"Made in LA 2012" Filled with Vapid Work

I like the Hammer Museum. It always has its yin and its yang, I know, but their latest exhibit, Made in L.A. 2012, has no real up to its many downs.

There were only four artists who had work in the show at the Hammer that were warranted to be on exhibit. One older artist, Channa Horwitz, had 2D work that illustrated a system of art making that showed awareness of an subconscious ordering

and one painter, Meleko Mokgosi, held up a mirror to events affecting his life.

Two other artists made work that illustrated inventive craftsmanship in the form of frames (Zach Harris)

and of table tops (Joel Otterson)

that were joyful expressions. But the work of these 4 artists were merely life saver buoys

enabling me to get through the wasteland of the rest of this exhibit.

Most of the work in the show "Made In LA 2012" is like bad art student work. Most of the work has no idea behind it. There are no revelations, no transcending moments, no meditations. It is filled with poorly made consumer products by a lost generation. Lost in its purpose, perpetually acting the part of the coddled child who gets bored quickly and so throws its food at the wall.

What do instructors say to these students in their classes? Do they say nothing? There is evidence of some art historical information as a few artists have chosen to be derivative of, if not outright rip- offs of Oldenburg, Red Grooms and Baldessari. It is obvious that there is no technical information being passed to this generation. It is disheartening that the artists in the show have no ideas with any life experience to them ... there is no pondering, no soul searching, no emotion.

Is this exhibit evidence of the secularization of our world? Has the youngest generation not discovered its soul? Even when artists were being demonized by politicians in order to attempt to completely abolish the NEA, they drew from a spiritual place. Serrano's photo "Piss Christ" was obviously a struggle with his faith and Mapplethorpe's photos of S&M were staged in a similarly dramatic questioning of morals arising out of religious teachings. And it is not that I'm looking for work that takes on organized religion. But I am seeking artwork that has a soul, that questions and seeks answers to the dilemmas of conscious living.

Just because work is made in Los Angeles does not have to illustrate there is no there there.