Whitney Biennial
Encyclopedia
Art exhibition
Art exhibitions are traditionally the space in which art objects meet an audience. The exhibit is universally understood to be for some temporary period unless, as is rarely true, it is stated to be a "permanent exhibition". In American English, they may be called "exhibit", "exposition" or...
of contemporary American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
art, typically by young and lesser known artists, on display at the Whitney Museum of American Art
Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art, often referred to simply as "the Whitney", is an art museum with a focus on 20th- and 21st-century American art. Located at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street in New York City, the Whitney's permanent collection contains more than 18,000 works in a wide variety of...
in New York City, USA. The event began as an annual exhibition in 1932, the first biennial was in 1973. The Whitney show is generally regarded as one of the leading shows in the art world, often setting or leading trends in contemporary art
Contemporary art
Contemporary art can be defined variously as art produced at this present point in time or art produced since World War II. The definition of the word contemporary would support the first view, but museums of contemporary art commonly define their collections as consisting of art produced...
.
Artists
The fifty-five artists, for 2010, were selected by curator Francesco Bonami and associate curator Gary Carrion-Murayari:
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Suzan Frecon Suzan Frecon is a contemporary artist who lives and works in New York. She is represented by Lawrence Markey, San Antonio and David Zwirner, New York.... Theaster Gates Theaster Gates is an American Installation artist Social Practice artist. He lives and works in Chicago, Illinois. Gates' work has been shown at major museums and galleries internationally and deals with issues of urban planning, religious space, and craft... Thomas Houseago Thomas Houseago is a contemporary visual artist. He currently lives and works in Los Angeles, California.He is a figurative sculptor who uses lo-fi materials such as plaster and plywood... Jessica Jackson Hutchins Jessica Jackson Hutchins-Malkmus is an American artist based in Portland, Oregon.She is the wife of Pavement band member, Stephen Malkmus. She is a graduate of Oberlin College... |
Martin Kersels Martin Kersels is an American contemporary artist born in 1960 in Los Angeles. Who focuses his shows on sculpture, while also incorporating photography and video. He now lives and works in Sierra Madre, CA... Ari Marcopoulos Ari Marcopoulos is an Amsterdam-born photographer and filmmaker, living and working in New York and California. As a photographer, film artist and adventurist, Marcopoulos, who began his career in New York City assisting Andy Warhol, transplants himself into the intimate lives of people living... Josephine Meckseper Josephine Meckseper is a German artist based in New York.Meckseper studied at Berlin University of the Arts in Berlin from 1986–1990, and completed her MFA at the California Institute of the Arts in 1992.... Charles Ray (artist) Charles Ray is a Los Angeles-based sculptor. He is known for his strange and enigmatic sculptures that draw the viewer’s perceptual judgments into question in jarring and unexpected ways... |
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History
The Whitney Museum had a long history beginning in 1932 of having a large group exhibition of invited American artists every year called the 'Whitney Annual'. In the late sixties it was decided to alternate between painting and sculpture, although by the 1970s the decision was to combine both together in a biennial. The first Biennial was in 1973.In 1987 the show was protested by the Guerrilla Girls
Guerrilla Girls
Guerrilla Girls are an anonymous group of feminists devoted to fighting against sexism within the visual fine art world internationally. Started in New York City in 1985 to protest gender and racial inequality in the art world, members are known for the gorilla masks they wear to keep their...
for its alleged sexism
Sexism
Sexism, also known as gender discrimination or sex discrimination, is the application of the belief or attitude that there are characteristics implicit to one's gender that indirectly affect one's abilities in unrelated areas...
and racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
.
Since 2000, the Bucksbaum Award
Bucksbaum Award
The Bucksbaum Award was established in 2000 by the Bucksbaum Family Foundation and the Whitney Museum of American Art. It is awarded biannually "to honor an artist, living and working in the United States, whose work demonstrates a singular combination of talent and imagination." The $100,000...
has been awarded to an artist exhibiting at the Biennial.
The 2008 Biennial opened on March 6, curated by Henriette Huldisch and Shamim M. Momin
Shamim M. Momin
Shamim M. Momin is an American art director and curator of contemporary art. Momin is head of the Los Angeles Nomadic Division, a non-profit art organization in Los Angeles, California. She is also an Adjunct Curator for the Whitney Museum of American Art where she co-curated the 2008 and 2004...
. That year brought big changes to the Biennial. The exhibition took over the Park Avenue Armory as a space for performance and installation art.
External links
- Whitney Biennial Official Website
- Briefly-Loved Things: reviewing the 2010 Whitney Biennial ArtsEditor.com
- Artkrush.com interview with 2006 Whitney Biennial co-curator Philippe Vergne (March 2006)
- Review of 2006 Whitney Biennial
- Curatorial Charge: the 2008 Whitney Biennial: Part One ArtsEditor.com
- Time/Stop/Time: the 2008 Whitney Biennial: Part Two ArtsEditor.com
- 2008 Whitney Biennial
- Whitney Museum of American Art Main Page