The 80th edition of the Whitney Museum of American Art’s trademark recurring exhibition—originally an annual event, now biennial—will feature 63 artists and collectives from every corner of the US and several international participants. The artists selected by co-curators David Breslin, a curator and director of curatorial initiatives at the Whitney, and Adrienne Edwards, a curator and director of curatorial affairs at the institution, include household names like Charles Ray, Ellen Gallagher, Coco Fusco and Alfredo Jaar, newly established figures like Alex Da Corte, Adam Pendleton and Harold Ancart, and fast-rising stars like Aria Dean, Sable Elyse Smith and Alia Farid (see full list below).
The title of the forthcoming Whitney Biennial, Quiet as It’s Kept, is a phrase that usually means to keep something fairly obvious secret. For Breslin and Edwards, it has three sources for inspiration, in the works of Nobel-winning novelist Toni Morrison, jazz drummer and bebop pioneer Max Roach and influential artist David Hammons—whose monumental public sculpture Day’s End (2014-2021), commissioned by the Whitney, was unveiled across the road from the museum last year.
Still from Coco Fusco, Your Eyes Will Be an Empty Word (2021) Courtesy the artist and Alexander Grey Associates, New York
Perhaps in keeping with those diverse sources of inspiration, the show will have a fluid format, spanning primarily the fifth and sixth floors of the museum, with additional installations elsewhere in the building, and moving image and performance works integrated within the galleries rather than staged in separate auditoriums as in past editions. As the curators put it in a statement, rather than a consistent theme the show is structured around “a series of hunches”. Those will include a focus on abstraction, on conceptual art rooted in research, on works that tell personal narratives via pop cultural and socio-political lenses, on artists who are prodding at the edges of what ‘America’ means (both geographically and psychically), and on revisiting overlooked artists and practices to better understand the present moment.
In keeping with the latter theme, the exhibition will have its own symbol—a closing parentheses followed by a space and an opening parentheses , or ") ("—taken from a 1968 poem by the late N. H. Pritchard. “The symbol resonated with us in its gesturing toward openness, beyond what is contained, even toward the uncontainable,” Breslin and Edwards said in a joint statement. “We also value its suggestion of interlude or interval”.
The 2022 biennial opens on 6 April and continues through 5 September, with select programs continuing through 23 October. It was originally scheduled for 2021 before being postponed due to Covid-19.
“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 co-curators said. “We’ve organised the exhibition to reflect these precarious and improvised times.”
The previous edition of the Whitney Biennial, in 2019, was marked by a series of protests over the presence of Warren Kanders—a collector and businessman whose holdings included Safariland, a manufacturer of military and police equipment used in conflict zones, often to suppress dissent—on the Whitney’s board. After a number of participating artists threatened to withdraw their works from the biennial, Kanders resigned from his position as vice chairman.
The 2022 Whitney Biennial artists:
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