Learning Series Lecture: The Biennial as Snapshot and Legacy Sat, Mar 11, 2017, 11:30 am–12:30 pm

Learning Series Lecture: The Biennial as Snapshot and Legacy

Sat, Mar 11, 2017
11:30 am–12:30 pm

An installation of multimedia in a gallery.
An installation of multimedia in a gallery.

Jon Kessler, Exodus, 2016. Trunk, wood, aluminum, rubber wheel, found  figurines, iPhone with selfie stick, LCD  screen and motor, 81 x 47 x 66 in. (205.7 x 119.4 x 167.6 cm). Collection of the artist; courtesy Salon 94, New York. Photograph by Bill Orcutt

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Floor Three, Susan and John Hess Family Theater

Learning Series members in the Curate Your Own Membership program

In this talk, teaching fellow Erica Cooke will provide conceptual context for the Biennial by considering how the exhibition challenges artists, curators, and audiences to engage with the current moment and reckon with historical legacies. The 2017 Biennial, like the previous iterations of the exhibition, is both a snapshot of today and part of an ongoing trajectory: it is the seventy-eighth exhibition in the Whitney’s ongoing series of Biennials and Annuals, and each is situated within an institutional frame provided by the Museum’s collection and exhibitions. Cooke will trace a few salient institutional, sociopolitical, and artistic legacies, as well as explore how these histories might nourish or burden today’s artists. This will provide an entry point for understanding the key themes of this year’s Biennial, including the formation of self and the individual’s place in a turbulent society. 

Option 1: Saturday, March 11, 11:30 am–12:30 pm
Option 2: Sunday, April 2, 11 am–12 pm
Option 3: Thursday, May 11, 5:30–6:30 pm (sold out)
Option 4: Thursday, May 11, 7:30–8:30 pm

Individual and Dual Learning Series members are invited to this event: For Individual members, the invitation is for one; for Dual members, the invitation is for two. Registration instructions will be provided by email.

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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.