In terms of cities that are uniquely, wonderfully insane, Los Angeles has no equal. It’s a complicated metropolis, sometimes shining and sometimes rancid, but always heaving with life. It’s a city that never sleeps, that never goes completely dark or still, that is made up of a patchwork of people from every walk of life living, working and mixing in harmony. Nearly four million people call it home, and among them is a tight-knit community of artists who have been there throughout it all to interpret and record the ever-changing facets of the city of angels.

Now a new effort stirs in the city, one that aims to gather and celebrate the art that defines Los Angeles on a previously unseen scale. It comes in the form of the Mohn Art Collective: Hammer, LACMA, MOCA—or MAC3 for short—a collection of 356 works of art to be jointly owned and managed by the Hammer Museum, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), and the Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles. The collection, which contains a variety of contemporary artwork and a dedicated spirit of collaboration the likes of which have rarely been seen in the city before, was made possible only through the acquisition of 260 works from the collection of Los Angeles philanthropists and art collectors Jarl and Pamela Mohn.

The Mohn’s expansive collection of art, carefully curated over the last two decades, contains the paintings, sculptures, and mixed-media works of more than 125 Los Angeles-based artists. Some of these artists, including Aria Dean, Rafa Esparza, Lauren Halsey, Luchita Hurtado, Arthur Jafa, Silke Otto-Knapp, Analia Saban, Martine Syms and Kandis Williams, have been previously recognized in one of the six editions of the Hammer Museum’s Made in L.A., a prestigious biennial exhibition highlighting artists in the greater L.A. area. 

The museum will make its own contribution to the MAC3 collection by offering 80 previously acquired works from past Made in L.A. showings, and 16 pieces were additionally selected from Made in L.A. 2023: Acts of Living by curators from all three institutions, marking MAC3’s first joint acquisitions. The Mohn Collection also contains works from artists who have not yet been included in the Made in L.A. exhibitions, including Karon Davis, Mark Grotjahn, Rodney McMillian and Cauleen Smith. The thoughtful amalgamation of these different works resulted in a stunning and diverse compendium of some of Los Angeles’s finest artists. 

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The creation of this collection sets the precedent for other collectors and donors to make their own contributions of contemporary art to MAC3, creating a new drive to gather, preserve and celebrate the works of the city’s artists. Johanna Burton, the director of MOCA, shares that the collection is “a profound commitment to the artists of today and a promise to future generations.”

LA’s artistic institutions have collaborated before, but this represents something entirely new. The gift of the Mohn Collection allows the three museums to earnestly and annually collect the works of the city’s artists, a process that will support this creative community by widely displaying their work and affording them more recognition. MAC3 will be continuously managed and displayed by the Hammer Museum, LACMA and MOCA, paving the way for a new style of institutional collaboration and encouraging the lending and showing of the collection on an international scale.

Photos courtesy of the Mohn Art Collective: Hammer, LACMA, MOCA