Whitney Biennial 2017
Mar 17–June 11, 2017
The 2017 Whitney Biennial, the seventy-eighth installment of the longest-running survey of American art, arrives at a time rife with racial tensions, economic inequities, and polarizing politics. Throughout the exhibition, artists challenge us to consider how these realities affect our senses of self and community. The Biennial features sixty-three individuals and collectives whose work takes a wide variety of forms, from painting and installation to activism and video-game design.
Artists
1
Zarouhie Abdalian
Lives in New Orleans, LA
2
Basma Alsharif
Lives in Los Angeles, CA
3
Jo Baer
Lives in Amsterdam, Netherlands
4
Eric Baudelaire
Lives in Paris, France
5
Robert Beavers
Lives in Berlin, Germany and Falmouth, MA
6
Larry Bell
Lives in Taos, NM, and Los Angeles, CA
7
Matt Browning
Lives in Seattle, WA
8
Susan Cianciolo
Lives in Brooklyn, NY
9
Mary Helena Clark
Lives in Hamilton, NY
10
Raúl de Nieves
Lives in Brooklyn, NY
11
John Divola
Lives in Riverside, CA
12
Celeste Dupuy-Spencer
Lives in Los Angeles, CA
13
Rafa Esparza
Lives in Los Angeles, CA
14
Kevin Jerome Everson
Lives in Charlottesville, VA
15
GCC
Founded 2013
16
Oto Gillen
Lives in New York, NY
17
Samara Golden
Lives in Los Angeles, CA
18
Casey Gollan and Victoria Sobel
Born 1991 in Los Angeles, CA
Lives in New York, NY
Victoria Sobel
Born 1990 in Washington, DC
Lives in New York, NY
19
Irena Haiduk in collaboration with jesus.d and Daniel Sauter
20
Lyle Ashton Harris
Lives in New York, NY
21
Tommy Hartung
Lives in Queens, NY
22
Sky Hopinka
Lives in Milwaukee, WI
23
Shara Hughes
Lives in Brooklyn, NY
24
Aaron Flint Jamison
Lives in Portland, OR and Seattle, WA
25
KAYA
Founded 2010
26
Jon Kessler
Lives in New York, NY
27
Ajay Kurian
Lives in Brooklyn, NY
28
Deana Lawson
Lives in Brooklyn, NY
29
An-My Lê
Lives in Brooklyn, NY
30
Leigh Ledare
Lives in New York, NY
31
Dani Leventhal
Lives in Columbus, OH
32
Tala Madani
Lives in Los Angeles, CA
33
Park McArthur
Lives in New York, NY
34
Harold Mendez
Lives in Chicago, IL, and Los Angeles, CA
35
Carrie Moyer
Lives in Brooklyn, NY
36
Ulrike Müller
Lives in Brooklyn, NY
37
Beatriz Santiago Muñoz
Lives in San Juan, PR
38
Julien Nguyen
Lives in Los Angeles, CA
39
Tuan Andrew Nguyen
Lives in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
40
Aliza Nisenbaum
Lives in Brooklyn, NY
41
Occupy Museums
Founded 2011
42
Pope.L aka William Pope.L
Lives in Chicago, IL
43
Porpentine Charity Heartscape
Lives in Oakland, CA
44
Postcommodity
Founded 2007
45
Puppies Puppies
Lives in Roswell, NM
46
Asad Raza
Lives in New York, NY
47
Jessi Reaves
Lives in Brooklyn, NY
48
John Riepenhoff
Lives in Milwaukee, WI
49
Chemi Rosado-Seijo
Lives in San Juan and Naranjito, PR
50
Cameron Rowland
Lives in Queens, NY
51
Dana Schutz
Lives in Brooklyn, NY
52
Cauleen Smith
Lives in Chicago, IL
53
Frances Stark
Lives in Los Angeles, CA
54
Maya Stovall
Lives in Detroit, MI
55
Henry Taylor
Lives in Los Angeles, CA
56
Leslie Thornton and James Richards
Born 1951 in Oak Ridge, TN
Lives in Brooklyn, NY
James Richards
Born 1983 in Cardiff, United Kingdom
Lives in Berlin, Germany, and London, United Kingdom
57
Torey Thornton
Lives in Brooklyn, NY
58
Kaari Upson
Lives in Los Angeles, CA
59
Kamasi Washington
Lives in Los Angeles, CA
60
Leilah Weinraub
Lives in Los Angeles, CA and New York, NY
61
James N. Kienitz Wilkins
Lives in Brooklyn, NY
62
Jordan Wolfson
Lives in New York, NY
63
Anicka Yi
Lives in Queens, NY
Events
View all-
Thurs,
Oct 19Pope.L in Conversation with Christopher Y. Lew
6:30–8 pm
-
Mon,
Sept 18Learning Series Lecture: Participation/Occupation/Belonging
5:30–6:30 pm
-
Sun,
July 30Learning Series Lecture: Participation/Occupation/Belonging
4:30–5:30 pm
-
Sun,
July 9Asad Raza’s Weekend Guests: Manthia Diawara
2–3:30 pm
-
Sat,
July 8Asad Raza’s Weekend Guests: Jennifer Jacquet
2–3:30 pm
-
Sun,
June 25Asad Raza’s Weekend Guests: Nikima Jagudajev
10:30 am–6 pm
Audio guides
Hear directly from artists and curators on selected works from the exhibition.
View guideFilm Program
For ten consecutive weekends, the Biennial film program will present new moving image works in the Susan and John Hess Family Theater. At once radical and quiet, global and intimate, the selected works explore subjective and affective experiences of the contemporary political and social moment. Reflecting on the urgent themes seen in the exhibition, the film program features some of the most exciting voices working in moving image today.
Each Sunday at 3 pm, the artists will be present for a screening and conversation.
Exhibition Catalogue
The catalogue for the 2017 Biennial features texts and images representing the participants, artists who work in a variety of media including painting, sculpture, photography, film, and performance, as well as essays by the two curators and contributions by the advisors. As a record of the artists and ideas presented in this year’s Biennial, it serves as an essential resource on current trends in contemporary art in the United States.
Read an excerpt from the catalogue
Buy now
Explore works from this exhibition
in the Whitney's collection
View 38 works
In the News
“This exhibition makes an exciting, powerful case for art.”
—The New York Times
“Presenting a mélange of American perspectives, the biennial succeeds in keeping a finger on the pulse of a divisive and diverse cultural landscape.”
—Apollo Magazine
“The 2017 Whitney Biennial is the best of its kind in some time.”
—New York Magazine
“A must-see exhibition for anyone interested in contemporary art, a snapshot of American creativity and sometimes American culture.”
—PBS
“Everything had to be reinvented for the 2017 Whitney Biennial . . . But then, this leading showcase of contemporary American art feels refreshed in other ways, too.”
—The New York Times
“The Whitney revealed the 63 participants in its sprawling survey of what’s happening now in contemporary art—the new, the influential and the potentially provocative.”
—The New York Times
“The 2017 Whitney Biennial Will Feature Edgy, Trending Artists in ‘Turbulent’ Times”
—artnet News
“The Whitney Biennial, inaugurated by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney in 1932, still stands out as the pre-eminent biennial in this country.”
—The New York Times
More About the Exhibition
The formation of self and the individual’s place in a turbulent society are among the key themes reflected in the work of the artists selected for the 2017 Whitney Biennial. The exhibition includes sixty-three participants, ranging from emerging to well-established individuals and collectives working in painting, sculpture, drawing, installation, film and video, photography, activism, performance, music, and video game design.
The Whitney Biennial is the longest running survey of contemporary art in the United States, with a history of exhibiting the most promising and influential artists and provoking lively debate. The 2017 Biennial is the Museum’s seventy-eighth in a continuous series of Annual and Biennial exhibitions initiated by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney in 1932. It is the first to be held in the Whitney’s downtown home at 99 Gansevoort Street, and the largest ever in terms of gallery space.
The 2017 Whitney Biennial is co-curated by Christopher Y. Lew and Mia Locks.
The film program is organized by Christopher Y. Lew, Mia Locks, and Aily Nash.
Read more about the 2017 Biennial curators and advisors.
Pope.L is the recipient of the 2017 Bucksbaum Award.
Whitney Biennial 2017 is presented by
Major support is provided by
Major support is also provided by The Brown Foundation, Inc., of Houston and the National Committee of the Whitney Museum of American Art.
Significant support is provided by the Philip and Janice Levin Foundation.
Generous support is provided by 2017 Biennial Committee Co-Chairs: Leslie Bluhm, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Bob Gersh, and Miyoung Lee; 2017 Biennial Committee members: Ashley Leeds and Christopher Harland, Diane and Adam E. Max, Teresa Tsai, Suzanne and Bob Cochran, Rebecca and Martin Eisenberg, Amanda and Glenn Fuhrman, Barbara and Michael Gamson, Kourosh Larizadeh and Luis Pardo, Iris Z. Marden, Artur Melentin, Tracy and Gary Mezzatesta, and Jackson Tang; the Henry Peterson Foundation; and anonymous donors.
Additional support provided by the Austrian Federal Chancellery and Phileas – A Fund for Contemporary Art.
Funding is also provided by special Biennial endowments created by Melva Bucksbaum, Emily Fisher Landau, Leonard A. Lauder, and Fern and Lenard Tessler.
Additional endowment support is provided by The Keith Haring Foundation Exhibition Fund, Donna Perret Rosen and Benjamin M. Rosen, and the Jon and Mary Shirley Foundation.
Curatorial research and travel for this exhibition were funded by an endowment established by Rosina Lee Yue and Bert A. Lies, Jr., MD.
New York magazine is the exclusive media sponsor of Whitney Biennial 2017.
More from this series
Learn more about the Whitney Biennial, the longest-running survey of American art.