Gothamist
A non-profit newsroom, powered by WNYC.
Gothamist
Listen Live
Arts & Entertainment
Photos: 75 Emerging Artists Take Over The Whitney For 2019 Biennial
By
Scott Lynch
Published May 14, 2019
Modified May 14, 2019
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
Never miss a story
Email address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .
Scott Lynch / Gothamist
View all 48
By
Scott Lynch
Published May 14, 2019
Modified May 14, 2019
Share
FacebookTwitterRedditEmail
We rely on your support to make local news available to all
Make your contribution now and help Gothamist thrive in 2026. Donate today
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
The Whitney Biennial, the museum's biannual "frontline report" on what's happening in American art right now, opens its doors to members today (May 14th) and to the general public this weekend. It's the 79th iteration of this eagerly anticipated, often controversial, and recently protested exhibition. This year it features the work of 75 different artists and collectives working across the country.
For the 2019 Biennial, in-house Whitney curators Jane Panetta and Rujeko Hockley focused on emerging artists, the vast majority of whom have never shown their work in this forum, and most of whom are under the age of 40. You'll find paintings, photography, sculpture, installation, mixed media, video, sound, and live performance, spread out over four floors and on the outdoor roof decks—it all feels very fresh and energizing.
As always with large, broad exhibitions of this sort, your reactions to individual pieces will likely vary widely as you wander through the galleries, but a few personal highlights from Monday's press preview would include Calvin Marcus's series of simple, bold paintings facing the elevators on six; Alexander Bell's heavily redacted Daily News covers and articles from their sensational coverage of the Central Park Five case and the non-existent "wilding" epidemic of the late 1980s; and Laura Ortman's haunting video of her playing violin in a lush mountainscape.
One of Nicole Eisenman's pieces. (Scott Lynch / Gothamist)
Both of the big sculptural installations in the outdoor terraces are show stoppers. Nicole Eisenman's crazy parade on the Whitney's sixth floor deck is amusing and grotesque in about equal measures, and rewards close inspection to notice all the bizarre detailing. And if it hadn't been raining I would have spent a lot more time with Meriem Bennani's playful, beautifully designed "Mission Teens: French School in Morocco," a multi-disciplinary "video viewing garden" outside on the fifth floor that, among its other delights, features a pretty solid rap song by Lil Patty.
Other good things: the performance by Brendan Fernandes's dancers (basically striking ballet poses in what looks like spindly jungle gym); a trio of weighty sculptures by Simone Leigh; Curran Hatleberg's journalistic photographs of the third floor; Keegan Monaghan's painting of a furry red phone; the portraits of bodies being altered by Elle Pérez; Heji Shin's photos of babies emerging from their mother; Kyle Thurman's brightly colored drawings, hung unusually low on the wall; and Agustina Woodgate's "National Times," a room full of clocks designed to erase their faces as the exhibition goes on.
For months now, activists have been mounting demonstrations against of Whitney Museum board member Warren Kanders, who has ties to a defense manufacturer whose tear gas canisters have been used against asylum seekers at the United States-Mexico border. Expect more protests this week.
The Whitney Biennial opens today for members, Friday for the general public, and runs through September 22nd.
Tagged
the whitney
whitney biennial
whitney museum
Scott Lynch
Photojournalist, food writer, preschool receptionist. Love NYC.
Read more
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
MORE arts-entertainment
Inside a photographer's journey to visit every neighborhood in New York City
What do you see when you record the whole of the boroughs?
By
Sonia Rao
Published Oct 5, 2026
Banned books and Winnie the Pooh: October in NYC libraries
It's a busy month at the branches.
By
Alec Hamilton
Arts & Entertainment
Banned books and Winnie the Pooh: October in NYC libraries
It's a busy month at the branches.
By
Alec Hamilton
NYC music in October: The Strokes, a Blink-182 cover band, and Polish experimentalism
By
Hank Shteamer
Are you a New Yorker? The Department of New Yorker Verification will now decide.
By
Hannah Frishberg
In the mood for a pastoral autumn experience? Try Queens.
By
Elizabeth Shwe
and
James Ramsay
Never miss a story
Catch up on the most important headlines with a roundup of essential NYC stories, delivered to your inbox daily.
Sign upEmail address
By submitting your information, you're agreeing to receive communications from New York Public Radio in accordance with our Terms .