Whitney Biennial 2014

Mar 7–May 25, 2014

The 2014 Whitney Biennial will take a bold new form as three curators from outside the Museum—Stuart Comer (Chief Curator of Media and Performance Art at MoMA), Anthony Elms (Associate Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia), and Michelle Grabner (artist and Professor in the Painting and Drawing Department at the School of the Art Institute, Chicago)—each oversee one floor, representing a range of geographic vantages and curatorial methodologies. 

Donna De Salvo, Chief Curator and Deputy Director for Programs at the Whitney, noted: “The 2014 Biennial brings together the findings of three curators with very distinct points of view. There is little overlap in the artists they have selected and yet there is common ground. This can be seen in their choice of artists working in interdisciplinary ways, artists working collectively, and artists from a variety of generations. Together, the 103 participants offer one of the broadest and most diverse takes on art in the United States that the Whitney has offered in many years.”

This Biennial will be the last to take place in the Whitney Museum of American Art’s building at 945 Madison Avenue at 75th Street before the Museum moves downtown to its new building in the spring of 2015. This is the 77th in the Museum’s ongoing series of Annuals and Biennials begun in 1932 by Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney.

Whitney curators Elisabeth Sussman and Jay Sanders, who organized the widely acclaimed 2012 Biennial, will advise on the exhibition.

Sponsored in part by

and 

Major support is provided by

Generous support is provided by The Brown Foundation, Inc.; The Keith Haring Foundation; Anne Cox Chambers; and anonymous donors.

Additional support is provided by 2014 Biennial Committee Chairs: Beth Rudin DeWoody and Rebecca and Marty Eisenberg, 2014 Biennial Committee members: Jill and Darius Bikoff, John J. Studzinski CBE, Philip Aarons and Shelley Fox Aarons, James Keith Brown and Eric Diefenbach, Glenn and Amanda Fuhrman, Barbara and Michael Gamson, Jill and Peter Kraus, Diane and Adam E. Max, and Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein; and the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Funding for the 2014 Biennial is also provided by endowments created by Melva Bucksbaum, Emily Fisher Landau, and Leonard A. Lauder.

Support for the digital Whitney Guide, a Windows Phone app created exclusively for the 2014 Whitney Biennial, is provided by Microsoft.

Events

View all

Audio guides

Hear directly from artists as they talk about the thoughts, processes, and ideas behind their work in the 2014 Whitney Biennial.

View guide

Biennial Artist Zoe Leonard Receives the 2014 Bucksbaum Award

Read More

Exhibition Catalogue

Whitney Biennial 2014 serves as a record of this historic exhibition, featuring the work of almost 100 artists working in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, photography, film, dance, and performance. Divided into three distinct sections presenting each curator’s unique perspective, this superb resource features specially commissioned texts alongside curatorial essays and unique visual content prepared by the Biennial participants.

This catalogue is no longer available at the Museum shop.

Explore works from this exhibition
in the Whitney's collection

View 13 works

In the News

"State of Our Art, According to Whitney: A Guide to the 2014 Whitney Museum Biennial"
—The New York Times

"Still Sensing the Presence of a Departed Composer: Robert Ashley’s Work Lives On at the Whitney Biennial"
—The New York Times

"Take Ecstasy With Me, A Tribute to Jose Esteban Munoz"
—Huffington Post

"Whitney Biennial Goes Big with 3 Curators, 103 Participants"
—Gotham Magazine

"The 2014 Whitney Biennial Is Taking Shape"
—The New York Times

"10 Things the 2014 Whitney Biennial List Tells Us"
—Artspace

More from this series

Learn more about the Whitney Biennial, the longest-running survey of American art.

On the Hour

A 30-second online art project:
Maya Man, A Realistic Day In My Life Living In New York City

Learn more about this project

Learn more at whitney.org/artport

On the Hour projects can contain motion and sound. To respect your accessibility settings autoplay is disabled.