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2008 Whitney Biennial Open for Business, Bitching
By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 6, 2008
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 6, 2008
Modified Mar 7, 2008
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Will 2008 be the year frustrated artists stop whining about the Whitney Biennial for being too cliquey, too scattershot, too short on women, minorities, and criminally overlooked artists like the ones doing all the griping? Hardly, but this year’s themeless Biennial, which opened last night, goes a long way toward appeasing the disgruntled hipster artist crowd with a big, rowdy slate of installations and events at the Park Avenue Armory through March 26th.
Curators Shamim Momin and Henriette Huldisch say this Biennial is largely informed by “an evident trend toward work of an ephemeral, event-based character.” So the sprawling armory is to be commandeered by outré artists like Kembra Pfahler and her theatrical rock group The Voluptuous Horror of Karen Black. Eduardo Sarabia has built a bar where he’ll pour his homemade tequila and “celebrate collaborative dialogue and community.”
Ellen Harvey is to “immortalize” 100 Biennial visitors in fifteen-minute portraits which are then hung on a grid as they are completed. Agathe Snow will be roping participants into a twenty-four hour dance marathon; on Sunday, multidisciplinary art rockers Gang Gang Dance trundle in with their sonic chaos.
There is a lot to take in at the armory and more at the museum, where the exhibition fills four floors with artists ranging (alphabetically) from Rita Ackerman to Mario Ybarra Jr. In the sculpture garden, Fritz Haeg’s Animal Estates recreates twelve indigenous animal habitats, such as a beaver pond, and features guided tours by local scientists, historians, and artists. On the green (or orange) tip, Phoebe Washburn’s room-sized ecosystem runs on Gatorade.
The bitching overheard by NY Mag's Alexandra Peers at last night’s opening honed in on the abundance of sculpture, not enough “sexy painting” and an “unfinished” aesthetic trend that makes part of the exhibition “look like Janson’s History of Conceptual Art meets Home Depot.” See for yourself in person through June 1st or via The Whitney Biennial 2008 Flickr account, where you can also immortalize your gripes in the comments.
Photo from the Biennial Preview: sokref1
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Whitney Biennial 2008
John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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