Tastemaking Whitney Biennial Names 71 Artists

Whitney Biennial 20 March–11 August 2024

The Whitney Museum of American Art has announced the artists taking part in its 81st biennial, which opens on 20 March.

The exhibition will think through the idea of reality amid the arrival of artificial intelligence and ongoing discussions about identity. Other throughlines will include notions of land stewardship and concepts of embodiment.

‘It is striking how many artists are contending with relationships between the psyche and the body, and the precarity of the past few years,’ said Whitney curators Chrissie Iles and Meg Onli, who are organising the biennial.

‘Artists are continuing to grapple with history and identity; we have made an exhibition that unfolds as a set of relations, exploring the challenges of coming together in a fractured moment,’ they said.

Among the most established artists taking part are British video artist Isaac Julien (b. 1960), the Raqs Media Collective, and Pace artist Torkwase Dyson (b. 1973).

Many others, including Jes Fan (b. 1990) and Carolyn Lazard (b. 1987), are still relatively early in their careers.

This year’s youngest participants are L.A.-based filmmakers Gbenga Komolafe (b. 2000) and South Korean artist Tee Park (b. 1999).

They collaborated on the 14-minute short film 100% Usda Certified Organic Homemade Tofu (2022) about a young trans woman named Nikki who reluctantly works at her mother’s Korean restaurant to raise money for a breast augmentation.

The full list of participating artists can be viewed on the Whitney’s website. —[O]

Main image: Exhibition view: Whitney Biennial 2022, Quiet as It's Kept, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (6 April–5 September 2022). Photo: Ron Amstutz.