Director Vincent Gallo’s contribution to the Whitney Biennial had been anticipated ever since the list of participating artists, which included his name, was first leaked in December 2011. But as the Biennial, which opened on March 1, came to a close officially on May 27—with a few galleries remaining open until last Sunday, Mr. Gallo has remained elusive, even to the curators. Read More
If you plan to visit the Whitney before June 3—and you should—please stop reading here. I don’t want to ruin what is waiting for you on the fourth floor. Read More
Carol Vogel announced in her Inside Art column today that choreographer Sarah Michelson has won the 2012 Bucksbaum Award, which is presented to one emerging in each Whitney Biennial. Ms. Michelson will take home a $100,000 prize and receive a one-person show at the museum. Read More
The Observer‘s critics, Maika Pollack and Will Heinrich, weighed in on the 2012 Whitney Biennial early this week, and over the past few days a number of other writers have filed reports. Generally speaking, responses have been positive. Below, a brief look at where people stand: Read More
Visitors to the Upper East Side last night who live their lives in utter ignorance of art and the art world must have wondered: Was the Whitney Museum hosting a Rolling Stones concert? A line of eager visitors stretched down Madison Avenue, and turned the corner onto 74th Street. A closer look would have revealed protesters, Teamsters, unfurling banners–the locked-out art handlers from Sotheby’s. No, this wasn’t a Stones concert at all. It was the Whitney Biennial! New Yorkers are into this sort of thing; it was the night’s hot ticket.
The line really wasn’t so bad. Those who had to stand outside were given chocolate-chip cookies. The artist Nicola Tyson received one, as well as a horn blast in the face by one of the Teamsters. Read More
The 2012 Whitney Biennial opens to the public tonight, and the reviews have only just started coming in–The Observer published two last night. In the pre-show coverage, though, photographer LaToya Ruby Frazier, who previously appeared in the New Museum triennial and MoMA PS1′s Greater New York survey, has received a great deal of attention. Read More
Once a day, on the fifth floor mezzanine of the Whitney Museum, artist Lucy Raven will do a performance, sort of. She and artist Jason Moran have programmed a player piano with three variations on an LCD Soundsystem song. Once a day, there will be a recital of “Dance Yrself Clean” by the player piano. Read More
Crammed into a corner on the third floor of the 2012 Whitney Biennial is an interesting road block. For her contribution to the show, the artist Dawn Kasper has moved into the museum, and her stuff is everywhere. It overflows into the walkway, where people inevitably stopped to gawk at a press preview on Monday. There were two stacks of books resting on the floor (Didion’s Play It As It Lays is on top of one; Deconstruction & Criticism atop the other), record players, amplifiers, radios, a projector flashing a Buster Keaton documentary onto the wall, a bed, more books resting on a large bookcase (heavy on theoretical texts) and tables with piles of works-in-progress. Photographs were hung all over the walls. Read More
One of the first things one sees walking onto the third floor of the Whitney at the moment is a small oil painting of a shirtless, dark-haired man posing in front of a dark red background. Titled Madawaska, Acadian Light-Heavy, Third Arrangement, it was painted in 1940 by the great Marsden Hartley, who died in 1943. But here it is in the 2012 biennial. Read More
The 2012 Whitney Biennial kicked off with a well-attended press preview Monday afternoon. The schedule of events had one ambiguous listing: “2:30-3:30 p.m. Georgia Sagri 5th Floor mezzanine.” Read More
