At the Whitney Biennial I encountered a lot of different things. To start, I am a huge fan of the Whitney. I think their shows are well curated and usually interesting. It’s my favorite museum in New York. That said, I was a little disappointed by the show. There were some standout pieces like William Pope.L’s piece “Claim” that consists of 2,755 slices of bologna nailed to a structure, Aliza Nizenbaum’s painting titled “Two Years of Correspondence from Inmate 39807”, John Divola’s Abandoned Painting series, and Jessi Reave’s fantastic furniture. Other than these though, the show felt a little try hard, like you had to look for the truth in the show a little more than you probably should have. Having said this though, the show had a nice flow and it was easy to back and forth between pieces that were interactive and just viewable. After seeing the show, it’s not something I would recommend to friends, but pieces like Pope.L’s I honestly have not stopped thinking about, which I consider to be successful as an art piece.
