Whitney Biennial (United States) | Biennial Foundation

Source: www.whitneybiennial.org
Organisation: Whitney Museum of American Art
Year founded: 1932

The Whitney Biennial showcases a robust cross-section of contemporary art.

The Whitney Biennial showcases a robust cross-section of contemporary art, including painting, sculpture, photography, installation, film and video, performance, Internet art and works that fit into no definable category. By adopting a loose definition of American artists,
which means artists whom live and work in the territory, the biennial has an international profile though it is a national survey show of the country.

The idea of annual and biennial survey exhibitions has its roots in the Whitney Studio Club, the Museum’s antecedent, founded by Gertrude Whitney in 1918, and they have been
a hallmark of the Whitney since 1932. Although the exhibitions were originally organized by medium, painting alternating with sculpture
and works on paper, since 1973 when they
began to occur every other year, the biennials have pursued a different curatorial approach
to include all media.

Whitney Museum of American Art, 945 Madison Avenue, New York, NY; Architect: Marcel Breuer and Hamilton Smith (1963–1966). Photo: Jerry L. Thompson

News

Whitney Biennial

Whitney Museum of American Art
945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street
New York, NY 10021, United States

T: +1 212 5703600

info@whitney.org
whitney.org

COLLECTING BIENNIALS: JANUARY 16–NOVEMBER 28, 2010. 2010-01-01

As a prelude, counterpoint, and coda to the Biennial, the Museum’s fifth floor is devoted to artists in the Whitney’s collection whose works were shown in Biennials over the past eight decades.
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2010 WHITNEY BIENNIAL FEBRUARY 25–MAY 30, 2010 2010-01-01

This year marks the seventy-fifth edition of the Whitney’s signature exhibition. While Biennials are always affected by the cultural, political, and social moment, this exhibition “simply titled 2010” embodies a cross section of contemporary art production rather than a specific theme. To underscore the idea of time as an element of the Biennial and to demonstrate the influence of the past on 2010, familiar and less well-known artists from previous exhibitions are brought together in Collecting Biennials, an accompanying installation drawn from the Museum’s collection on view on the fifth floor. Balancing different media ranging from painting and sculpture to video, photography, performance, and installation, 2010 also serves as a two-way telescope through which the Whitney’s past and future can be observed.

The artists selected for this year’s exhibition provide diverse responses to the anxiety and optimism characteristic of this moment. At first glance, much of the work in 2010 can appear intensely personal and concerned with simple gestures and everyday actions, which might seem at odds with a sense of community and social responsibility. More accurately, however, these artists can be seen as constructing models that can serve as the foundations of lasting communities and sustained critique. Many of the artists in 2010 have created spaces for performances and potential encounters between themselves and individuals from different communities. These artists attempt to build collectivity in a new historical moment. Still other artists in 2010 look back to the history of modernism, in particular abstraction, as one way to forge a personal, experimental language while also rejuvenating the social potential of abstraction. Many of the images of the body presented in this exhibition are shaped by physical, spiritual, or social violence and bear the scars of war, discrimination, and hatred. These intimate perspectives of the body draw attention to larger social and political issues and are not cynical or hopeless but a form of regeneration, providing individual dignity and a chance to begin anew.

The fifty-five artists included in 2010 are representative of a much larger and broader world where many more artists are operating and active, each of them part of a rich and lively system from which the Biennial as an exhibition draws its inspiration. This Biennial, like the many that have preceded it, is also directly or indirectly shaped by the Whitney’s distinctive Marcel Breuer building, the Museum’s collection, and the legacy of past Biennial exhibitions, curators, and artists.

Artists include: David Adamo, Richard Aldric, Michael Asher, Tauba Auerbach, Nina Berman, Huma Bhabha, Josh Brand, The Bruce, High Quality Foundation, James Casebere, Edgar Cleijne and Ellen Gallagher, Dawn Clements, George Condo, Sarah Crowner, Verne Dawson, Julia Fish, Roland Flexner, Suzan Frecon, Maureen Gallace, Theaster Gates, Kate Gilmore, Hannah Greely, Jesse Aron Green, Robert Grosvenor, Sharon Hayes, Thomas Houseago, Alex Hubbard, Jessica Jackson, Hutchins, Jeffrey Inaba, Martin Kersels, Jim Lutes, Babette Mangolte, Curtis Mann, Ari Marcopoulos, Daniel McDonald, Josephine Meckseper, Rashaad Newsome, Kelly Nipper, Lorraine O’Grady, R.H. Quaytman, Charles Ray, Emily Roysdon, Aki Sasamoto, Aurel Schmidt Scott Short, Stephanie Sinclair, Ania Soliman, Storm Tharp, Tam Tran, Kerry Tribe, Piotr Uklański, Lesley Vance, Marianne Vitale, Erika Vogt, Pae White, and Robert Williams.
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2012 Whitney Biennial March 1 - May 27, 2012

This is the seventy-sixth in the ongoing series of Biennials and Annuals presented by the Whitney since 1932.
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