Who to See at Whitney Biennial 2024

Mary Lovelace O'Neal

Mary Lovelace O'Neal gained recognition relatively late in her career. The 82-year-old artist, who hadn't had a solo show in New York since 1993, came to the art world's attention following a solo exhibition at Mnuchin Gallery in 2020. The exhibition was a survey of over five decades of O'Neal's work, from the late 1960s to the 2000s.

Born in Jackson, Mississippi, Lovelace O'Neal has developed a practice that reflects her life-long dedication to the Civil Rights and Black Arts movements, with paintings referencing her participation with protests, the Black Panthers, and mentor and friend, James Baldwin.

Her take on Abstract Expressionism results in brightly coloured paintings, marked by energetic, sweeping strokes on textured canvas. Rendered with paint, chalk, and mixed media, they are often monumental in scale, many measuring over two metres high and three metres wide.

Isaac Julien

Isaac Julien, one of the most important filmmakers today, brings his poetic work on race, representation, and queer history to New York.

Through beautiful cinematography, spectacular scores, and thoughtful dialogue, Julien's films and video art installations addressing colonialism, migration, and racism, have landed in a number of the world's most coveted museums.

For the Whitney Biennial, Julien brings a five screen video and sculpture installation reflecting on the life of Alain Locke, philosopher and educator who was heralded as the man who led the Harlem Renaissance.

Most recently, the London-born artist held his first survey in a British museum at Tate Britain in 2023, while Julien's ten-screen film installation Lessons of the Hour (2019) is currently screened as part of the exhibition Entangled Pasts, 1768–now Art, Colonialism and Change at London's Royal Academy (until 28 April 2024).

Rose B. Simpson

Rose B. Simpson's inclusion in the Biennial is unsurprising given her recent exhibition on the Whitney's fifth-floor terrace, coupled with the museum's acquisition of three of the artist's works.

The New Mexico-born artist's figurative sculptures, made from mixed materials such as ceramic, steel, and glass employs centuries-old Pueblo ceramic traditions passed down through her family, from her mother, Native American sculptor Roxanne Swentzell, as well as her grandmother and great-grandmother.

She adds a distinctive element to her practice through a technique she calls 'slap-slab', where she throws clay sideways against the floor repeatedly. This process creates thin, torn pieces that she uses to build her surfaces.

At nearly 6 feet tall, Root A (2019) is imagined as a protector. Arms crossed, the leather strapped shoulders are host to a floating head; supported by a steel fan with a razor sharp edge.

P. Staff

The U.K.-born, L.A.-based artist and filmmaker P. Staff is among non-American artists at the biennial this year.

In their work, Afferent Nerves (2023), Staff invites viewers to wander beneath electrified netting—just far enough to remain untouched, yet close enough for the crackling sounds to resonate throughout the surrounding space.

The work draws attention to the processes by which humans, specifically marginalised communities, undergo discipline within a society marked by institutionalised violence.

Staff's installations overwhelm the senses by employing lurid colours, bright lights, and reflective surfaces. They amplify viewers' awareness of their surroundings, the artwork, and their safety in the gallery.

Maja Ruznic

Maja Ruznic's large-scale, oil-on-linen paintings depict otherworldly silhouettes emerging from fields of saturated, washy hues.

Inspired by personal history, mysticism, and sacred geometry, the artist renders figures and forms with translucent skin that suggests they might be forgotten subjects from the past.

Perhaps they are depictions of people she knew before she and her family were forced to migrate from Bosnia and Herzegovina due to the Bosnian War (1992–1995)

Ruznic's work is on view in Dead Can Dance at Contemporary Fine Arts in Basel until 20 April 2024. Her work will be featured in OVERSERVED at Miles McEnery Gallery in New York later this year.

Karyn Olivier

Karyn Olivier's art intertwines everyday materials and discarded objects to connect with specific places and collective memories.

Oliver moved to the U.S. as a child but returned to Trinidad and Tobago to spend summers, which influenced her artistic practice.

In How Many Ways Can You Disappear (2021), Olivier dislocates fishing materials from sea to gallery to present a memorial of maritime histories and reference to today's refugee crisis.

Heavy-duty fishing ropes are tangled with lobster traps and arranged into a pile on the gallery floor. Suspended above this jumble are a bunch of buoys dangling from the ceiling at the end of a rope.

Olivier's work is included in the Prospect New Orleans 2024 triennial, Prospect.6: the future is present, the harbinger is home. The exhibition will be on view at locations across the city from 2 November 2024 to 2 February 2025.