On April 19th, I visited the Whitney Museum of American Art with Multi Arts TRaC (the Teen Reviewers and Critics) to explore the “Whitney Biennial 2012”. There were a variety of interesting pieces but only a few stood out to me.

Nicole Eisenman‘s exhibition was very deep and explicit. One of the monotypes that caught my eye was one of a man taking a shower in the blood of a naked woman who is lying above him as she stabs herself in the head with a knife. This monotype (as the rest of her monotypes in the exhibition) was inspired by a bad relationship and feminism. This monotype consisted of mostly dark colors such as black, gray and a fainted red at the bottom. The women is obviously sad or depressed that she is resorting to hurting herself and the man is gladly showering in her misery. Perhaps the man hurt the women but does not care for her suffering.

Another piece that caught my attention was Sam Lewitt‘s installation because it was on the floor. There were five large brown pieces of paper that had pools of water on it and ferrofluid based 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 gave the piece the illusion that the magnets were alive. Lewitt signed his piece with a deactivated credit-card.

I especially liked Dawn Kasper‘s Nomadic Studio Practice Experiment. Not having a permeant art studio since 2008, Kasper uses gallery or museum space as her studio. THIS COULD BE SOMETHING IF I LET IT is composed of the entire content of Kasper’s studio and part of her bedroom. Regarding the 2012 Biennial as a full-time job she spends every day in her new studio in the third-floor of the Whitney making new work, playing music, and interacting with the public while the museum is open. Unfortunately, Kasper was not there day of our visit but we still got see her studio which reminded me of a hoarder’s art room, with pictures and books all over the place also boxes and some of her own clothing.