WHITNEY (Bi) 2008

"The Biennial certainly matters to its principal curators, the Whitney's Henriette Huldisch and Shamim Momin, who, whatever critical hits they may take, join a small professional circle of people privileged to have cut very publicly their own cross section of contemporary visual culture. But mention the Whitney Biennial to a critic, dealer, collector or a curator from another institution, and the sighing and rolling of eyes will begin.

Bad memories of Biennials past account for some such responses, as must a hardening conviction of the futility of the program's brief to take a snapshot of art production now, or of the national prospect refracted through recent art, or ... something."

Kenneth Baker, Chronicle Art Critic

Unfortunately, I did not have the luxury to partake in all the controversy of the Whitney show. But I think it is perhaps more interesting to engage with the exhibition from a distance. Sitting in Memphis, looking at the images from a computer screen. To Whitney's credit, they included eleven two minute videos of the artist with the work, speaking accordingly. (available for free, on iTunes.)

Now, obviously this is no surrogate for real engagement, we have to still be aware that these videos are produced by the museum, and perhaps understand the function of them. As interesting as it could be to try and understand the performance of these exhibitions, that are largely viewed like Deb Balls for the art set: a fantastic display of talent, and the artists announcement into The Society.

Perhaps its becasue I am distanced from the art market, I am still in school, my dreams have not met reality as of yet. But, I may have to disagree with the cynical nature of criticism when pointed at these shows, a few of the artists are indeed dong challenging work. Others, like New York's esteemed Jerry Saltz cleaning observed:

"At the Whitney, 2008 is the year of the Art School Biennial. Not because the art in the new Biennial is immature or because the artists all went to art school—although I bet they did—but because it centers on a very narrow slice of highly educated artistic activity and features a lot of very thought-out, extremely self-conscious, carefully pieced-together installations, sculpture, and earnestly political art. These works often resemble architectural fragments, customized found objects, ersatz modernist monuments, Home Depot displays, graphic design, or magazine layouts, and the resultant assemblage-college aesthetic, while compelling in the hands of some, is completely beholden to ideas taught in hip academies. It’s the style du jour right now."

In fact, two of the artists make work that directly references the gallery experience, one with a literal white cube where he holds therapy sessions inside, another with a coy play on the salon style presentation as a way to depict her studio. I beg to argue that these ideas are not ground breaking in any form, based on the fact that I, a relatively novice character in the Art World, have had similar ways of thinking about representation.

Beyond that however, is something that as a painter, I find remarkably ironic. The shows lack of painting is nothing new, in fact it is expected. Installation and video are more sexy, but lets look at the presence of the cube. Three the Eleven chosen to be in the whitney focus are all dealing with the idea to represent their concept. Perhaps its just me, but that basically just painting cubed.