The Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City announced on Thursday, Jan. 25 the 71 artists and collectives selected for the upcoming Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing. Opening March 20, the longest-running survey of American art celebrates its 81st edition with a thematic exhibition pondering “the real,” and how this notion is informed by evolving notions of identity, form, past and present land stewardship, artificial intelligence, and more.
Among the selected gallery artists is visual artist and CalArts alum Clarissa Tossin (Art MFA 09), who already has work residing in the museum’s sixth floor—five of her pieces on view at the Whitney’s Inheritance group exhibition, running now through Feb. 27. Her research-oriented practice explores the alternative narratives of various media, forming the basis for work that has been exhibited and screened in venues like Galeria Luisa Strina, São Paulo; La Kunsthalle Mulhouse, in Mulhouse, France; the Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; and The Broad, Los Angeles. Tossin was a participating artist in Made in LA 2014, the 2018 Los Angeles Artadia Award, and recipient of a 2019 grant from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts.
Performance artist, composer, and academic Kite (Music BFA 14) joins this year’s film artists program, organized in part by fellow CalArtian Zackary Drucker (Art MFA 07) who serves as a guest program curator. Kite’s practice is grounded in Lakȟóta ontology, or the study of beinghood in Lakȟóta, and has inspired award-winning work like her article “Making Kin with Machines” and the sculpture Ínyan Iyé (Telling Rock), which were featured on the cover of the quarterly magazine Canadian Art. Last year, she received a 2023 United States Artists Fellowship for Media, recognized as one of the first American Indian artists to use machine learning in art practice.
Also included in the biennial are 2023 Herb Alpert Award in the Arts winners Christopher Harris and Madeleine Hunt-Ehrlich, selected for the film program and gallery, respectively.
Established in 1932 by the museum’s founder Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, the Whitney Biennial is the longest-running survey of American art, showcasing contemporary work across creative disciplines and media. The 2024 biennial is co-organized by Whitney curators Chrissie Iles and Meg Onli.
