I’d been slacking on my museum attendance, so I finally got a chance to catch up on a few shows. The first exhibition I went to see was the Whitney Biennial. I was none too thrilled with the last biennial, so I didn’t have high hopes for this one. Secretly, I wanted to be proven wrong, but alas, that was not the case. I’m certainly not trying to bash anyone. At the end of the day, those artists have their work in the Whitney and I don’t! With that being said, I had to search long and hard to find anything inspiring. Some of the pieces begged to be seen as cutting-edge art, but really just came off as contrived or old. (Blank canvases?? Really??) A few people expressed that they liked this exhibition better than the previous one, but I have to disagree. I found a lot more interesting pieces the last time around. I just hope the Whitney will step its game up for the next one.

On the other hand, I really enjoyed the Takashi Murakami exhibit @ the Bklyn Museum. I’m a sucker for Japanese pop art anyway, so this was right up my alley. It’s a great retrospective of his work, and I’m happy I had a chance to see it.

I love the fact that he doesn’t just straddle the line between fine art and commercialism, he blurs it. To drive that point home, the museum set up a small Louis Vuitton shop right in the middle of the exhibit. (For those who don’t know, he designed some limited-edition bags for Louis Vuitton). It was also cool to see two of his sculptures that I had only seen in art class. It’s only up until June, so I’d definitely go check it out.

As an added bonus, I also checked out the work of Ghada Amer while I was there. I’d heard about her from another blog, so I made sure I didn’t miss her show. She uses embroidery(and other mediums) to challenge ideas of gender roles, sexuality, love and war. Her pieces are very layered, raw, and beautiful. It’s been a while since I’ve discovered an artist I really like, but Ghada Amer’s work is very evocative , thought provoking, and inspiring.

Filed under: art
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