Artists Among Us

In this minisode, we hear from Cannupa Hanska Luger about his Biennial artwork that takes the form of a tipi inverted and hung from the ceiling of the gallery. But Luger lets us know that, "The tipi is not upside down. The tipi is actually in the right positioning, in right relationship, in a right way in the world if the world isn't as upside down as it is presently."
 
More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2024-biennial
See the art described in this minisode: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2024-biennial?section=37#exhibition-feature

In this minisode, we hear from 2024 Whitney Biennial artist Dala Nasser. Her work is titled Adonis River and she made it along the banks of that river, now called the Abraham River on Mount Lebanon north of Beirut. The work tells the ever-evolving story of that place and its namesake.

More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2024-biennial
See the art described in this minisode: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2024-biennial?section=40#exhibition-feature 

This spring and summer we’ll be sitting down with 2024 Whitney Biennial artists to talk about their work and what it means to be making art in the present unfolding moment. In this minisode, we hear from Eamon Ore-Giron about his series Talking Shit in which he reimagines deities from ancient Peruvian and Mexican cultures in a contemporary context to explore the idea of a living ancestral past.

More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2024-biennial
See the art described in this minisode: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/2024-biennial?section=45#exhibition-feature

Two works by artist Kambui Olujimi are currently on view in the exhibition Inheritance, open through February. Olujimi made Hart Island Crew and Your King Is on Fire in 2020 during lockdown and both paintings describe tumultuous moments familiar to us all. We sat down with Olujimi to hear more about these emotive works.

More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/inheritance
See the art described in this minisode: https://whitney.org/collection/works/64950 and https://whitney.org/collection/works/65005 

"There's an urgency in her work. There's a rhythm that exists in her drawings and sculptures that I'm really attracted to as well." On the occasion of Ruth Asawa Through Line we chatted with Virginia Overton about what she finds so inspiring about Asawa's work. She speaks about two pieces: a print made from the body of a fish, and an ink drawing showing the cross-section of a redwood tree.

More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/ruth-asawa-through-line
See the art described in this minisode: https://whitney.org/asawa-fish and https://whitney.org/asawa-redwood

Sadie Barnette joins us in the galleries to discuss her multimedia artwork Family Tree II, currently on view in Inheritance through February 2024. The piece is a holographic vinyl upholstered couch in front of a constellation of framed images. “It's really a self-portrait as a relational way of being,” she says, “who I am based on who I am from and who I am in relation to.”

More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/inheritance 

On the occasion of her Whitney exhibition and as part of the Whitney's public programming, artist Ilana Savdie invited writer Carmen Maria Machado, author of Her Body and Other Parties and In the Dream House, to discuss their respective practices. In this excerpt from that program Savdie and Machdo discuss their overlapping interests, from power dynamics mediated through the body to trickery as a form of resistance. The conversation is moderated by Whitney Curator Marcela Guerrero and the exhibition Ilana Savdie: Radical Contractions is on view through November 5, 2023. 

More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/ilanasavdie

On the occasion of Fragments of a Faith Forgotten: The Art of Harry Smith we spoke to Greil Marcus, acclaimed music author, journalist, and critic, about the reverberations felt around the world after the 1952 release of Harry Smith's highly influential multivolume Anthology of American Folk Music. "It was a sensibility—this set that Harry Smith created—that was passed on to people. Where it said to them, 'There's more in this music. There's more in this country than you ever imagined, so seek and ye shall find.'"

More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/harry-smith 

"The maps that I've been doing, I see them as landscapes and they all tell stories." Hear from artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (b. 1940, citizen of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Nation) on the occasion of her Whitney retrospective, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map on view through August 13, 2023.

More about the exhibition: https://whitney.org/exhibitions/jaune-quick-to-see-smith  

El barrio que hoy ocupa el Whitney fue en su día un lugar de encuentro y creación de comunidad queer. Este miniepisodio rinde homenaje a los lugares donde las personas que buscaban la libertad sexual se reunían para relacionarse, relajarse, salir de fiesta y organizarse. Miniepisodio invitado: Camilo Godoy, Educador del Whitney.

Para más información sobre la historia queer del Meatpacking District, consulte la audioguía completa: https://whitney.org/audio-guides/94