Meg Cranston. 'California,' 2006. Courtesy the artist and Venetia Kapernekas Gallery, New York. | Photo by Jeff Sturges.
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Earlier this month, the Hammer Museum and the LAXART contemporary art space announced the 60 artists selected for Made in L.A. 2012, the first in an ongoing series of biennial exhibitions that focus on works created by LA-based artists.
CalArts is well-represented in the mix—with alumni, faculty, including School of Art Dean Thomas Lawson, and one current School of Art student Kenyatta A.C. Hinckle (MFA 3 in Critical Studies and Art) comprising one-third of the artists in the show.
The exhibition will offer a glimpse into the current trends and practices from the LA art scene, debuting new installations, videos, films, sculptures, performances and paintings commissioned specifically for the exhibition. The announcement for Made in L.A., like the exhibition itself, dovetails with the end of the Getty-led initiative, Pacific Standard Time, which celebrated the birth of the LA art scene, 1945-1980.
School of Art alumni in Made in L.A. 2012 are: Fiona Connor (MFA 11), Meg Cranston (MFA 86), Roy Dowell (MFA 75), Zackary Drucker (MFA 07), Patricia Fernández (MFA 10), Dan Finsel (MFA 11), Liz Glynn (Art/IM MFA 08), Mark Hagen (MFA 02), Alex Olson (MFA 08), Cody Trepte (MFA 10), Nery Gabriel Lemus (MFA 09), Dashiell Manley (BFA 07), Tuan Andrew Nguyen (MFA 04), Vincent Ramos (MFA 07), Ry Rocklen (Art 98), Henry Taylor (BFA 95) and School of Film/Video alumna Erika Vogt (MFA 03).
Also included in the Hammer exhibition is artist, filmmaker and writer Michelle Dizon, who is currently a visiting faculty member in the School of Art.
Dan Finsel. At work in the studio in Chatsworth, CA, 2011. 'The Space Between You and Me,' 2012 (detail). Courtesy the artist. | Photo by Joshua White.
For more than a year, a team of curators—the Hammer’s Senior Curator Anne Ellegood and Curator Ali Subotnick and LAXART’s Director Lauri Firstenberg, Associate Director and Senior Curator Cesar Garcia and Curator-at-large Malik Gaines (Critical Studies MFA 99)—visited hundreds of museums and studios and met regularly to narrow down their selections. Each artist included in the show were unanimously agreed upon by the curators, who placed an emphasis on emerging and under-recognized artists.
All 60 artists in Made in L.A. 2012 are eligible to win the $100,000 Mohn Prize—funded by philanthropists and art collectors Jarl and Pamela Mohn. While this award is very similar to the Tate’s Turner Prize and the Whitney’s Bucksbaum Award, in which a professional jury selects a winner, there is one big difference: The Mohn Prize is ultimately selected by exhibition visitors. Five finalists selected by the jury will be announced on June 28, and art patrons will be able to vote until Aug. 12, with the winner announced shortly thereafter.
Made in L.A. runs June 2-Sept. 2, 2012, with works presented at the Hammer Museum, LAXART in Culver City and the Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall Park.