When I was in NYC recently, I saw a lot of great shows, including the Whitney Biennial, which I was able to visit a couple times in the final days it was on view.
Many of the 75 artists in the Biennial were new to me; among those whose work I was already familiar with, I was especially looking forward to seeing Jeffrey Gibson’s and Nicholas Galanin’s work. I saw an in-depth survey of Gibson’s work in Like A Hammer last winter at Seattle Art Museum, which I wrote about here. As for Galanin, I first became aware of his work in a show curated by Lara Evans some ten+ years ago. Among the many powerful works in the exhibition I thought his tapestry, White Noise, American Prayer Rug, worked extremely well on many levels. For a good review of the Biennial see Zachary Small’s review at Hyperallergic. Continue reading →