With the Multi Arts Teen Reviewers and Critics, I visited the Whitney Museum of American Art and explored the “Whitney Biennial 2012” exhibit on its opening weekend. There were many interesting and different pieces but three really stood out to me.

Nicole Eisenman’s portrait of a boy on his cell phone makes a very real and serious point about the way people are so attached to their phones. The painting consisted of mostly dark colors such as browns and blues and purples, and one of the boy’s eyes looked as if he had been punched in the face. He looked very tired and sick of being on his phone but yet he wasn’t able to put it down which is very much the way society is today.

I especially liked Richard Hawkins piece, it was a collage of sorts. It had two photos of women and both of their bodies looked mangled and distorted in ways. There were also brown pieces of cardboard attached to it that had words hand written on them saying things such as “flesh eating bugs” and “schools of piranhas” and in the end he had been speaking about the way dancers treat their bodies. As a dancer myself I am always in pain and can really identify with what he was trying to say. It came across as a very powerful and honest piece.

Sam Lewitt’s installation got my attention because it was on the floor. As you looked down upon it you were looking at three or four large brown pieces of paper that had pools of water on it and black magnets scattered throughout. There were also a few small round fans all around them on the floor and as the wind hit the magnets they would move. The movement of the magnets made the piece truly come alive.