The Whitney Biennial, one of the most closely watched—and fiercely debated—exhibitions in America, has revealed the lineup for its next edition, which opens in April. The 63-strong list of artists and collectives chosen by curators David Breslin and Adrienne Edwards encompasses three generations and suggests that the first pandemic-era iteration of the show will have a decidedly conceptual and interdisciplinary bent.
In addition to the participants, the curators have also revealed the show’s title: “Quiet as It’s Kept.” The colloquial term—invoked in the work of novelist Toni Morrison, jazz drummer Max Roach, and artist David Hammons—usually precedes a statement that is traditionally left unsaid.
The show, originally due to open in 2021, was pushed back one year. It will now run from April 6 through September 5, 2022.
Coco Fusco, still from Your Eyes Will Be An Empty Word (2021). Image courtesy the artist and Alexander Gray Associates, New York.
The show will continue its tradition of questioning what it means to be an “American artist,” placing special emphasis on creators from Mexico, specifically Ciudad Juárez and Tijuana, First Nations artists in Canada, and artists born outside of North America.
While the Whitney Biennial has sometimes served to introduce a slate of new talent, this edition is decidedly intergenerational. The oldest artist is Puerto Rican choreographer Awilda Sterling-Duprey, born in 1946; the youngest is Mexican artist Andrew Roberts, born in 1995, whose work draws on technology used in war and the entertainment industry.
This year’s biennial will also integrate performance and film into the galleries, placing it on equal footing with the rest of the work rather than siloing it in separate programs. The curators promise that the show will evolve throughout its run, and that its two main floors are designed to act as counterpoints: one, a contained, dark labyrinth; the other, open and light-filled.
Whitney Curators Adrienne Edwards and David Breslin. Photo by Bryan Derballa.
“We began planning for this exhibition, originally slated to open in 2021, almost a year before the 2020 election, before the pandemic and shutdown with their reeling effects, before the uprisings demanding racial justice and before the questioning of institutions and their structures,” the curators said in a statement. “While many of these underlying conditions are not new, their overlapping, intensity, and sheer ubiquity created a context in which past, present, and future folded into one another. We’ve organized the exhibition to reflect these precarious and improvised times.”
Here is the full list of artists participating:
Lisa Alvarado
Born 1982 in San Antonio, TX
Lives in Chicago, IL
Harold Ancart
Born 1980 in Brussels, Belgium
Lives in New York, NY
Mónica Arreola
Born 1976 in Tijuana, Mexico
Lives in Tijuana, Mexico
Emily Barker
Born 1992 in San Diego, CA
Lives in Los Angeles, CA
Yto Barrada
Born 1971 in Paris, France
Lives in Brooklyn, NY, and Tangier, Morocco
Rebecca Belmore
Born 1960 in Upsala, Canada
Lives in Vancouver, Canada
Anishinaabe
Jonathan Berger
Born 1980 in New York, NY
Lives in New York, NY, and Glover, VT
Nayland Blake
Born 1960 in New York, NY
Lives in Brooklyn and Queens, NY
Cassandra Press
Founded 2016 by Kandis Williams
Theresa Hak Kyung Cha
Born 1951 in Busan, South Korea
Died 1982 in New York, NY
Raven Chacon
Born 1977 in Fort Defiance, Navajo Nation
Lives in Albuquerque, NM
Diné
Leidy Churchman
Born 1979 in Villanova, PA
Lives in New York, NY, and West Tremont, ME
Tony Cokes
Born 1956 in Richmond, VA
Lives in Providence, RI
Jacky Connolly
Born 1990 in New York, NY
Lives in Brooklyn, NY
Matt Connors
Born 1973 in Chicago, IL
Lives in New York, NY, and Los Angeles, CA
Alex Da Corte
Born 1980 in Camden, NJ
Lives in Philadelphia, PA
Aria Dean
Born 1993 in Los Angeles, CA
Lives in New York, NY
Danielle Dean
Born 1982 in Huntsville, AL
Lives in Los Angeles and San Diego, CA
Jane Dickson
Born 1952 in Chicago, IL
Lives in New York, NY
Buck Ellison
Born 1987 in San Francisco, CA
Lives in Los Angeles, CA
Alia Farid
Born 1985 in Kuwait City, Kuwait
Lives in San Juan, PR, and Kuwait City, Kuwait
Coco Fusco
Born 1960 in New York, NY
Lives in Brooklyn, NY
Ellen Gallagher
Born 1965 in Providence, RI
Lives in Rotterdam, Netherlands, and Brooklyn, NY
A Gathering of the Tribes /Steve Cannon
Founded 1991
Steve Cannon: Born 1935 in New Orleans, LA
Died 2019 in New York, NY
Cy Gavin
Born 1985 in Pittsburgh, PA
Lives in New York State
Adam Gordon
Born 1986 in Minneapolis, MN
Lives in Jersey City, NJ
Renée Green
Born 1959 in Cleveland, OH
Lives in Somerville, MA, and New York, NY
Pao Houa Her
Born 1982 in Laos
Lives in Blaine, MN
EJ Hill
Born 1985 in Los Angeles, CA
Lives in Los Angeles, CA
Alfredo Jaar
Born 1956 in Santiago, Chile
Lives in New York, NY
Rindon Johnson
Born 1990 in San Francisco, CA
Lives in Berlin, Germany
Ivy Kwan Arce and Julie Tolentino
Ivy Kwan Arce: Born 1965 in Salinas, CA
Lives in New York, NY
Julie Tolentino: Born 1964 in San Francisco, CA
Lives in Joshua Tree, CA
Ralph Lemon
Born 1952 in Cincinnati, OH
Lives in Brooklyn, NY
Duane Linklater
Born 1976 in Treaty 9 Territory (Northern Ontario, Canada)
Lives in North Bay, Canada (Robinson Huron Treaty Territory)
Omaskêko Ininiwak
James Little
Born 1952 in Memphis, TN
Lives in New York, NY
Rick Lowe
Born 1961 in rural Alabama
Lives in Houston, TX
Daniel Joseph Martinez
Born 1957 in Los Angeles, CA
Lives in Los Angeles, CA, and Paris, France
Dave McKenzie
Born 1977 in Kingston, Jamaica
Lives in Brooklyn, NY
Rodney McMillian
Born 1969 in Columbia, SC
Lives in Los Angeles, CA
Na Mira
Born 1982 in Lawrence, KS, on Kickapoo, Osage, Kansa, and Sioux lands
Lives in Los Angeles, CA, on Tongva, Gabrielino, Kizh, and Chumash lands
Alejandro “Luperca” Morales
Born 1990 in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico
Lives in Monterrey, Mexico
Moved by the Motion
Founded 2016 by Wu Tsang and Tosh Basco
Terence Nance
Born 1982 in Dallas, TX
Lives in America
Woody De Othello
Born 1991 in Miami, FL
Lives in Oakland, CA
Adam Pendleton
Born 1984 in Richmond, VA
Lives in New York, NY
N. H. Pritchard
Born 1939 in New York, NY
Died 1996 in eastern Pennsylvania
Lucy Raven
Born 1977 in Tucson, AZ
Lives in New York, NY
Charles Ray
Born 1953 in Chicago, IL
Lives in Los Angeles, CA
Jason Rhoades
Born 1965 in Newcastle, CA
Died 2006 in Los Angeles, CA
Andrew Roberts
Born 1995 in Tijuana, Mexico
Lives in Mexico City and Tijuana, Mexico
Guadalupe Rosales
Born 1980 in Redwood City, CA
Lives in Los Angeles, CA
Veronica Ryan
Born 1956 in Plymouth, Montserrat
Lives in London, United Kingdom, and New York, NY
Rose Salane
Born 1992 in New York, NY
Lives in Queens, NY
Michael E. Smith
Born 1977 in Detroit, MI
Lives in Providence, RI
Sable Elyse Smith
Born 1986 in Los Angeles, CA
Lives in New York, NY
Awilda Sterling-Duprey
Born 1947 in San Juan, PR
Lives in San Juan, PR
Rayyane Tabet
Born 1983 in Beirut, Lebanon
Lives in Beirut, Lebanon, and San Francisco, CA
Denyse Thomasos
Born 1964 in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
Died 2012 in New York, NY
Trinh T. Minh-ha
Born in Hanoi, Vietnam
Lives in Berkeley, CA
WangShui
Born 1986 in USA
Lives in New York, NY
Eric Wesley
Born 1973 in Los Angeles, CA
Lives in Los Angeles, CA
Dyani White Hawk
Born 1976 in Madison, WI
Lives in Minneapolis, MN
Sičangu Lakota
Kandis Williams
Born 1985 in Baltimore, MD
Lives in Los Angeles, CA and Brooklyn, NY
Source: Exhibition - news.artnet.com
