Artist Jackie Amézquita Uses Soil as Her Canvas

The Hammer Museum’s biennial exhibition, Made in L.A. 2023: Acts of Living, has returned to Los Angeles. Its goal: to continue exploring the artistic embodiment of community, queer life, and indigenous stories. This year features another group of diverse artists. Their works reflect on the cultural identities that layer Los Angeles today.

For Made in LA co-curator Pablo José Ramírez, selecting art is an intimate process. It’s impossible to abandon personal taste. For this exhibition especially, he chose to feature pieces that he believes in, that push the cultural beat forward—but also captivate the museum’s audience. So, it’s a twofold process that requires careful nuance.

Ramírez pursued a career in art curation to share and better represent the stories of his people. In an exclusive interview with LATV, the Central American native gingerly highlights the indigenous and diasporic contributions to this exhibition specifically. More and more, museums and other creative institutions are demanding new work that honors Black and Brown histories and experiences. Made in LA has answered this call.

Jackie Amézquita, one of the exhibition’s featured artists, tells a unique story through her work.

Her featured piece is an assemblage of 144 distinct etchings on square canvases made of soil sourced from each of Los Angeles’s 144 neighborhoods. Originally from Guatemala, she is forever influenced by the Tierra that painted the background of her childhood, rich in minerals fruit, and natural beauty. When she migrated to the United States and lived undocumented for some time, her relationship with the land beneath her was forever changed.

“Jackie Amézquita has lived through the impact of displacement and migration, and her practice is a testimony to these histories,” the piece description says at the Hammer Museum. “By physically digging up dirt and transforming it into a new form, the artist asks us to consider the metaphoric dimension of soil as a source of life and an imprint of this moment in history.”

Amézquita comments on the universal value and spirit of soil, despite the borders and policies that draw dangerous lines in the ground. Her illustrations are as moving as the materials on which she illustrates. They not only capture a visual reflection of each Los Angeles neighborhood; they honor the land beneath, moving people across time.

LATV sat down with Amézquida, and she told us her story firsthand. Check it out!