Art
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 roug
Interview
Molly Zuckerman-Hartung is a Chicago-based painter, teacher, and author of "The 95 Theses on Painting." Her work reflects a deep engagement with process, material, and with painting’s long history. Her abstract paintings often extend above the surface and outside the frame, via pooled enamel, collag
Art
There are no Texas quail rigs in the Whitney Biennial, but then again New York casts a long shadow of bullshit over American aesthetics, its credentialed scenesters busy strip-mining consumer culture to produce elaborate corporate pranks.
Art
Adam Weinberg, the director of the Whitney Museum of American Art, was candid in his opening day remarks when he commented that the Biennial had in the past been thought of — or was criticized for not being — a representative snapshot of American art.
Art
Whitney Biennial curator Anthony Elms took on the nebulous meaning of "American art" most directly in his selections, but the results don't really say a lot about what it means to be American — at least not in a way that makes it distinct from Canadian, Australian, Argentinean, or some other nationa
Art
On the third floor, 2014 Whitney Biennial curator Stuart Comer professed to "provide a kaleidoscopic glimpse of this historic moment," emphasizing work that seemed in flux and in transition from one medium to another, one state to another, or even across borders and identities.
Art
The 2014 Whitney Biennial has many things: oversized ceramics, big abstract and figurative paintings, experimental jazz, videos of people having sex, and bead curtains. What it doesn’t have all that much of is politics.
Art
During the opening remarks for the 2014 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Chief Curator Donna de Salvo said that this year's exhibition was "one biennial with three distinct points of view," so we've decided to explore that diversity in perspectives with three separate photo essays of the Biennial — one per
Art
Lest we get too excited about what the museum is billing on its website as "one of the broadest and most diverse takes on art in the United States that the Whitney has offered in many years," let's look at some numbers.
Interview
CHICAGO — The 2014 Whitney Biennial won’t be like every biennial before it. The always anticipated art world event will partly be a response to the Occupy movement’s call to end the Whitney Biennial, which charged that the major exhibition was just another art world commercial interest, and it will
News
In the New York Times, Carol Vogel reports on the future of the Whitney Biennial, that ever-controversial summary of American art. For the 2014 edition of the show, there are a few new surprises — mainly, that the old, monolithic model of curating has been totally dismantled.
News
Like a sad, jilted date, this year's recently closed Whitney Biennial was left without director, actor, musician and all-around creepster Vincent Gallo's promised film, entitled ironically Promises Written in Water. And apparently, Gallo didn't even call.