Sam Falls

Part of the Hammer Projects, curated by Anne Ellegood, Los Angeles-based artist Sam Falls is taking over the Hammer’s lobby walls with lush landscape paintings made in all of California’s National Forests.

For “California Flora” (National Forest Condensation Wall), he traveled to all nineteen National Forests in California to create a map the state’s flora, from the ocean to the desert, from volcanic topography to the forest floor. Working outdoors, Falls covers large canvases with vegetation from the sites he visits and sprinkles them with dry pigments ranging from vibrant blues and bright yellows to more earthy hues, and then leaves them outside, exposed to the environment overnight.

Sam Falls (b. 1984, San Diego) lives and works in Los Angeles.