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An animated gif reading Whitney Biennial in different colors
An animated gif reading Whitney Biennial in different colors

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.


2014 Biennial Artists

Academy Records and Matt Hanner
Founded 2000; based in Chicago, IL
Matt Hanner: born 1971 in Columbus, OH;
died 2011 in Porter, IN

Terry Adkins
Born 1953 in Washington, DC
Died 2014 in Brooklyn, NY

Etel Adnan
Born 1925 in Beirut, Lebanon
Lives and works in Sausalito, CA, and Paris, France

Alma Allen
Born 1970 in Heber City, UT
Lives and works in Joshua Tree, CA

Ei Arakawa and Carissa Rodriguez
Arakawa: Born 1977 in Fukushima, Japan
Rodriguez: Born 1970 in New York, NY
Live and work in New York, NY

Uri Aran
Born 1977 in Jerusalem, Israel
Lives and works in New York, NY

Robert Ashley and Alex Waterman
Ashley: Born 1930 in Ann Arbor, MI
Died 2014 in New York, NY
Waterman: Born 1975 in Portsmouth, VA
Lives and works in New York, NY

Michel Auder
Born 1945 in Soissons, France
Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY

Lisa Anne Auerbach
Born 1967 in Ann Arbor, MI
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA

Julie Ault
Born 1957 in Boston, MA
Lives and works in Joshua Tree, CA and New York, NY

Darren Bader
Born 1978 in Bridgeport, CT
Lives and works in New York, NY

Kevin Beasley
Born 1985 in Lynchburg, VA
Lives and works in New York, NY

Gretchen Bender
Born 1951 in Seaford, DE
Died 2004 in New York, NY

Stephen Berens 
Born 1952 in Fort Collins, CO
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA

Dawoud Bey
Born 1953 in Queens, NY
Lives and works in Chicago, IL

Jennifer Bornstein
Born 1970 in Seattle, WA
Lives and works in New York, NY, and Berlin, Germany

Andrew Bujalski
Born 1977 in Boston, MA
Lives and works in Austin, TX

Elijah Burgher
Born 1978 in Kingston, NY
Lives and works in Chicago, IL

Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel, and Sensory Ethnography Lab
Castaing-Taylor: Born 1966 in Liverpool, UK
Paravel: Born 1971 in Neuchâtel, Switzerland
Live and work in Boston, MA, and Paris, France
Sensory Ethnography Lab founded by Lucien Castaing-Taylor in 2006

Sarah Charlesworth 
Born 1947 in East Orange, NJ
Died 2013 in Hartford, CT

Critical Practices Inc.
Founded in 2010; based in New York, NY

Matthew Deleget
Born 1972 in Hammond, IN
Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY

David Diao
Born 1943 in Chengdu, Sichuan, China
Lives and works in New York, NY

Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst
Drucker: Born 1983 in Syracuse, NY
Ernst: Born 1982 in Pomona, CA
Live and work in Los Angeles, CA

Paul Druecke
Born 1964 in Milwaukee, WI
Lives and works in Milwaukee, WI

Jimmie Durham
Born 1940 in Washington, AR
Lives and works in Berlin, Germany

Rochelle Feinstein
Born 1947 in New York, NY
Lives and works in New York, NY

Radamés “Juni” Figueroa
Born 1982 in Bayamón, Puerto Rico
Lives and works in San Juan, Puerto Rico

Morgan Fisher
Born 1942 in Washington, DC
Lives and works in Santa Monica, CA

Louise Fishman
Born 1939 in Philadelphia, PA
Lives and works in New York, NY

Victoria Fu
Born 1978 in Santa Monica, CA
Lives and works in San Diego, CA, and Los Angeles, CA

Gaylen Gerber with David Hammons, Sherrie Levine, and Trevor Shimizu
Gerber: Born 1955 in McAllen, TX;
lives and works in Chicago, IL
Hammons: Born 1943 in Springfield, IL;
lives and works in New York, NY
Levine: Born 1947 in Hazelton, PA;
lives and works in New York, NY
Shimizu: Born 1978 in Hawaii;
lives and works in New York, NY

Jeff Gibson
Born 1958 in Brisbane, Australia
Lives and works in New York, NY

Tony Greene curated by Richard Hawkins and Catherine Opie
Born 1955 in San Francisco, CA
Died 1990 in Los Angeles, CA

Joseph Grigely
Born 1956 in East Longmeadow, MA
Lives and works in Chicago, IL

Miguel Gutierrez
Born 1971 in Flushing, NY
Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY

Karl Haendel
Born 1976 in New York, NY
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA

Philip Hanson
Born 1943 in Chicago, IL
Lives and works in Chicago, IL

Jonn Herschend
Born 1967 in Branson, MO
Lives and works in San Francisco, CA

Sheila Hicks
Born 1934 in Hastings, NE
Lives and works in New York, NY, and Paris, France

Channa Horwitz
Born 1932 in Los Angeles, CA
Died 2013 in Los Angeles, CA

HOWDOYOUSAYYAMINAFRICAN?
A global collective; founded in 2013

Susan Howe
Born 1937 in Boston, MA
Lives and works in Guilford, CT

Jacqueline Humphries 
Born 1960 in New Orleans, LA
Lives and works in New York, NY

Gary Indiana
Born 1950 in Derry, NH
Lives and works in New York, NY, and Los Angeles, CA

Doug Ischar
Born 1948 in Honolulu, Hawaii
Lives and works in Chicago, IL, and Los Angeles, CA

Carol Jackson
Born 1962 in Los Angeles, CA
Lives and works in Chicago, IL

Travis Jeppesen
Born 1979 in Ft. Lauderdale, FL
Lives and works in London, England, and Berlin, Germany

Alex Jovanovich
Born 1975 in Hobart, Indiana
Lives and works in Bronx, NY

Angie Keefer
Born 1977 in Huntsville, AL
Lives and works in Hudson, NY

Ben Kinmont
Born 1963 in Burlington, VT
Lives and works in Sebastopol, CA

Shio Kusaka
Born 1972 in Japan
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA

Yve Laris Cohen
Born 1985 in San Diego, CA
Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY

Chris Larson
Born 1966 in St. Paul, MN
Lives and works in St. Paul, MN

Diego Leclery 
Born 1978 in Boulogne-Billancourt, France
Lives and works in New York, NY

Zoe Leonard
Born 1961 in Liberty, NY
Lives and works in New York, NY

Tony Lewis
Born 1986 in Los Angeles, CA
Lives and works in Chicago, IL

Pam Lins 
Born in Lake Forest, IL
Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY

Fred Lonidier
Born 1942 in Lakeview, OR
Lives and works in San Diego, CA

Ken Lum
Born 1956 in Vancouver, Canada
Lives and works in Vancouver and Philadelphia, PA

Shana Lutker
Born 1978 in Northport, NY
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA

Dashiell Manley
Born 1983 in Fontana, CA
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA

John Mason
Born 1927 in Madrid, NE
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA

Keith Mayerson
Born 1966 in Cincinnati, OH
Lives and works in New York, NY

Suzanne McClelland
Born 1959 in Jacksonville, FL
Lives and works in New York, NY

Dave McKenzie
Born 1977 in Kingston, Jamaica
Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY

Bjarne Melgaard
Born 1967 in Sydney, Australia
Lives and works in New York, NY

Rebecca Morris
Born 1969 in Honolulu, Hawaii
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA

Joshua Mosley
Born 1974 in Dallas, TX
Lives and works in Philadelphia, PA

My Barbarian (Malik Gaines, Jade Gordon and Alexandro Segade) 
Founded in 2000; based in New York, NY, and Los Angeles, CA

Dona Nelson
Born 1947 in Grand Island, NE
Lives and works in Lansdale, PA, and New York, NY

Ken Okiishi
Born 1978 in Ames, IA
Lives and works in New York, NY, and Berlin, Germany

Pauline Oliveros
Born 1932 in Houston, TX
Lives and works in Kingston, NY

Joel Otterson
Born 1959 in Los Angeles, CA
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA

Laura Owens
Born 1970 in Euclid, OH
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA

Paul P.
Born 1977 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada
Lives and works in New York, NY, and Paris, France

taisha paggett
Born 1976 in Fresno, CA
Lives and works in Chicago, IL, and Los Angeles, CA

Charlemagne Palestine
Born 1947 in Brooklyn, NY
Lives and works in Brussels, Belgium

Public Collectors
Founded in 2007; based in Chicago, IL

Sara Greenberger Rafferty
Born 1978 in Evanston, IL
Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY

Steve Reinke with Jessie Mott
Reinke: Born 1963 in Eganville, Ontario, Canada
Mott: Born 1980 in New York, NY
Live and work in Chicago, IL

David Robbins
Born 1957 in Whitefish Bay, WI
Lives and works in Shorewood, WI

Sterling Ruby
Born 1972 in Bitburg, Germany
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA

Miljohn Ruperto
Born 1971 in Manila, Philippines
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA

Jacolby Satterwhite
Born 1986 in Columbia, SC
Lives and works in New York, NY

Peter Schuyff 
Born 1958 in Baarn, Netherlands
Lives and works in Amsterdam, Netherlands

Allan Sekula
Born 1951 in Erie, PA
Died 2013 in Los Angeles, CA

Semiotext(e)
Founded in 1974; based in Los Angeles, CA

Amy Sillman
Born 1955 in Detroit, MI
Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY

Valerie Snobeck and Catherine Sullivan
Snobeck: Born 1980 in Wadena, MN;
lives and works in New York, NY
Sullivan: Born 1968 in Los Angeles, CA;
lives and works in Chicago, IL

A.L. Steiner
Born 1967 in Miami, FL
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA

Emily Sundblad
Born 1977 in Dalsjöfors, Sweden
Lives and works in New York, NY

Ricky Swallow
Born 1974 in San Remo, Australia
Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA

Tony Tasset
Born 1960 in Cincinnati, OH
Lives and works in Chicago, IL

Sergei Tcherepnin
Born 1981 in Watertown, MA
Lives and works in New York, NY

Triple Canopy
Founded in 2007; based in Brooklyn, NY

Philip Vanderhyden
Born 1978 in Menasha, WI
Lives and works in New York, NY

Pedro Vélez
Born 1973 in Bayamón, Puerto Rico
Lives and works in Chicago, IL, and Milwaukee, WI

Charline von Heyl
Born 1960 in Mainz, Germany
Lives and works in New York, NY

David Foster Wallace
Born 1962 in Ithaca, NY
Died 2008 in Claremont, CA

Dan Walsh
Born 1960 in Philadelphia, PA
Lives and works in New York, NY

Donelle Woolford
Born 1977 in Conyers, GA
Lives and works in New York, NY

Molly Zuckerman-Hartung
Born 1975 in Los Gatos, CA
Lives and works in Chicago, IL


More from this series

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

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Whitney Stories

Audio Guides

Hear directly from artists as they discuss the thoughts, processes, and ideas behind their work in the 2014 Biennial. The guide also features commentary from Biennial curators Stuart Comer, Anthony Elms, and Michelle Grabner.

Listen now

Installation Photography

A gallery filled with works of art.

Installation view of the Whitney Biennial 2014 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, March 7–May 25, 2014). Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins

A gallery filled with works of art.
A gallery filled with works of art.

Installation view of the Whitney Biennial 2014 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, March 7–May 25, 2014). Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins

A gallery filled with works of art.
A gallery filled with works of art.

Installation view of the Whitney Biennial 2014 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, March 7–May 25, 2014). Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins

A gallery filled with works of art.
A gallery filled with works of art.

Installation view of the Whitney Biennial 2014 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, March 7–May 25, 2014). Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins

A gallery filled with works of art.
A gallery filled with works of art.

Installation view of the Whitney Biennial 2014 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, March 7–May 25, 2014). Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins

A gallery filled with works of art.

Installation view of the Whitney Biennial 2014 (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, March 7–May 25, 2014). Photograph by Sheldan C. Collins

BIENNIAL ARTIST ZOE LEONARD RECEIVES THE 2014 BUCKSBAUM AWARD

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Curatorial Statements

Anthony Elms
Second Floor

If the Whitney Biennial is a snapshot of American art at this moment, and if any intimate encounter with American art at this moment must be mediated (as all intimacies these days are), then Marcel Breuer’s museum building here at 945 Madison Avenue is a well-disposed mediation for capturing twenty-four scenes of America. In assembling the artistsand groups I tried to answer a question of Breuer’s from his notes on the building: “What should a museum look like, a museum in Manhattan?”

I looked to answer Breuer’s question with twenty-four artists and groups that fit a statement by poet Susan Howe: “I believed in an American aesthetic of uncertainty that could represent beauty in syllables so scarce and rushed they would appear to expand though they lay half-smothered in local history.” In part because, given the sprawl, assembling an overview of American art these days is a fool’s errand—America is constant expansion. And because, to paraphrase a position declared by musician Mayo Thompson: I try for timeliness, while reserving the right to ask my own dumb questions. After all, it is always preferable to make time rather than to mark time.

Artists Selected by Anthony Elms

On the Second Floor
Academy Records and Matt Hanner
Terry Adkins
Michel Auder
Elijah Burgher
Jimmie Durham
Joseph Grigely
Susan Howe
Gary Indiana
Carol Jackson
Dave McKenzie
Rebecca Morris
My Barbarian
Paul P.
Public Collectors
Steve Reinke with Jessie Mott
Allan Sekula
Valerie Snobeck and Catherine Sullivan
Charline von Heyl

In Other Locations
Academy Records and Matt Hanner
Robert Ashley and Alex Waterman
Miguel Gutierrez
Gary Indiana
Angie Keefer
Zoe Leonard
My Barbarian
taisha paggett
Charlemagne Palestine

Stuart Comer
Third Floor

How to define “American” in a survey of contemporary American art, especially one with as much history behind it as the Whitney Biennial, is a question that has often challenged, even vexed, curators. As an American who has spent much of the last thirteen years in the United Kingdom, I have been compelled by artists whose work is as hybrid as the significant global, environmental, and technological shifts reshaping the United States. The work I have brought together for the Biennial reflects this, whether through complex relationships between linguistic and visual forms; the interface of digital technologies with more traditional media, and the recorded past with the lived moment; the development of two-dimensional scores, scripts, and patterns into three- or even four-dimensional actions and environments; the challenging of binary conventions of gender; or the intricacy of cosmopolitan, cross-national identities. Ideas about migration and movement are raised here too, as are those related to a position (geographic or otherwise) at a kind of periphery, off the mainland so to speak. The surfaces and spaces of the gallery respond in kind, playing multiple roles—from white cube to theater to cinema to publishing forum, and sometimes all of these at once.

Artists Selected by Stuart Comer


On the Third Floor
Etel Adnan
Ei Arakawa and Carissa Rodriguez
Uri Aran
Lisa Anne Auerbach
Julie Ault
Kevin Beasley
Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel
Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst
Morgan Fisher
Tony Greene curated by Richard Hawkins and Catherine Opie
Channa Horwitz
Travis Jeppesen
Yve Laris Cohen
Fred Lonidier
Dashiell Manley
Keith Mayerson
Bjarne Melgaard
Ken Okiishi
Miljohn Ruperto
Jacolby Satterwhite
Semiotext(e)
A. L. Steiner
Triple Canopy

In Other Locations
Kevin Beasley
Andrew Bujalski
Lucien Castaing-Taylor, Véréna Paravel, and Sensory Ethnography Lab
Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst
Radamés “Juni” Figueroa
Pauline Oliveros
Sergei Tcherepnin

Michelle Grabner
Fourth Floor

Although it may be far-reaching to think that a Whitney Biennial could be organized as a curriculum for other artists, aiming at pedagogy seemed a worthy ambition. Not because I am an artist and a teacher, nor because I sought to create a democratic survey, but because I didn’t want the frame that the viewer will look through to be a purely subjective take on contemporary American art. Instead, I developed a fourth-floor curriculum that presents identifiable themes, generalities even, that are currently established in the textures of contemporary aesthetic, political, and economic realities. Within this curriculum, contours can be drawn around three overlapping priorities: contemporary abstract painting by women; materiality and affect theory; and art as strategy—in other words, conceptual practices oriented toward criticality. Theoretically, the works that I included will each demand from the viewer a varied network of analysis.

Artists Selected by Michelle Grabner

On the Fourth Floor
Alma Allen
Gretchen Bender
Stephen Berens
Dawoud Bey
Jennifer Bornstein
Sarah Charlesworth
David Diao
Louise Fishman
Gaylen Gerber with Sherrie Levine, David Hammons, and Trevor Shimizu
Karl Haendel
Philip Hanson
Sheila Hicks
Jacqueline Humphries
Ben Kinmont
Shio Kusaka
Chris Larson
Tony Lewis
Pam Lins
Ken Lum
Shana Lutker
John Mason
Suzanne McClelland
Joshua Mosley
Dona Nelson
Joel Otterson
Laura Owens
David Robbins
Sterling Ruby
Peter Schuyff
Amy Sillman
Ricky Swallow
Philip Vanderhyden
David Foster Wallace
Dan Walsh
Donelle Woolford
Molly Zuckerman-Hartung

In Other Locations
Darren Bader
Critical Practices Inc.
Matthew Deleget
Paul Druecke
Rochelle Feinstein
Victoria Fu
Jeff Gibson
Jonn Herschend
HOWDOYOUSAYYAMINAFRICAN?
Doug Ischar
Alex Jovanovich
Ben Kinmont
Chris Larson
Diego Leclery
Sara Greenberger Rafferty
Emily Sundblad
Tony Tasset
Pedro Vélez
Donelle Woolford



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


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