{"id":275227,"date":"2025-10-03T18:33:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-03T18:33:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/275227\/"},"modified":"2025-10-03T18:33:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T18:33:15","slug":"inflatable-bear-crashing-into-hammer-museum-is-alake-shillings-art","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/275227\/","title":{"rendered":"Inflatable bear crashing into Hammer Museum is Alake Shilling&#8217;s art"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>A new fantastical character is making an appearance at the corner of Wilshire  Boulevard and Glendon  Avenue in Westwood, just outside UCLA\u2019s Hammer Museum. \u201cBuggy Bear Crashes Made in L.A.\u201d is a 25-foot inflatable sculpture of a bear driving a convertible atop a daisy-dotted road. It\u2019s created by Alake Shilling as a companion piece to the museum\u2019s seventh Made in L.A. biennial, which celebrates artists who have worked \u2014 or are working \u2014 in various disciplines in the sprawling metropolis.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEveryone will have their opinions and critiques,\u201d  Shilling said of her psychedelic creation just before the piece was inflated for a test run prior to Saturday\u2019s opening night party. \u201cI\u2019m excited to hear them and also very nervous.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>           <video playsinline=\"playsinline\" loop=\"\" preload=\"none\" title=\"A 25-foot inflatable bear is crashing into the Hammer Museum\" data-video-id=\"00000199-a7cd-dfda-a19b-f7cd28960000\">               <\/video>               <img class=\"image\" alt=\"\"   width=\"473\" height=\"840\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1759516391_456_\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>             <\/p>\n<ul data-element=\"action-bar-menu\" class=\"flex gap-2 list-none  absolute w-full h-10 top-0\">\n<li data-element=\"action-bar-share\" class=\"flex  w-full h-10 top-0 lg:items-center lg:justify-center \">\n<p> Share via     Close extra sharing options  <\/p>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Shilling, 32, also has a series of sculptures and drawings in the Made in L.A. exhibit, which features the work of 28 artists, including Alonzo Davis, Ali Eyal, Gabriela Ruiz, Hanna Hur, Leilah Weinraub and John Knight.<\/p>\n<p>Shilling\u2019s singular work reflects the artist\u2019s earnest, optimistic nature \u2014 but also her sense of realism and hard-earned experience. Her art features cute animals \u2014 the kind a child might cuddle with \u2014 but with thoughtful, melancholy features and expressions, as if they are grappling with a recent misfortune or trying to navigate a hard day. <\/p>\n<p>            <img class=\"image\" alt=\"A sculpture of a cartoonish figure sitting on grass. \"   width=\"1200\" height=\"1800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1759516393_813_\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>         <\/p>\n<p>\u201cI had a long day please bring me a snack\u201d by artist Alake Shilling is part of the Made in L.A. biennial at the Hammer Museum in Westwood. \u201cWhen I think about things, I kind of convert them into cartoon characters,\u201d Shilling said.<\/p>\n<p>(Genaro Molina \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<p>Buggy Bear is no exception, the giant bear\u2019s face looks world-weary and slightly apologetic. The tires of his car are splayed out and he appears to be about to careen off his corner pedestal straight into traffic. From the looks of it, such a merge would not go well. The daisies beneath him are crying \u2014 unhappy to be driven on.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhen I think about things, I kind of convert them into cartoon characters,\u201d explained Shilling in her cheerful, singsong voice. \u201cIt just makes things more palatable to me to think of the duality of life through the eyes of a little puppy dog or ladybug.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>If she\u2019s having an unpleasant conversation with her mother, Shilling added as an example, it becomes easier \u201cif I go over it in my head, and she\u2019s a ladybug and I\u2019m a bumblebee, I can empathize with her side more if she looks like a cute ladybug.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Drivers tackling the madness of westside traffic leading to or from the tangled 405 Freeway will surely empathize with Buggy Bear who looks as if he\u2019s one wrong turn away from having a traffic-induced meltdown. Shilling doesn\u2019t drive, but she knows how Buggy Bear feels.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou really can\u2019t enjoy the beauty of life unless you look at the whole picture,\u201d she says. \u201cYou have to have something savory with something sweet to really enjoy it. I don\u2019t want it to feel generic. It\u2019s a more genuine expression if it has duality.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Over a lunch of falafel and coffee at the Hammer, Shilling talked about growing up in L.A. and attending Fairfax High School. She never felt comfortable in class and tried to \u201cslide under the radar\u201d \u2014 afraid that her unique voice, which resonates sweetly at a higher pitch \u2014 would cause classmates to tease her. <\/p>\n<p>            <img class=\"image\" alt=\"A sculpture of two cartoonish animals hugging. \"   width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1759516394_320_\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>         <\/p>\n<p>\u201cC\u2019est la vie, mon ami\u201d by Alake Shilling. \u201cI never felt people really understood how magical I am,\u201d Shilling said.<\/p>\n<p>(Genaro Molina \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI never felt people really understood how magical I am,\u201d Shilling said. \u201cI feel like Clark Kent \u2014 just a regular, humdrum, boring person that nobody notices. And then, through my art, I feel like people see what\u2019s on the inside of me, and I become a beautiful butterfly.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Art came easily to Shilling at a young age, and her mother Kidogo Kennedy \u2014 a former professor of gender and race studies at Cal State L.A. who now works in the education department at Los Angeles County Museum of Art \u2014 encouraged her to pursue it. At 15 she did an arts-based residency at the Oxbow School in Napa and spent her senior year attending classes at Idyllwild Arts Academy. She attended college at the <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.google.com\/search?sca_esv=6c8d4356b322f53d&amp;q=School+of+the+Art+Institute+of+Chicago&amp;sa=X&amp;ved=2ahUKEwiCku6a6IaQAxXbmO4BHV7PMWoQxccNegQILBAB&amp;mstk=AUtExfAeKDbWMJCzXcrp54hTHz733XKWVx9jnI37h4MXRQ_b391NL9kKAr_zpDttASQvAoTn__cVre1rRuyYeaY2N4SQHw8lvFqhOcGy5NDV8m5ocZtKknECAu3VazRBnnO2vCqwfAG9kc7Yyry5hqTmf6sOF7DRwR3QdSerCUNb_8hZq0i9h7HJxG1C0UNoj54cY1pD&amp;csui=3\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">School of the Art Institute of Chicago<\/a>, but  wasn\u2019t  ready for the \u201cmind-blowing\u201d experience. She speculated that she maybe should have taken a gap year. She finished her degree at Los Angeles City College.<\/p>\n<p>Shilling found a like-minded home as an intern for Laura Owens\u2019 now-closed gallery <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/entertainment\/arts\/miranda\/la-et-cam-laura-owens-wendy-yao-356-mission-20180330-htmlstory.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">356 Mission<\/a>, an artist-run space in Boyle Heights that Shilling describes as a creative utopia: \u201cStudio 54 with no drinking or drugging.\u201d Along the way, Shilling met <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/entertainment-arts\/story\/2024-05-20\/lauren-halsey-sister-dreamer-monument-sculpture-park-south-l-a\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lauren Halsey,<\/a> who became her friend and champion. It was Halsey who recommended Shilling\u2019s studio to this year\u2019s <a class=\"link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.latimes.com\/entertainment-arts\/story\/2025-01-28\/hammer-museum-made-in-la-2025-artists-list\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Made in L.A. curators<\/a>, Essence Harden and Paulina Pobocha.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe\u2019s a really interesting artist in the way that she\u2019s able to infuse her very, very cute work with things that are off-putting,\u201d Pobocha said of Shilling on Thursday during a tour of Made in L.A. The inflatable sculpture was inspired by a painting Shilling made of a similarly cute little bear, which is also on view.<\/p>\n<p>            <img class=\"image\" alt=\"A painting and a sculpture of a cartoonish bear. \"   width=\"1200\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1759516395_681_\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>         <\/p>\n<p>Alake Shilling\u2019s \u201cFashion Is a Lifestyle Said the Purple Panda in Pucci,\u201d left, and \u201cBuggy Bear Is Out of Control on the Long and Winding Road.\u201d  Shilling based her giant inflatable bear on the Buggy Bear painting.<\/p>\n<p>(Genaro Molina \/ Los Angeles Times)<\/p>\n<p>Shilling is still pinching herself, even though she  now realizes her journey was meant to be. A decade ago, Shilling  felt unsatisfied  as an administrative assistant at L.A. Metro.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou really have to be passionate about transportation to work somewhere like that,\u201d Shilling said. \u201cAnd I told [my mom], I\u2019m not going to work here anymore. I want to be an artist. And she said, \u2018OK.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her mother asked what she was going to do for money, and Shilling said she planned to not have any money and to \u201clive very small.\u201d She vowed to give herself one year, and if nothing happened, she\u2019d go back to Metro. That never came to pass.<\/p>\n<p>With Buggy Bear, Shilling is again tackling transportation \u2014 just from an entirely different angle. It\u2019s art, and it\u2019s all hers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A new fantastical character is making an appearance at the corner of Wilshire Boulevard and Glendon Avenue in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":275228,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5123],"tags":[142374,1037,8067,142375,1582,276,10911,142378,142376,142381,6276,2961,142377,142379,224,5337,142380,142382,24651,17823],"class_list":{"0":"post-275227","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-alake-shilling","9":"tag-art","10":"tag-artist","11":"tag-buggy-bear-crash","12":"tag-ca","13":"tag-california","14":"tag-class","15":"tag-gap-year","16":"tag-hammer-museum","17":"tag-hard-earned-experience","18":"tag-l-a","19":"tag-la","20":"tag-ladybug","21":"tag-lauren-halsey","22":"tag-los-angeles","23":"tag-losangeles","24":"tag-oxbow-school","25":"tag-paulina-pobocha","26":"tag-studio","27":"tag-thing"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115311674216121035","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=275227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/275227\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/275228"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=275227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=275227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=275227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}