The 2019 edition of the Whitney Biennial opened to press this morning, with work on offer from 75 artists. While there was no work that seems likely to generate the controversy of 2017’s now-infamous Dana Schutz painting, the show arrives amid protests concerning the museum’s vice chair, Warren B. Kanders, who leads a company that produces tear gas canisters that have been used against asylum seekers at the U.S.-Mexico Border. One work, a newly commissioned piece by Forensic Architecture directly addresses the issue, but overall the works are perhaps tamer than one might expect for 2019. Below, a look at some of the highlights from the show. Elsewhere on ARTnews, a review of the exhibition by Andrew Russeth.
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Daniel Lind-Ramos, Maria-Maria, 2019, in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York.
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Gala Porras-Kim, La Mojarra Stela and its shapes, in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York.
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Todd Gray, Euclidean Gris Gris 2, 2018, in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York.
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Forensic Architecture, Triple Chaser, 2019, in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York.
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Marlon Mullen, Untitled, 2018, in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York.
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Nicole Eisenman, Procession, 2019, in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York.
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Watercolors by Kota Ezawa, in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York.
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Pat Phillips, The Farm, 2018, in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York.
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Tiona Nekkia McClodden, I prayed to the wrong god for you, 2019, in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York.
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Photographs by Elle Pérez, in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York.
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Jeffrey Gibson, PEOPLE LIKE US, 2019, in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York.
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Christine Sun Kim, Degrees of Deaf Rage Concerning Interpreters (terps), , in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York.
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Agustina Woodgate, National Times, 2016/19, in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York.
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Peter Tomka, Friday, May 25, 2018, was produced in collaboration with Paul Mpagi Sepuya, in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York.
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Installation view of the 2019 Whitney Biennial, with Simone Leigh's sculpture Stick, 2019, and Janiva Ellis's painting Uh Oh, Look Who Got Wet, 2019, at Whitney Museum, New York.
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Performance view of Brendan Fernandes, The Master and Form, 2018/19, in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York.
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Eric N. Mack, Proposition: for wet Gee's Bend Quilts to replace the American flag—Permanently., 2019, in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York.
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Josh Kline, Front Desk, Twitter Headquarters, San Francisco, 2019, in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York.
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Works by John Edmonds, in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York.
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Ellie Ga, Gyres 1 - 3, 2019, in the 2019 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum, New York.