Angeles is still grappling with the terrible fires of the last few weeks but, as we look ahead to the fall, I hope this biennial can demonstrate the resilience of artists and this city.”
The full artist list follows below.
David Alekhuogie (b. 1986, Los Angeles)
Black House Radio / Michael Donte (est. 2023)
Greg Breda (b. 1959, Los Angeles)
Widline Cadet (b. 1992, Pétion-Ville, Ayiti, Haiti)
Carl Cheng (b. 1942, San Francisco)
Jerald “Coop” Cooper (b. 1983, Cincinnati)
Ali Eyal (b. 1994, Baghdad, Iraq)
Hanna Hur (b. 1985, Toronto)
John Knight (b. 1945, Los Angeles)
Kristy Luck (b. 1985, Woodstock, IL)
Patrick Martinez (b. 1980, Pasadena)
Beaux Mendes (b. 1987, New York)
Na Mira (b. 1982, Lawrence, KS)
New Theater Hollywood / Max Pitegoff and Calla Henkel (est. 2024)
Pat O’Neill (b. 1939, Los Angeles)
Will Rawls (b. 1978, Boston)
Brian Rochefort (b. 1985, Lincoln, NE)
Amanda Ross-Ho (b. 1975, Chicago)
Gabriela Ruiz (b. 1991, San Fernando Valley)
Alake Shilling (b. 1993, Los Angeles)
Nicole-Antonia Spagnola (b. 1991, Los Angeles)
Mike Stoltz (b. 1981, Miami)
Peter Tomka (b. 1989, Des Moines)
Freddy Villalobos (b. 1989, Los Angeles)
Kelly Wall (b. 1990, Los Angeles)
Leilah Weinraub (b. 1979, Los Angeles)
Bruce Yonemoto (b. 1949, San Jose)
