Donelle Woolford, the fictitious artist whose work has become a collaboration between Joe Scanlan, Abigail Ramsay, and me, has done an extraordinary thing. Her existence exhorts the public to rally and come to her defense, but has simultaneously exposed its inability to do so.
2014 Whitney Biennial
Posted inArt
Sources of Harm: Notes on the Alternative Artworld
Within and beyond the American artworld, the politics of race have assumed a central position this year with a degree of ugliness that feels particularly virulent.
Posted inArt
Postscript to the Whitney Biennial: An Asian-American Perspective
Now that the Whitney Biennial is finally over, did anyone notice that Patty Chang, Nikki S. Lee, and Laurel Nakadate weren’t included, just to mention three mid-career, Asian-American women artists who were conspicuously absent?
Posted inArt
I Am Joe Scanlan
Now that the Whitney Biennial is over and the critical debate around it has subsided, I feel it’s time to put this project to rest: I created Joe Scanlan.
Posted inArt
The Yams Collective’s Collage of Black Experience
There was no mention of the Whitney Museum or the Biennial, of Joe Scanlan, Donelle Woolford, or Michelle Grabner on the microphone at alternative arts space Freecandy last Thursday night.
Posted inArt
Looking Back at the 2014 Whitney Biennial on Hyperallergic
This past weekend, the 2014 Whitney Biennial drew to a close. To date Hyperallergic has published 16 pieces about the show — and we’re not even finished yet.
Posted inNews
Yams Collective Screens Whitney Biennial Video in Brooklyn
The 38-member collective of artists that withdrew from the Whitney Biennial two weeks ago, known as the Yams Collective or HOWDOYOUSAYYAMINAFRICAN?, is screening its pulled contribution along with other material in an alternative Brooklyn space tonight and tomorrow.
Posted inArt
Listening Deeply to the 2014 Whitney Biennial
The 2014 Whitney Biennial came to a close this past weekend, ending with a performance by esteemed artist and musician Pauline Oliveros. The performance resonated with one of the more striking, if overlooked, curatorial themes of the show: sound in the museum.
Posted inArt
Semiotext(e) at the Biennial: An Interview with Hedi El Kholti
Semiotex(e) is widely known as the publisher that brought French theory to America. Initially a scholarly journal founded in the early ’70s by Sylvère Lotringer and others at Columbia University, Semiotext(e)’s reach expanded into the underground and downtown scenes, creating and reflecting affinities between high theory and experimental art, literature, and performance practices.
Posted inArt
Feminist Protest Disrupts the Whitney Biennial
“Envision an art world utopia in which every artist, irrespective of gender or race, is valued for their work!” It was (and still is) a lovely sentiment, shouted by 14 female artists decked in flowers and gowns and leotards, and standing in the second-floor galleries of the Whitney Museum.
Posted inNews
Artist Collective Withdraws from Whitney Biennial
The Yams Collective, the largest of the eight collectives participating in the 2014 Whitney Biennial, has withdrawn over objections to the curatorial program, Hyperallergic has learned.
Posted inArt
The Meaning of Clay at the Whitney Biennial
On the afternoon that I visited the 2014 Whitney Biennial, I caught sight of a high school group being led through the exhibition by an engaging young arts educator. I slowed down as our paths converged on three large ceramic sculptures by the Los Angeles–based artist Sterling Ruby. Each one is roughly the size of a major appliance, hand-built, and covered with bold, exaggerated finger marks. Every square inch is uneven, almost obsessively so.
