Whitney Biennial / March 2024: Artists / Film Artists / Performance Artists Announced

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ARTISTS ANNOUNCED FOR WHITNEY BIENNIAL 2024:

EVEN BETTER THAN THE REAL THING

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NEW YORK, NY, January 25, 2024 — 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.

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Tickets On Sale
Starting January 25, visitors can purchase timed tickets for Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than The Real Thing, which opens March 20, 2024. More ticketing information is available on the Museum’s website.

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Catalogue
Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing is accompanied by a 284-page exhibition catalogue published by the Whitney and distributed by Yale University Press. Edited by Chrissie Iles and Meg Onli, the catalogue features insightful essays by Iles, Onli, Eva Hayward, and Amber Jamilla Musser, along with a conversation among Iles, Onli, and Gregg Bordowitz and a foreword by Scott Rothkopf. Anaïs Duplan, Almudena Escobar López, Mariana Fernandez, Josie Roland Hodson, Tausif Noor, and Yasmina Price contributed entries on the work of each artist in the exhibition. An innovative format allows readers to engage with the book’s text from one side or immerse themselves in a generously illustrated section of full-page reproductions from the other side. The catalogue was designed by River Jukes-Hudson and Stephen Serrato of ELLA in Los Angeles. Copies will be available for purchase in the Whitney Shop, online, and at bookstores ($50).

Free Public Programs
A series of free virtual and in-person programs are offered in conjunction with Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing. More information about these programs and how to register will be available on the Museum’s website as details are confirmed.

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THE WHITNEY BIENNIAL

A constellation of the most relevant art and ideas of our time, the Whitney Biennial showcases contemporary artists working across media and disciplines, representing evolving notions of American art. Established by the Museum’s founder, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, in 1932, the Whitney Biennial is the longest-running survey of American art. More than 3,600 artists have participated to date, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Frank Bowling, Mark Bradford, Alexander Calder, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Raven Chacon, Ellen Gallagher, Jeffrey Gibson, Nan Goldin, Renee Green, Wade Guyton, Rachel Harrison, Jenny Holzer, Edward Hopper, Joan Jonas, Ellsworth Kelly, Mike Kelley, Willem de Kooning, Barbara Kruger, Pope. L, Jacob Lawrence, Carolyn Lazard, Zoe Leonard, Roy Lichtenstein, Glenn Ligon, Agnes Martin, Daniel Joseph Martinez, Julie Mehretu, Sarah Michelson, Joan Mitchell, Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Georgia O’Keeffe, Claes Oldenburg, Laura Owens, Jackson Pollock, Postcommodity, Yvonne Rainer, Robert Rauschenberg, Cindy Sherman, Lorna Simpson, Martine Syms, Wu Tsang, Cy Twombly, Kara Walker, Andy Warhol, and David Wojnarowicz.

The 2024 Whitney Biennial is organized by Chrissie Iles and Meg Onli, with Min Sun Jeon and Beatriz Cifuentes. The performance program is organized by Chrissie Iles and Meg Onli, with guest curator Taja Cheek. The film program is organized by Chrissie Iles and Meg Onli, with guest curators Korakrit Arunanondchai, asinnajaq, Greg de Cuir Jr, and Zackary Drucker.

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THE WHITNEY

The Whitney Museum of American Art, founded in 1930 by the artist and philanthropist Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), houses the foremost collection of American art from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Mrs. Whitney, an early and ardent supporter of modern American art, nurtured groundbreaking artists when audiences were still largely preoccupied with the Old Masters. From her vision arose the Whitney Museum of American Art, which has been championing the most innovative art of the United States for ninety years. The core of the Whitney’s mission is to collect, preserve, interpret, and exhibit American art of our time and serve a wide variety of audiences in celebration of the complexity and diversity of art and culture in the United States. Through this mission and a steadfast commitment to artists, the Whitney has long been a powerful force in support of modern and contemporary art and continues to help define what is innovative and influential in American art today.

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Whitney Museum Land Acknowledgment
The Whitney is located in Lenapehoking, the ancestral homeland of the Lenape. The name Manhattan comes from their word Mannahatta, meaning “island of many hills.” The Museum’s current site is close to land that was a Lenape fishing and planting site called Sapponckanikan (“tobacco field”). The Whitney acknowledges the displacement of this region’s original inhabitants and the Lenape diaspora that exists today.

As a museum of American art in a city with vital and diverse communities of Indigenous people, the Whitney recognizes the historical exclusion of Indigenous artists from its collection and program. The Museum is committed to addressing these erasures and honoring the perspectives of Indigenous artists and communities as we work for a more equitable future. To read more about the Museum’s Land Acknowledgment, visit the Museum’s website.

VISITOR INFORMATION

The Whitney Museum of American Art is located at 99 Gansevoort Street between Washington and West Streets, New York City. Public hours are Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, 10:30 am–6 pm; Friday, 10:30 am–10 pm; and Saturday and Sunday, 10:30 am–6 pm. Closed Tuesday. Visitors eighteen years and under and Whitney members: FREE. The Museum offers FREE admission and special programming for visitors of all ages every Friday evening from 5–10 pm and on the second Sunday of every month.

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Whitney Museum of American Art
99 Gansevoort Street New York, NY 10014
whitney.org