Interview's Picks from the Whitney Biennial
Alexandra Symonds, Interview Magazine, March 6, 2014

The Whitney Biennial is always overwhelming, and this year’s is no exception. With three jam-packed floors arranged by each of three curators—Stuart Comer, chief curator of media and performance art at MoMA; Anthony Elms, associate curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia; and Michelle Grabner, an artist and professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago—visitors could (and should!) spend an entire day wandering.

But if you can’t make it–or you’re looking where to start—click through the above slideshow to see some of Interview‘s picks from the Biennial. They include Gary Indiana’s stunning Untitled (Stanley Park), inspired by the Panopticon-style surveillance system at Isla de la Juventud prison complex in Cuba; Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst’s Relationship project, which photographically documents the process of transitioning genders (both male to female and vice versa); Ken Okiishi’s gesture/data, in which oil paint is applied directly on flatscreen TVs; Joshua Mosley’s video Jeu de Paume, in which Mosley recreates a tennis match played in 1907 at the Chateau de Fontainebleau in uncanny stop-motion animation; and six more.

Triple Canopy, Pointing Machines III (Chestertown, Maryland), 2013. Pigmented inkjet print. 15 x 22 1/2 in. Collection of Triple Canopy. Courtesy Triple Canopy.

Peter Schuyff, Sans Papier, 2004-2014. Carved pencils and sticks, dimensions variable. Collection of Leana Kozokari. Courtesy the artist. Photograph by Peter Tijhuis.

Ken Okiishi, gesture/data, 2013. Oil on flatscreen, VHS transferred to .mp4 (color, sound). 35 1/3 x 21 x 3 7/10 in. Collection of the artist. Copyright Ken Okiishi. Courtesy the artist and Reena Spaulings Fine Art, New York.

Jacolby Satterwhite, “Transit,” Video Still from Reifying Desire 6, 2014. HD digital video, color, 3-D animation. Courtesy of Monya Rowe Gallery and Mallorca Landings Gallery.

Zackary Drucker, Relationship (Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst), 2008. Courtesy of the artists and Luis De Jesus Los Angeles.

Carol Jackson, BLEHH, 2012. Leather, enamel, brass, acrylic. 88 x 67 x 4 in. Collection of the artist. Courtesy the artist. Photograph by Jim Newberry.

Joshua Mosley, Jeu de Paume, 2014. Video, color, sound; 3 min. Collection of the artist. Courtesy the artist.

Tony Greene, His Puerile Gestures, 1989. Mixed media. 25 1/2 x 29 3/4 in. Collection of Ray Morales from the estate of Norm MacNeil. Copyright Ray Morales. Courtesy Ray Morales.

Gary Indiana, “Isla de la Juventud, Cuba,” 2013. Production still from Untitled (Stanley Park), 2012-14. Collection of the artist. Courtesy the artist. Copyright Gary Indiana.

Alma Allen, Untitled, 2013. Marble on oak base, 58 x 20 x 54 in. Collection of the artist. Courtesy the artist. Copyright Alma Allen.

THE WHITNEY BIENNIAL IS ON VIEW TOMORROW, MARCH 7, THROUGH MAY 25.  IT IS PRESENTED BY BCBGMAXAZRIA. FOR MORE INFORMATION, PLEASE VISIT THE WHITNEY’S WEBSITE.