All posts tagged: Whitney Biennal 2022: Quiet as It's Kept

Whitney Biennial: Not As Quiet As You May Expect

Whitney Biennial: Not As Quiet As You May Expect

David Breslin and Adrienne Edwards curate “Quiet as It’s Kept”


Write poetry.

That is our best-recommended strategy to experience the Whitney Biennial. The stanza, the spaces, the rhythms, the waves. They all coalesce in the black space and the white space. And one need not keep this quiet.

The country has been in an ongoing grinding recession since 2008, heading toward depression. Institutions steadily attacked; the wealth steadily stolen. You can see the US here, in these installations, videos, paintings, sculptures, and photography.

Jane Dickson. 99¢ Dreams, 2020. Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

Even when you don’t look, you see stressed-out workers balancing on a highwire, the frayed net below. The emptiness of consumerism, the backwash from decades of wars, the contemplation of chaos. Here is history and here is the future, quiet as it’s kept.

The Whitney Biennial is now 90 – an institution, possibly. Discussed, reviled, admired; this one often is stunning. Collaborative curators David Breslin and Adrienne Edwards have chosen quality in these 63 artists, have endeavored to know their collection of artists and can shake the viewer. Brooding, raw, slick, contemporary displacement is displayed. Frayed. Portrayed.

Can’t Go? Sign up for the virtual tour HERE.

Learn more about the Biennial and the curators HERE

A small selection of the participating artists are here:

Jane Dickson. Motel 5, 2019. Acrylic on felt. Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Jane Dickson. Clockwise from top. Fascination Sign 1, 2020. Save Time, 2020. Motel 5, 2019. 99¢ Dreams, 2020. Big Terror, 2020. Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Dyani White Hawk. Wopila / Lineage, 2021. Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Alia Farid. Palm Orchard, 2020. Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Alia Farid. Palm Orchard, 2020. Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Charles Ray. Burger, 2021. Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Guadalupe Rosales. Clockwise from top left: Winter Solistice/Hazards, 2020. smok’d, 2022. shortcut, 2022. A night to remember, 2022. Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Rebecca Belmore. ishkode (fire), 2021. Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Rebecca Belmore. ishkode (fire), 2021. Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Andrew Roberts. CARGO: A certain doom, 2020. Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Andrew Roberts. CARGO: A certain doom, 2020. Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Andrew Roberts. La horda (The horde), 2020. Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Lisa Alvarado. Vibratory Cartography, 2021-2022. Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Rodney McMillian. Detail of column on the stairway. Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)
Rodney McMillian. Detail of column on the stairway. Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept. NYC. (photo © Jaime Rojo)

The Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept is currently on view at the Whitney Museum in NYC. Click HERE for tickets, hours and directions.

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