{"id":33249,"date":"2019-05-17T08:47:22","date_gmt":"2019-05-17T08:47:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artzealous.com\/?p=33249"},"modified":"2019-05-17T08:47:22","modified_gmt":"2019-05-17T08:47:22","slug":"6-reasons-to-see-the-2019-whitney-biennial","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/6-reasons-to-see-the-2019-whitney-biennial\/","title":{"rendered":"6 Reasons to See the 2019 Whitney Biennial"},"content":{"rendered":"

There are tons of reasons to see the <\/span>Whitney<\/span><\/a>\u2019s bi-annual survey of American art,\u00a0 which opens to the public on May 17th. Maybe the best one is that, <\/span>for once<\/strong>, 50% of the work in the show is by women and more than 50% is by people of color. I mean that literally. The <\/span>Public Library of Science<\/span><\/a> just published a study analyzing US museum collections and found that <\/span>85% of the works <\/span><\/a>in their collections are by white artists and 87% are by men<\/span>.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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Diverse makers mean more diverse lenses. I\u2019m all for anything that can help us understand one another better.<\/span><\/p>\n

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A disclaimer before I dive in\u2014this list is purely idiosyncratic. The works here defied the deafening distractions of the jam-packed opening reception to claim my eye. I\u2019ve left out many noteworthy pieces\u2026some just because it was impossible to photograph them in the crush. In particular, <\/span>Agustina Woodgate<\/span><\/a>\u2019s <\/span>National Times<\/span><\/em>\u00a0<\/em>and <\/span>Christine Sun Kim<\/span><\/a>\u2019s <\/span>Degrees of My Deaf Rage<\/span><\/em> series are revelatory.<\/span><\/p>\n

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#6 <\/span>Jeffrey Gibson<\/span><\/a>\u2019s Triumphant Textiles<\/span><\/p>\n

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Jeffrey Gibson, <\/span>PEOPLE LIKE US<\/span><\/em>, 2019<\/span><\/p>\n

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I\u2019ve been watching Gibson\u2019s work since I first saw his beaded punching bags in 2013 on the lower east side. For me, his biennial works are next level. Always colorful, his newest textiles refuse to be easily categorized as simply indigenous, LGBTQ, or anything else. I especially love the ambiguity of the phrase, \u201cpeople like us\u201d in the work above, both a reclaimed slur and a heady declaration of empowerment.<\/span><\/p>\n

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#5 <\/span>Todd Gray<\/span><\/a>\u2019s Velvety Photo Assemblages<\/span><\/p>\n

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Todd Gray, <\/span>Slipping into Darkness, All the Honey Gone<\/span><\/em>, 2018<\/span><\/p>\n

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Confession\u2014photography isn\u2019t my thing. What\u2019s seductive about Gray\u2019s pieces is their texture. They\u2019re so densely pigmented that, until I got within alarm-ringing proximity, I thought they might be embroidery. Their depth drew me into the photos so intimately that it completely changed my perception of how the images relate. Experience these as up-close-and-personal as you dare.<\/span><\/p>\n

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#4 <\/span>Tomashi Jackson<\/span><\/a>\u2019s Indictment of Racial Displacement in NYC<\/span><\/p>\n

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Tomashi Jackson, <\/span>Third Party Transfer and the Making of Central Park (Seneca Village \u2013 Brooklyn 1853-2019<\/span><\/em>)<\/em>, 2019<\/span><\/p>\n

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Art is the best way to get bad news. I might forget or miss a headline in the constant downer deluge that\u2019s today\u2019s news cycle. But I can\u2019t unsee Jackson\u2019s vibrant documentary installations. She made me painfully aware of yet another aspect of my beloved city\u2019s institutional displacement of people of color. The work pictured illustrates the razing of a free black settlement to build Central Park; while her other installations unpack current predatory housing practices that perpetuate the problem.<\/span><\/p>\n

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#3 Forensic Architecture<\/a>\u2019s Chilling Protest<\/span><\/p>\n

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Forensic Architecture, <\/span>Triple-Chaser<\/span><\/em>, 2019<\/span><\/p>\n

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It\u2019s frustratingly fascinating to witness our culture\u2019s incipient struggle with toxic philanthropy. A 15-minute video on the Whitney\u2019s 6th floor painstakingly links two sources of Warren Kanders\u2019 wealth to thousands of brutal attacks on civilians. Meanwhile, he\u2019s still the Vice Chairman of the museum in which it\u2019s being shown. This detail of the video features his company\u2019s Triple-Chaser tear-gas grenade. Outlawed internationally for use against soldiers in war, it\u2019s outrageously still used by governments worldwide against peaceful protestors.<\/span><\/p>\n

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#2 <\/span>Nicole Eisenman<\/span><\/a>\u2019s Grotesque Sculpture<\/span><\/p>\n

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Nicole Eisenman, <\/span>Procession<\/span><\/em>, 2019<\/span><\/p>\n

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You must know by now that I\u2019m a sculpture whore. So it was a painful thrill to step onto the terrace with Eisenman\u2019s ode to the myriad humiliations of disenfranchisement. The monumental figures embody the new normal of Trumpian vulgarity, complete with one that visually passes gas. (Oy vey.) The massive works are sited, so you can walk among their dwarfing forms\u2014all the better to soak up what must be the mind-numbing despair of a migrant caravan.<\/span><\/p>\n

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#1 <\/span>Janiva Ellis<\/span><\/a>\u2019 Spellbinding Painting<\/span><\/p>\n

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Janiva Ellis, <\/span>Uh Oh, Look Who Got Wet<\/span><\/em>, 2019<\/span><\/p>\n

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In a show of soul-jangling compositions, Ellis\u2019 vast canvas engulfs you in an oasis of unparalleled beauty. Painted in an aching palette of hot oranges, moody greens, and sickly blues, it\u2019s the highlight of the show for me. I\u2019ve been a huge fan of the artist since one of her works pounced on me at the <\/span>New Museum<\/span><\/a>\u2019s last triennial, and its appeal hadn\u2019t lessened a jot when I saw it again last December at the <\/span>Rubell Family Collection<\/span><\/a> in Miami. Ellis\u2019 contribution to the biennial is breathtaking. Visually stunning and layered with meaning (that I\u2019m yet to fully fathom), I could contemplate this painting forever.<\/span><\/p>\n

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top image \/\/\u00a0View from Gansevoort Street. Photograph by Karin Jobst, 2014.<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There are tons of reasons to see the Whitney\u2019s bi-annual <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":33259,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,24,23,11,21],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33249"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33249"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33249\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33249"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33249"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artzealous.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33249"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}