Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing

Mar 20–Aug 11, 2024

The eighty-first edition of the Whitney Biennial—the longest-running survey of contemporary art in the United States—features seventy-one artists and collectives grappling with many of today’s most pressing issues. This Biennial is like being inside a “dissonant chorus," as participating artist Ligia Lewis described it, a provocative yet intimate experience of distinct and disparate voices that collectively probe the cracks and fissures of the unfolding moment.

The exhibition’s subtitle, Even Better Than the Real Thing, acknowledges that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is complicating our understanding of what is real, and rhetoric around gender and authenticity is being used politically and legally to perpetuate transphobia and restrict bodily autonomy. These developments are part of a long history of deeming people of marginalized race, gender, and ability as subhuman—less than real. In making this exhibition, we committed to amplifying the voices of artists who are confronting these legacies, and to providing a space where difficult ideas can be engaged and considered.

This Biennial is a gathering of artists who explore the permeability of the relationships between mind and body, the fluidity of identity, and the growing precariousness of the natural and constructed worlds around us. Whether through subversive humor, expressive abstraction, or non-Western forms of cosmological thinking, to name but a few of their methods, these artists demonstrate that there are pathways to be found, strategies of coping and healing to be discovered, and ways to come together even in a fractured time.

The 2024 Whitney Biennial is organized by Chrissie Iles, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Curator and Meg Onli, Curator at Large, with Min Sun Jeon and Beatriz Cifuentes. The performance program is organized by Iles and Onli, with guest curator Taja Cheek. The film program is organized by Iles and Onli, with guest curators Korakrit Arunanondchai, asinnajaq, Greg de Cuir Jr, and Zackary Drucker.

View the film and performance program

Review accessibility information before visiting the 2024 Whitney Biennial.


En español

Bienal del Whitney 2024: Aún mejor que la real

La octogésima primera edición de la Bienal del Whitney, la muestra de arte contemporáneo de mayor duración en los Estados Unidos, presenta a setenta y un artistas y dos colectivos que abordan muchos de los temas actuales urgentes. Desde el comienzo buscamos organizar una Bienal que se sintiera como estar dentro de un “coro disonante”, según lo describió Ligia Lewis, una de las artistas participantes; una experiencia provocadora e íntima a la vez, de voces distintas y dispares que colectivamente exploran las grietas y fisuras del momento que estamos viviendo.

El subtítulo de la exhibición: Aún mejor que la real, reconoce que la Inteligencia Artificial (IA) complica nuestra comprensión de lo que es real, y que la retórica alrededor del género y la autenticidad está siendo usada política y legalmente para perpetuar la transfobia y restringir la autonomía corporal. Estos acontecimientos son parte de una larga historia en la cual las personas marginadas por su raza, género y capacidades son consideradas subhumanas, es decir, menos reales. Con esta exhibición nos comprometimos a amplificar las voces de artistas que confrontan estos legados y a brindar un espacio donde las ideas difíciles se pueden abordar y considerar.

Esta Bienal reúne a artistas que exploran la permeabilidad de las relaciones entre mente y cuerpo, la fluidez de la identidad y la creciente precariedad de los mundos naturales y construidos que nos rodean. Ya sea a través del humor subversivo, la abstracción expresiva o formas no occidentales de pensamiento cosmológico, por nombrar algunos de sus métodos, estos artistas demuestran que aún quedan caminos por encontrar, estrategias por descubrir para hacer frente y sanar, y maneras de unirse incluso en una época fracturada.

La Bienal del Whitney 2024 está organizada por Chrissie Iles, Anne and Joel Ehrenkranz Curator, y Meg Onli, Curadora General, con Min Sun Jeon y Beatriz Cifuentes. El programa de performances está organizado por Iles y Onli, con la curadora invitada Taja Cheek. El programa de cine está organizado por Iles y Onli, con curadores invitados Korakrit Arunanondchai, asinnajaq, Greg de Cuir Jr, y Zackary Drucker.

Más sobre el arte y artistas que forman parte de la Bienal del Whitney 2024: Aún mejor que la real.

Eventos en español


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Gbenga Komolafe and Tee Park (they/them/he/him/she/her; she/her)

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Film

Komolafe: born 2000 in Port-Harcourt, Nigeria
Park: born 1999 in Seoul, South Korea
Live in Los Angeles, CA

The 2021 film Winter Insect, Summer Flower, created by Gbenga Komolafe and Tee Park, follows a transgender woman through the seasons, and through repeating cycles of love, loss, fear, pain, and rebirth. Combining live action and computer-generated imagery, the work traces the protagonist’s evolving connection with her body, sexuality, and nature. A moth guides her through a barefoot journey from spring to summer that culminates in a rendezvous with her lover, and then slowly morphs into the grim loneliness of autumn. In the ensuing black-and-white imagery of winter, she washes away her sorrow with rain, emerging rejuvenated. Guided by the moth back to spring, her reconnection with the earth stimulates further flower growth, alluding to change, pleasure, and abundance as key elements in the film’s portrayal of transgender experiences.

Winter Insect, Summer Flower, 2021

Two individuals with striking poses surrounded by lush greenery and vibrant flowers.
Two individuals with striking poses surrounded by lush greenery and vibrant flowers.

Gbenga Komolafe and Tee Park, still from Winter Insect, Summer Flower, 2021. Digital video, color, sound; 11:02 min. © Gbenga Komolafe and Tee Park





Audio guides

Woman adorned with a floral headpiece in a black and white photo.
Woman adorned with a floral headpiece in a black and white photo.

Tourmaline, still from Pollinator, 2022. Video, black-and-white, sound; 5:08 min. © Tourmaline. Courtesy the artist and Chapter, New York

Hear directly from artists and curators on selected works from the exhibition.

View guide


Exhibition Catalogue

A pink book titled "WHITNEY BIENNIAL 2024" standing upright on a gray surface against a neutral background.
A pink book titled "WHITNEY BIENNIAL 2024" standing upright on a gray surface against a neutral background.

2024 Biennial Catalog

Since its introduction in 1932, the Whitney Biennial has charted new developments in contemporary art. Amid ongoing upheavals in cultural, social, and political spheres, this catalogue offers an engaging new take on the storied institution of the Biennial while continuing to serve, as all previous editions have, as an invaluable resource about art in the United States today.

The curators of the 2024 Whitney Biennial, Chrissie Iles and Meg Onli, are both known for genre-defying, boundary-pushing thematic exhibitions. A thematically organized image section reflecting the work of artists in the Biennial is followed by entries about each artist—an approach that encourages readers to draw connections between the work of different artists. A collaborative essay by Iles and Onli presents their thinking behind the exhibition, while essays by curators and scholars Eva Hayward and Amber Jamilla Musser surface specific themes.

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In the News

“The 81st edition of this closely watched survey of contemporary art is the best in a decade” —The Washington Post

“…timelier than ever…” The Wall Street Journal

“It’s the most challenging Whitney Biennial in several editions, and also the best since 2017” —ARTnews 

“…if art is your refuge, this biennial is for you” —The New York Times

“…it’s for the public” —New York Magazine 

“...one of the most important showcases for American contemporary art” —NPR

“...several works shine with wit and insight about the human body” —The New Yorker 

“…there is an overarching sense of commitment to many small acts carried out with kindness and care, and those artifacts of touch build into a significant feeling of tenderness and generosity” —The Brooklyn Rail 

“This Biennial, a ‘dissonant chorus,’ sings the rallying cry of a diverse cohort of artists trying almost everything to capture a reality we can all agree on” —Brooklyn Magazine 

“Once again, the Whitney presents a powerful and provocative exhibition across four floors” —TimeOut 

“…this year’s Whitney Biennial is a winner” —Observer

“…an impressive and beautiful showcase” —Frieze

“...each artist tells a personal story to build a mosaic of the American reality” —Elephant

“This year's Whitney Biennial explores the most critical and contemporary issues facing the United States…” —Ocula

“...the work on view tends to evade simple summarising and reduction, instead rewarding the kind of close examination and prolonged engagement that reveals the textures and details of lived experience” —The Art Newspaper

“Materially and thematically robust, the biennial offers insight into some of the most promising creative voices in American art, from the emerging to the established” —Artsy


Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing is presented by

The exhibition is also sponsored by

     

     

Generous support is provided by Judy Hart Angelo; The Brown Foundation, Inc., of Houston; David Cancel and Family; Lise and Michael Evans; Kevin, Rosemary, and Hannah Rose McNeely; the John R. Eckel, Jr. Foundation; The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation; The Rosenkranz Foundation; Marcia Dunn and Jonathan Sobel; and the Whitney’s National Committee.

Major support is provided by The Keith Haring Foundation Exhibition Fund.

Significant support is provided by the 2024 Biennial Committee Co-Chairs: Sarah Arison, Paul Arnhold, Jill Bikoff, Beth Rudin DeWoody, Miyoung Lee, Joel Lubin, Michael Kassan, and George Wells; 2024 Biennial Committee members: Barbara Bluhm-Kaul and Don Kaul, Alexandre and Lori Chemla, Suzanne and Bob Cochran, Deepa Kumaraiah and Sean Dempsey, Sheree and Jerry Friedman, Further Forward Foundation, Ashley Leeds and Christopher Harland, the Kapadia Equity Fund, Dawn and David Lenhardt, the McCallum Family, Orentreich Family Foundation, Nancy and Fred Poses, Jonathan M. Rozoff, Katherine Sachs, Alice and Manu Sareen, Annette and Paul Smith, and Patricia J. Villareal and Thomas S. Leatherbury; and Susan and Matthew Blank, James Keith (JK) Brown and Eric Diefenbach, Jung and Nelson Chai, Jill Cowan and Stephen Davis, Martha and Paddy Farrell, Melanie Shorin and Greg S. Feldman, Charlotte Feng Ford, Cindy and Mark Galant, Christy and Bill Gautreaux, Debra and Jeffrey Geller Family Foundation, Judelson Family Foundation, Peter H. Kahng, Cathy M. Kaplan, Lisa H. Kim and Eunu Chun, the Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation, Iris Z. Marden, Marjorie Mayrock, Shelley and David Sonenberg, Gloria H. Spivak, Jackson Tang, and anonymous donors.

Biennial funding is also provided by endowments created by Melva Bucksbaum, Emily Fisher Landau, Leonard A. Lauder, and Fern and Lenard Tessler as well as the Adam D. Weinberg Artists First Fund.

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.

The Whitney Biennial and the Hyundai Terrace Commission are a multiyear partnership with Hyundai Motor. The Hyundai Terrace Commission is an annual site-specific installation on the Whitney Museum’s fifth-floor outdoor gallery.


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

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