2008 Whitney Biennial Open for Business, Bitching

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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By John Del Signore in Arts & Entertainment on March 6, 2008 2:59 PM

Comments [rss]

veeelchop

if youv never seen karen black you should. super loud. super fast. crazyness on stage like you've never seen. unless you've seen gg alin. kembra is a true artist. cool for her and the band to be part of the biennial.

veeelchop

if youv never seen karen black you should. super loud. super fast. crazyness on stage like you've never seen. unless you've seen gg alin. kembra is a true artist. cool for her and the band to be part of the biennial.

Jen S

Don't tell my bosses, but I hate "pretty," complex wording as artists' statements or exhibition descriptions. It's like they're thinking that if they confuse us, we'll think it's deep.

nonumentalart

“an evident trend toward work of an ephemeral, event-based character.”

curators like these keep destroying the authenticity of art by allowing numerous mediocrities the title of artist.

art cannot continue along this route

we need a new language

Tgirl

"conceptual art" is an oxymoron

Snoopy

Curators Shamim Momin and Henriette Huldisch say this Biennial is largely informed by “an evident trend toward work of an ephemeral, event-based character.”

WOW! Wasn't this the same shit that they did back in the sixties and called them "Happenings?"

maevemealone

My disgruntled artist friend came away from the preview depressed and disgusted yet again at how mediocre it all was. I know I'll go and have my repeated thoughts of "the Carnegie International kicks so much more ass this". If you're an art fan, this is the year to make the long drive to the burgh , it's consistently infinitely better than the Whitney Biennial.