The Hammer Museum’s ‘Made in LA’ Biennial Proves the City’s Fragmented Chaos Is Its Greatest Asset

This article was originally published on 1 Minute Critic

There’s an endlessness to Los Angeles that’s impossible to capture in words, yet the Hammer Museum manages to distill its essence through a variety pack of disciplines and mediums every two years.

The Made in LA biennial is essentially a recurring attempt to fuse the harmony and chaos of the city to showcase the never-ending reinvention that defines it. This year, Essence Harden and Paulina Pobocha have brought together 28 artists whose works clearly articulate how the coastal concrete sprawl is best enjoyed in fragments. In fact, the lack of continuity is the collection’s greatest strength — exactly like the region it pertains to, navigating the different pieces with no plan is what makes them so compelling.

The freakishly defined malfunctions of Ali Eyal’s And Look Where I Went are an instant eye-catcher, while Beaux Mendes offers equally gripping imagery through two separate, cross-dimensional interpretations of Dr. Lazarus. On the other hand, Pat O'Neill and Peter Tomka take a more somber approach in their photography through black-and-white processing. Elsewhere, Alake Shilling’s 25-foot Buggy Bear Crashes Made in LA sculpture positioned outside the venue perfectly prefaces the wonkiness of her glazed ceramic models displayed inside.

Mister Spitz by Alake Shilling (Glazed ceramic and enamel paint, 2021)

 Amid the endearing mayhem of it all are seven paintings by local visual craftsman Greg Breda that glue all the fragments together and give the exhibition a cohesive touch.

Each installment of the series was conceived in 2025, made up of acrylic on polyester canvas across the board. From the tranquility of Enoch’s Meditation to feelings of optimism brought on by Reaching Beyond the Boundaries, his spiritual exploration of emotions takes on a specificity through the bodies and faces of Black folk.

Enoch's Meditation by Greg Breda (Acrylic on polyester canvas, 2025)

The racial anatomy of his subjects creates a nuanced subcategory of the human condition, which he conveys with great precision by finding that perfect temperature between light and dark shades. The submissive tone of Morning Comes, but Also the Night isn’t the same as the tired acceptance Here I Am seems to depict, but all seven paintings are bound together by a complex set of feelings people of all shades can relate to.

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