The Whitney Museum of American Art announces that 69 artists and 2 collectives will participate in Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing. Opening March 20, this is the 81st edition of the Museum’s landmark exhibition series, the longest-running survey of American art. A presentation of the most relevant art and ideas of our time, the artists featured in the Whitney Biennial showcase work across most of the Museum’s gallery space as well as through a robust series of film and performance programs available at the Museum and online. Co-organized by two Whitney curators, Chrissie Iles and Meg Onli, the Biennial presents the work of contemporary artists working across media and disciplines, representing evolving notions of American art.
“We sought to create an exhibition in the form of what artist Ligia Lewis calls a ‘dissonant chorus,’ unharmonious in its collectivity,” said Iles and Onli. “It is striking how many artists are contending with relationships between the psyche and the body, and the precarity of the past few years. 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. We are thrilled to be working with such a rigorous and thoughtful group of artists to create a space where ideas and the materiality of the world can be examined and engaged.”
“The Biennial is an engine that powers the Whitney forward, by introducing new artists and ideas to our community and beyond. It is both what we do and who we are,” said Scott Rothkopf, Alice Pratt Brown Director at the Whitney Museum. “The 2024 Biennial has been led with both rigor and empathy by our brilliant co-organizers Chrissie and Meg, and I look forward to welcoming this incredible group of artists to the Whitney as we collectively reimagine the landscape of contemporary American art.”
Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing is a thematic exhibition focusing on ideas of “the real” to acknowledge that, today, society is at an inflection point, in part brought on by artificial intelligence challenging what we consider to be real, as well as critical discussions about identity. Many of the artists presenting works explore the fluidity of identity and form, historical and current land stewardship, and concepts of embodiment, among other urgent throughlines.
The 2024 Whitney Biennial is co-organized by Chrissie Iles, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, and Meg Onli, Curator-at-Large at the Whitney, with Min Sun Jeon and Beatriz Cifuentes. The performance program is organized by Iles and Onli, with guest curator Taja Cheek. The film program is organized by Iles and Onli, with guest curators Korakrit Arunanondchai, asinnajaq, Greg de Cuir Jr., and Zackary Drucker.
Press release from the Whitney Museum of American Art
Image: Dala Nasser. Adonis River. 2023. Image courtesy of the artist and the Whitney Museum of American Art
