Made in L.A., the first-ever Los Angeles biennial, debuted this week at The Hammer Museum, Municipal Gallery and LAXArt. It seemed a good time to revisit the last California Biennial, held at the Orange County Museum of Art and heavy with SoCal artist.  How many biennials does one state need and does this new one really fill a niche that needs filling? Those are questions[.....]

The Northwest may be absent from the Whitney Biennial (as usual), but the region reconciles the blind spot with self-awareness. On display at the Tacoma Art Museum until May is the 10th Northwest Biennial, a survey that includes 11 Portland artists (nearly half of the show’s line-up). Even more massive is Portland2012, a sizable though scattered exhibition of 24 of the city’s artists. To give[.....]