Introduction

Jane Panetta: My name is Jane Panetta. I'm an Associate Curator here at the Whitney. The 2019 Biennial includes seventy five artists.

Rujeko Hockley: My name is Rujeko Hockley and I’m an assistant curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art.

For this iteration of the Biennial we’ve included seventy five artists from all across the United States, including Puerto Rico. 

Jane Panetta: While in large part it's a snapshot of contemporary art making in the United States today, it also is organized around certain themes that we saw bubbling up in the many studio visits we did during our research.

Rujeko Hockley: Some of the themes that have come up in this Biennial include an attention to kind of makerly-ness, the use of the hand in terms of making artwork versus a more slick or more hyperfinished approach. Questions of race, gender, and equity, particularly considering the tumultuous political moment we’re living through, as well as questions of community.

Jane Panetta: One of the biggest themes that we saw were artists mining, using different ways, historical documents, historical imagery, just history in general, and repurposing it in their work to reimagine the future or even reimagine the present. For many artists, it seemed like there are lessons to be learned from histories. We sort of navigate the difficulties of our present moment; that was something we saw through different mediums and time and time again.