Belmore, Linklater and Thomasos head to the Whitney

Founded in 1932 as a biyearly exhibition dedicated to charting the development of art in the United States, the Whitney Biennial returns this spring to New York City, following a pandemic-enforced hiatus. Heralded as “a constellation of the most relevant art and ideas of our time” the Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept features an impressive roster of international talent young and old, including three contemporary artists near and dear to the AGO: Rebecca Belmore, Duane Linklater and Denyse Thomasos.

According to the press materials, the exhibition explores the dynamics of borders and what constitutes “American”, through artworks by artists from Mexico, specifically Ciudad Juárez and Tijuana, and First Nations artists in Canada, as well as by artists born outside of North America.

“Deliberately intergenerational and interdisciplinary, the Biennial proposes that cultural, aesthetic, and political possibility begins with meaningful exchange and reciprocity,” exhibition co-curators David Breslin and Adrienne Edwards note. “... We’ve organized the exhibition to reflect these precarious and improvised times. The Biennial primarily serves as a forum for artists, and the works that will be presented reflect their enigmas, the things that perplex them, the important questions they are asking.”

Rebecca Belmore, an internationally renowned, Toronto-based multidisciplinary artist, is a member of the Lac Seul First Nation. Working in sculpture, installation, photography and performance, Belmore’s work makes evocative connections between bodies, land and language. She addresses a diverse array of issues including water and land rights, women’s lives and dignity, violence against Indigenous people by the state and police and the role of the artist in contemporary life. In 2018, a major exhibition of her work was held at the AGO, entitled Rebecca Belmore: Facing the Monumental, and the AGO is home to six of her works.

Rebecca Belmore, prototype for ishkode (fire), 2021. Clay and bullet casings. Collection of the artist. Image courtesy of the artist. Photograph by Henri Robideau.

North Bay-based, Omaskêko Ininiwak contemporary artist Duane Linklater’s practice is focused on the exploration of the physical and theoretical structures of the museum in relation to the current and historical conditions of Indigenous people. Linklater creates across several mediums including sculpture, photography, film and video, installation and text works, examples of which are in the AGO Collection. A selection of his early works, from the AGO Collection, were seen at the AGO in 2015, and most recently at the Frye Art Museum, Seattle.

Contemporary Canadian artist Denyse Thomasos (1964 – 2012) is best known for her large-scale, semi-abstract paintings. Her work often references architecture and structural elements as a means of discussing themes as varied as slavery, mass incarceration, immigration and urban life. A major retrospective exhibition of her work, Denyse Thomasos: just beyond, will open at the AGO in October 2022, and will feature 70 of her paintings – many of which are rarely seen. In February 2021, an AGO Study Days event dedicated to Denyse Thomasos’s groundbreaking work, welcomed curators, researchers, art scholars and students from around the world, including the Whitney Museum of American Art. Click here to watch Adrienne Edwards, Engell Speyer Family Curator and Curator of Performance at the Whitney Museum of American Art, discuss how artists like Denyse Thomasos negotiate and exhaust the paradigm of black representation in abstract art. 

Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept kicks off April 6 and runs until September 5 in New York City.

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