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# The Dry Seduction of "Made in LA"
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/the-dry-seduction-of-made-in-la/
- Published: 2012-08-31T19:50:06.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:02:07.000Z
- Description: LOS ANGELES — High above Los Angeles on a hill near Silverlake and Los Feliz, Barnsdall Art Park has played an important role for many emerging artists in the city as a site for both education and exhibition. Its Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery is a fitting locale for Made in LA, the Hammer Museum
- Author: AX Mina
- Tags: Art, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Review, The Propeller Group, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 06:51 (2012, 2013, part 1)

![](http://hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2012/08/MLA-234-OMarah-01.jpg)

Michele O’Marah, “Blow Me” (2012), installation view at Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery (all photos by Brian Forrest, via madeinla2012.org)

LOS ANGELES — High above Los Angeles on a hill near Silverlake and Los Feliz, [Barnsdall Art Park](http://www.barnsdall.org/?ref=hyperallergic.com) has played an important role for many emerging artists in the city as a site for both education and exhibition. Its [Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery](http://www.lamag.org/?ref=hyperallergic.com) is a fitting locale for [*Made in LA*](http://www.madeinla2012.org/?ref=hyperallergic.com), the Hammer Museum–led biennial of contemporary Los Angeles artists that’s following close on the heels of the multi-venue [*Pacific Standard Time*](http://www.pacificstandardtime.org/?ref=hyperallergic.com), which celebrated postwar art in the area from 1945 to 1980.

“Los Angeles is home to some of the most original and innovative artists working today,” [the biennial’s About page](http://www.madeinla2012.org/about/?ref=hyperallergic.com) notes. “Spread out across varied neighborhoods, the region can be seen as a microcosm of the nation — and even of the world — with all its diversity, complexity, and vibrancy.” But since the city is so large, we need biennial shows like these to put all the art in one place.

![](http://hyperallergic-newspack.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2012/08/MLA-217-Ferrer-02.jpg)

Cayetano Ferrer, “Quarter-Scale Grand Entrance” (2012)

The Municipal Art Gallery portion, which I saw recently, doesn’t disappoint. There’s an installation by [The Propeller Group](http://www.madeinla2012.org/artist/the-propeller-group-2/?ref=hyperallergic.com), a collective that includes artists in Vietnam, as they gather at the creative studio of marketing company TBWA\\Vietnam to talk about rebranding communism. It’s a familiar practice for anyone who’s sat in on marketing meetings or seen *Mad Men*, but it’s striking to see the tools of capitalism used in the context of communism. Manila-born artist [Miljohn Ruperto](http://www.madeinla2012.org/artist/miljohn-ruperto-2/?ref=hyperallergic.com) plays with replicas and duplication with an installation of copies of Caspar David Friedrich’s [*The Monk by the Sea*](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The%5FMonk%5Fby%5Fthe%5FSea?ref=hyperallergic.com) produced in Dafen Village in Shenzhen, China. Beneath these paintings are multiple screens of Ruperto’s own remake of an episode of an Alfred Hitchcock TV show.

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/51/f8/51f871d8-b6be-4a73-b958-0ca4fff0110a/content/images/hyperallergic-newspack-s3-amazonaws-com/uploads/2012/08/mla-205-propeller-group-02-640x354-e1346301640249.jpg)

The Propeller Group, “Television Commercial for Communism” (2012)

Other works that caught my eye include an installation by Honolulu-born artist [Cayetano Ferrer](http://www.madeinla2012.org/artist/cayetano-ferrer-2/?ref=hyperallergic.com), who re-created casino culture in carpets and flashing lights. It’s a mashup of many different casino tropes, but mesmerizing and addictive, a world deliberately designed to feel separate from most daily life. Artist [Michele O’Marah](http://www.madeinla2012.org/artist/michele-omarah-2/?ref=hyperallergic.com), hailing from Vallejo, CA, looks at the glamour of fashionista Isabella Blow in a series of sculptural objects, along with a video depicting Blow in a *Devil Wears Prada–*esque wonderland. The dry seduction of both of these installations got me thinking about the dry seduction of the art world, and its participants’ quests for glamor, truth and a touch of fame.

*The Barnsdall Park section of* Made in LA 2012 *is on view at the* [*Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery*](http://www.lamag.org/?ref=hyperallergic.com) *(4800 Hollywood Boulevard) until September 2.*