The Whitney Biennial only happens every two years, yet it is perhaps the most prominent and fundamental celebration of American contemporary art in the world. Featuring works from over 100 American artists, this rarer-than-a-lunar-eclipse event is a must-see if you're in NYC -- and it ends May 25th. Don't think fine art can help your photography? Think again...
Fine artists are extremely hard-working and have perhaps some of the most strict requirements of their own work, leaving no detail unnoticed, unchanged, or unconsidered. Every aspect of their work culminates in a final message or emotion -- and their work, or medium, is the language they create through which they communicate these messages.
As professional content-creators, I can't think of any one of us who isn't trying to tell a story or communicate some concept to their audience. Yet so often, we forget to pay attention to the finer details.
Even the ancient world of art is changing rapidly today. Video art is on a new rise as high-definition, professional cameras become cheaper. A medium that often called on an amateur aesthetic -- in part to more accurately make a point, but equally so because of artists' general lack of knowledge when it comes to cinematography -- video art is now looking more and more beautiful, clean, professional, and truly contemporary as artists like the duo Zackary Drucker and partner/filmmaker Rhys Ernst exhibit in She Gone Rogue.
Still from Zackary Drucker and Rhys Ernst's "She Gone Rogue"The 2014 Whitney Biennial shows itself in a new form this year, too, as it further acknowledges the value and work of the curator in "giving" one of each of the three main floors of the exhibition to three American 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, artist and Professor in the Painting and Drawing Department at the School of the Art Institute, Chicago). There's certainly a lot of "new" to take in.
Can't make it to the Whitney before the end of May? Look some artists up. Go to your local contemporary museums and see what artists are doing now. Perhaps you'll find the voice to say something you didn't know you wanted to say before. And hopefully, you'll do something truly new.
Disclaimer: Some of my old acquaintances, professors, and friends of friends are exhibiting artists in the 2014 Whitney Biennial. Their names include Stephen Berens, Alexandro Segade, Zackary Drucker, and Rhys Ernst.
