About 20 percent of this year’s Whitney Biennial, “Quiet As It’s Kept,” is really alive. That’s passably high for one of these cattle calls—in fact, it means that this Biennial, which was delayed a year by the pandemic, is the best one in some time. There’s very little here that’s really bad. Too much that’s mild. The Biennial has always trafficked in the contemporary, but this offering radiates the power of now.
The star of the show may be the space. Walking through the rampantly filled fifth floor is like drifting distracted through a spice market of art. It’s a swap meet of unalike items, a rejoinder to minimalism. An abundance of abstract painting—some of it very strong—lends much-needed gusts of color that exhibitions like this often lack. The sixth floor reflects our collective trip into the underworld, echoing the fear and isolation that took hold in the era of covid-19 and white ethnonationalism. It is dark, filled with alcoves, bottlenecks, and ceiling installations that make the world topsy-turvy. Some of it feels dated, the dying remnants of a contrived postmodern fracturing. There are long wall labels projecting meanings that are not actually in the art. This feels predicated on the idea that if the cause or subject matter of a work of art is good, then the work itself is good. For better and worse, “Quiet As It’s Kept” is a black mirror of our times. Two telling exclusions complicate things, however.
THE WHITNEY BIENNIAL 2022: QUIET AS IT’S KEPT THE WHITNEY MUSEUM OF AMERICAN ART. ON VIEW THROUGH SEPTEMBER 5.
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Sign In
This story is from the {{IssueName}} edition of {{MagazineName}}.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 9,000+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Sign In
Early and Often: David Freedlander - Momentum vs. Machine The Trump and Harris campaigns battle it out for every last vote.
WIth two weeks left to go, the contours of the 2024 presidential election are clear: Both campaigns need voters who usually don’t vote, and Kamala Harris needs to bring the Democratic coalition, including its Trump-curious members, back home.While the Republican side plans to spend the remaining days of the contest trying to lure low-propensity voters to the polls, the Harris team will attempt to persuade voters of color to return to its side and will try to increase numbers among white voters in previously red suburbs.
Drowning in Slop - A thriving underground economy is clogging the internet with AI garbage-and it's only going to get worse.
SLOP started seeping into Neil Clarke's life in late 2022. Something strange was happening at Clarkesworld, the magazine. Clarke had founded in 2006 and built into a pillar of the world of speculative fiction. Submissions were increasing rapidly, but “there was something off about them,” he told me recently. He summarized a typical example: “Usually, it begins with the phrase ‘In the year 2250-something’ and then it goes on to say the Earth’s environment is in collapse and there are only three scientists who can save us. Then it describes them in great detail, each one with its own paragraph. And then—they’ve solved it! You know, it skips a major plot element, and the final scene is a celebration out of the ending of Star Wars.” Clarke said he had received “dozens of this story in various incarnations.”
The City Politic- The Other Eric Adams Scandal The NYPD shot a fare evader, a cop, and two bystanders. He defends it.
On Sunday, September 15, Derell Mickles hopped a turnstile, got asked to leave by cops, then entered the subway again ten minutes later through an emergency exit. This was at the Sutter Avenue L station, out by his mother's house, five stops from the end of the line. Police said they noticed he was holding a folded knife. They followed him up the stairs to the elevated train, asking him 38 times to drop the weapon.
Can the Media Survive?
BIG TECH, Feckless Owners, CORD-CUTTERS, RESTIVE STAFF, Smaller Audiences ... and the Return of PRINT?
Status Update
Hannah Gadsby's fascinatingly untidy tour through life after fame and death.
A Matter of Perspective
A Matter of Perspective Steve McQueen's worst film is still a solid WWII drama.
Creator, Destroyer
A retrospective reveals an architect's vision, optimism, and supreme arrogance.
In Praise of Bad Readers
In a time of war, there is a danger in surveying the world as if it were a novel.
Trust the Kieran Culkin Process
First, he nearly dropped out of Oscar hopeful A Real Pain. Then he convinced Jesse Eisenberg to change the way he directs.
The Funniest Vampires on TV
What We Do in the Shadows is coming to an end. Its idiosyncratic brand of comedy may be too.
