Biennial Exclusive with Gary Carrion-Murayari
Apr 19, 2010

Last Monday, YI Leaders got a special tour of the Biennial from one of the curators, Gary Carrion-Murayari. Gary took us through the whole exhibition and talked about a lot of the art and artists. So to keep this relatively short, I'll highlight a few of my favorites.  

We started our tour on the fourth floor, which opens with an installation by Piotr Uklanski, a Polish artist and Biennial newcomer. Gary explained how this piece was inspired by a movement in 1970s Poland where Polish women were returning to the use of textile work and fabrics traditionally associated with femininity. Uklanski's work pays homage to this movement in his use of these feminine, craft techniques. Gary also explained Uklanski's inspiration from theater and set design. In its use of fabric and drapery, this installation resembles a curtain at the theater, thus opening the curtain to the Biennial.       

Another highlight on the fourth floor was the gallery filled with drawings of brightly colored flowers and plants by Charles Ray. Ray has participated in five Whitney Biennials, including this one; more than any other current Biennial artist. Ray is best known for his sculpture, so his works on the fourth floor come as a surprise in both their medium and whimsical subject matter. Gary explained to us how Ray began working on these flower drawings originally as a study for another work, but he enjoyed it so much that he began to work on one every day.  

Like the fourth floor, the third floor opens with a larger-than -life piece: Pae White's stunning tapestry depicting plumes of smoke. White creates her tapestries by taking photographs and sending them away to be machine produced. Gary described how this year’s Biennial has been laid out so that most of the video works are concentrated on the third floor. We toured this floor comparatively quickly and moved on to the second floor.  

The second floor opens with two photographs by James Casebere. The photographs are of models he made of a suburban town, lit to represent different hours of the day. Gary described to us how each floor was roughly laid out according to loose thematic connections. The second floor features works relating to suburbia and everyday life in the United States.  

This past Saturday, we had our final film editing session for our documentaries, and they are finally complete! Everyone is invited to the Whitney this Friday, April 23 from 5-7pm for a film screening and gallery tours by your favorite YI Leaders.   

by Charlotte