Made in L.A. 2020: a version

April 17-Aug. 1, 2021 | "Made in L.A. 2020: a version" debuts new installations, videos, films, sculpture, performances, and paintings from Los Angeles–based artists, many commissioned specifically for the exhibition.
Closeup of a painting of a crying eye

The fifth iteration of the Hammer’s acclaimed biennial bridges east and west with complementary presentations at the Hammer Museum and The Huntington.

Learn more about online and offsite projects by Larry Johnson and Kahlil Joseph, Ligia Lewis, and Justen LeRoy

Works by 30 Los Angeles–based artists are presented at both institutions—two versions that make up the whole. The exhibition features new installations, videos, films, sculptures, performances, and paintings, many commissioned specifically for the exhibition.

Funded through the generosity of Los Angeles philanthropists and art collectors Jarl and Pamela Mohn, three awards totaling $150,000 will be given to artists in the exhibition: the Mohn Award, the Career Achievement Award—both of which are selected by a professional jury—and the Public Recognition Award, which is determined through votes cast by visitors to the exhibition. Visitors will be able to vote at both exhibition locations. Learn about the award winners.

During the run of Made in L.A. 2020, members and visitors to the Hammer will receive passes granting free admission to The Huntington to view Made in L.A. 2020 in full.

Made in L.A. 2020 is organized by independent curators Myriam Ben Salah and Lauren Mackler, with the Hammer’s Ikechukwu Onyewuenyi, assistant curator of performance.

Made in L.A. 2020 is organized by the Hammer Museum in partnership with The Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens.

Hammer logo and Huntington Centennial logo

The Artists

About the Curators

Myriam Ben Salah (b. 1985, Algiers, Algeria) is a Tunisian-French curator and writer based in Paris. She has been in charge of special projects and public programs at Palais de Tokyo from 2009 to 2016, focusing especially on performance art, moving image and publishing initiatives. She was recently the Guest Curator of the 10th edition of the Abraaj Group Art Prize in Dubaï (2018) where she worked with winning artist Lawrence Abu Hamdan on a large scale commission. In 2016, she was a Curator-in-Residence at Fahrenheit in Los Angeles. Ben Salah’s recent projects encompass exhibitions, screening series, and performances organized at prominent international institutions including Lazaar Foundation in Tunis, the ICA in London, Beirut Art Center, Kunsthall Stavanger, Kadist Foundation in Paris and San Francisco, Pejman Foundation in Tehran, DESTE Foundation in Athens. Ben Salah is currently the Editor-in-Chief of Kaleidoscope Magazine. She also co-edited F.A.Q., a periodical image-only magazine with artist Maurizio Cattelan, as well as FEB MAG, the publication of the Underground Museum in Los Angeles. Her writings have appeared in numerous international art publications and catalogues including Artforum, Mousse, and Numéro. She sits on the jury of Beirut Art Residency, SAM Art Project in Paris and the Onassis Foundation Residency in Athens. She was part of the curatorial committee selecting emerging artists for Artissima (Turin) and is currently working on artist Neil Beloufa’s first monograph book.

Lauren Mackler is a curator and writer based in Los Angeles. In 2010, she founded Public Fiction, a forum for staging exhibitions, performances, and programs by contemporary artists and writers, as well as a journal with the same mission in print. Mackler has organized Public Fiction exhibitions and catalogues at The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2012 & 2016); Artissima LIDO, Turin (2012); the Berkeley Art Museum (2013); Frieze Projects New York (2014); the Hammer Museum (2014); the MAK Center for Art and Architecture’s Schindler House (2018); and the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago (January 2019). She is currently the managing editor of Sublevel, the literary magazine housed in the CalArts School of Critical Studies, and has been on faculty at the School of Visual Arts in New York, the UCLA Graduate Department of Art, and Otis College of Art and Design. Mackler is a contributor to Artforum and various other publications. In 2015, she was awarded the Rome Prize by the American Academy in Rome.

Ikechukwu Casmir Onyewuenyi joined the Hammer in May 2017. He is a Nigerian Australian curator and writer. His research interests dovetail across performance and performativity in new (digital) media, epistemology of the photographic image, and African aesthetics in the diaspora. Onyewuenyi has prior curatorial experience at Performa, The Kitchen, BRIC, and African Artist’s Foundation, Lagos, among others. He maintains an ongoing writing practice, having profiled the likes of Maurizio Cattelan, Awol Erizku, Hassan Elahi, Simone Forti, Dana Michels, and Jo Ratcliffe for publications such as Afterimage: The Journal of Media Arts and Media Culture, ARTS.BLACK, BLOUIN ARTINFO, Carla, OnCurating, and Performa Magazine, among others. He has an M.A. in Curatorial Practice from the School of Visual Arts, New York and an M.S. in Clinical/Biological Health Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh.


Presented by:

Bank of America logo

This exhibition is part of The Huntington's Centennial Celebration, which is made possible by the generous support of Avery and Andrew Barth, Terri and Jerry Kohl, and Lisa and Tim Sloan.

This exhibition's presentation at The Huntington is also supported by The Philip and Muriel Berman Foundation, Maribeth and Hal Borthwick, and The Ahmanson Foundation Exhibition and Education Endowment.

Media sponsorship is provided by Cultured magazine and KCRW 89.9FM.

Audio Tour

Listen to the stories and meanings behind the artworks on display in Made in L.A. 2020: a version.
Start tour

Exhibition Catalog

Designed to serve as an additional venue for the artists, Made in L.A. 2020: a version features art created specifically for the book, as well as essays and conversations between artists and curators that explore the concepts of the upcoming biennial. Available in store and online.

Made in L.A. 2020: a version book cover

Related Events

Lunchtime Art Talk on Monica Majoli

Wed., Dec. 2, 12:30 p.m. (PST)
Join Nicholas Barlow, curatorial assistant at the Hammer Museum, for this short and insightful discussion about artist Monica Majoli.
Watch

Lunchtime Art Talk on Diane Severin Nguyen

Wed., Dec. 9, 12:30 p.m. (PST)
Join Lauren Mackler, co-curator of "Made in L.A. 2020: a version," for this short and insightful discussion about artist Diane Severin Nguyen.
Watch

Lunchtime Art Talk on Mario Ayala

Wed., Dec. 16, 12:30 p.m. (PST)
Join Vanessa Arizmendi, curatorial assistant at the Hammer Museum, for this short and insightful discussion about artist Mario Ayala.
Watch

Lunchtime Art Talk on Nicola L.

Wed., Jan. 6, 12:30 p.m. (PST)
Join Matthieu Vahanian, curatorial assistant at the Hammer Museum, for this short and insightful discussion about artist Nicola L.
Watch

Lunchtime Art Talk on Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork

Wed., Jan. 13, 12:30 p.m. (PST)
Join Ikechukwu Onyewuenyi, Made in L.A. 2020 assistant curator of performance, for this short and insightful discussion about artist Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork.
Watch

Lunchtime Art Talk on Katja Seid

Wed., Jan. 27, 12:30 p.m. (PST)
Join Nika Chilewich, curatorial assistant at the Hammer Museum, for this short and insightful discussion about artist Katja Seid.
Watch

Lunchtime Art Talk on Jill Mulleady

Wed., Feb. 3, 12:30 p.m. (PST)
Join Aram Moshayedi, Robert Soros Curator at the Hammer Museum, for this short and insightful discussion about artist Jill Mulleady.
Watch

Lunchtime Art Talk on Brandon D. Landers

Wed., Feb. 10, 12:30 p.m. (PST)
Join Erin Christovale, associate curator at the Hammer Museum, for this short and insightful discussion about artist Brandon D. Landers.
Watch

Conversation with Fulton Leroy Washington (aka MR. WASH) & Ikechukwu Onyewuenyi

Thurs., Feb. 11, 5 p.m. (PST)
The pair discuss MR. WASH's painting practice and his participation in the Hammer's biennial.
Watch

Lunchtime Art Talk on Ser Serpas

Wed., Feb. 17, 12:30 p.m. (PST)
Join Connie Butler, chief curator at the Hammer Museum, for this short and insightful discussion about artist Ser Serpas.
Watch

Screening: deader than dead with Ligia Lewis & Mlondi Zondi

Sun., Feb. 21, 1 p.m. (PST)
Movement artist and scholar Mlondi Zondi joins artist Ligia Lewis in conversation, followed by a screening of Lewis’s dance performance deader than dead (2020).
Watch

Lunchtime Art Talk on Buck Ellison

Wed., Feb. 24, 12:30 p.m. (PST)
Join Nicholas Barlow, curatorial assistant at the Hammer Museum, for this short and insightful discussion about artist Buck Ellison.
Watch

Lunchtime Art Talk on Niloufar Emamifar

Wed., March 3, 12:30 p.m. (PST)
Join Ikechukwu Onyewuenyi, Made in L.A. 2020 assistant curator of performance, for this short and insightful discussion about artist Niloufar Emamifar.
Watch

Lunchtime Art Talk on Kahlil Joseph

Wed., March 10, 12:30 p.m. (PST)
Join Ikechukwu Onyewuenyi, Made in L.A. 2020 assistant curator of performance, for this short and insightful discussion about artist Kahlil Joseph.
Watch

Lunchtime Art Talk on Patrick Jackson

Wed., March 17, 12:30 p.m. (PDT)
Join Nicholas Barlow, curatorial assistant at the Hammer Museum, for this short and insightful discussion about artist Patrick Jackson.
Watch

Lunchtime Art Talk on Reynaldo Rivera

Wed., March 24, 12:30 p.m. (PDT)
Join Vanessa Arizmendi, curatorial assistant at the Hammer Museum, for this short and insightful discussion about artist Reynaldo Rivera.
Watch

Lunchtime Art Talk on Christina Forrer

Wed., March 31, 12:30 p.m. (PDT)
Join Dennis Carr, The Huntington's Chief Curator of American Art, for this short and insightful discussion about artist Christina Forrer.
Watch

Lunchtime Art Talk on Kandis Williams

Wed., April 7, 12:30 p.m. (PDT)
Join Nika Chilewich, curatorial assistant at the Hammer Museum, for this short and insightful discussion about artist Kandis Williams.
Watch

Lunchtime Art Talk on Aria Dean

Wed., April 14, 12:30 p.m. (PDT)
Join Connie Butler, chief curator at the Hammer Museum, for this short and insightful discussion about artist Aria Dean.
Watch

Lunchtime Art Talk on Hedi El Kholti

Wed., April 21, 12:30 p.m. (PDT)
Join Aram Moshayedi, Robert Soros Curator at the Hammer Museum, for this short and insightful discussion about artist Hedi El Kholti.
Watch

Lunchtime Art Talk on Alexandra Noel

Wed., April 28, 12:30 p.m. (PDT)
Join Erin Christovale, associate curator at the Hammer Museum, for this short and insightful discussion about artist Alexandra Noel.
Watch

Lunchtime Art Talk on Sabrina Tarasoff

Wed., May 5, 12:30 p.m. (PDT)
Join Lauren Mackler, co-curator of "Made in L.A. 2020: a version," for this short and insightful discussion about artist Sabrina Tarasoff.
Watch

Lunchtime Art Talk on Umar Rashid

Wed., May 12, 12:30 p.m. (PDT)
Join Nicholas Barlow, curatorial assistant at the Hammer Museum, for this short and insightful discussion about artist Umar Rashid.
Watch

Lunchtime Art Talk on SON. (Justen LeRoy)

Wed., May 19, 12:30 p.m. (PDT)
Join Ikechukwu Onyewuenyi, Made in L.A. 2020 assistant curator of performance, for this short and insightful discussion about artist SON. (Justen LeRoy).
Watch

Lunchtime Art Talk on Jeffrey Stuker

Wed., May 26, 12:30 p.m. (PDT)
Join Lauren Mackler, co-curator of "Made in L.A. 2020: a version," for this short and insightful discussion about artist Jeffrey Stuker.
Watch

Lunchtime Art Talk on Ann Greene Kelly

Wed., June 2, 12:30 p.m. (PDT)
Join Nika Chilewich, curatorial assistant at the Hammer Museum, for this short and insightful discussion about artist Ann Greene Kelly.
Watch

Fear of Poetry Screening with Jack Skelley & Sabrina Tarasoff

Wed., June 2, 7 p.m. (PDT)
Join writer Jack Skelley and "Made in L.A. 2020" artist Sabrina Tarasoff for a virtual screening and conversation on Gail Kaszynski's 1983 documentary Fear of Poetry.
Watch

Lunchtime Art Talk on Mathias Poledna

Wed., June 9, 12:30 p.m. (PDT)
Join Nicholas Barlow, curatorial assistant at the Hammer Museum, for this short and insightful discussion about artist Mathias Poledna.
Reserve

Hedi El Kholti & Abdellah Taïa: Toward the sea, Where we meet

Tue., June 15, 7 p.m. (PDT)
Join artist Hedi El Kholti and writer, filmmaker Abdellah Taïa as they read excerpts from their respective works and discuss their shared experiences growing up queer in Morocco.
Watch

God’s Suicide by Harmony Holiday

Thurs., June 24, 7 p.m. (PDT)
Join actor Larry Powell as he portrays writer and public intellectual James Baldwin in this production of artist Harmony Holiday's one-man play, God's Suicide.
Watch

Conversations with Hedi El Kholti & Reynaldo Rivera

Tue., July 13, 7 p.m. (PDT)
Join artists Hedi El Kholti and Reynaldo Rivera as they play records and discuss music that has had a profound influence in their lives.
Watch

Conversations with Buck Ellison & Shamus Khan

Thurs., July 22, 7 p.m. (PDT)
Artist Buck Ellison is joined in conversation by Shamus Khan, professor of sociology and American studies at Princeton University.
Watch

Lunchtime Art Talk on Larry Johnson

Wed., July 28, 12:30 p.m. (PDT)
Join Lauren Mackler, co-curator of "Made in L.A. 2020: a version," for this short and insightful discussion about artist Larry Johnson.
Watch

Become a Member

Join today!

JOIN