2019 Whitney Biennial includes VAS Lecturer and Former Dodd Chair

This year, the Lamar Dodd School of Art shares ties to the Whitney Biennial in New York. The 2019 Whitney Biennial includes former Dodd Chair Kota Ezawa and a lecturer from our Visiting Artist Series, Josh Kline.

The 2019 Whitney Biennial aims to offer a wide-ranging view of American art today. Curated by Rujeko Hockley and Jane Panetta, the show runs from May 17 to September 22. In a statement, Hockley said this year’s show—the Biennial’s 79th edition—will focus on “the mining of history in order to reimagine the present or future, a profound and sustained consideration of questions of equity along financial, racial, and sexual lines, a concern with climate change, and explorations of the vulnerability of the body.”

Spring 2014 Dodd Chair Kota Ezawa is included in this distinguished group of artists. Ezawa, born in 1969, is a German-Japanese-American artist who lives and works in San Francisco, California, and Berlin, Germany. Kota Ezawa’s work takes the form of animated videos, light boxes, slide projections, and prints.  He recreates iconic moments from the media, popular culture, and the history of photography by interpreting photographic images into drawings. Removing much of the visual information found in the source material, Ezawa’s images become less real and more symbolic.

Ezawa’s latest body of work re-examines the infamous art heist at the Isabella Stewart Garnder Museum in 1990. In his signature style, Ezawa deftly re-imagines the original images of the thirteen stolen pieces, including artworks and objects by Degas, Manet, Rembrandt, and Vermeer. Reflecting on his new body of work he states, “My prior drawings exclusively used photographs as source material. This series for the first time draws upon painting only to recognize that painters before 1850, like Rembrandt and Vermeer, were essentially the photographers of their time. In the absence of photographs, their paintings take on the task of recording reality with the scrutiny and minuteness that we now expect from cameras. In this way, the new series extends my project ‘The History of Photography Remix’ into the pre-photography age of images. In addition, I feel compelled to produce an exhibition dealing with ‘stolen art works’ because my own process could be regarded as a form of image theft. One could say I’m hoping to steal these images back and give them a new life.”

Josh Kline, a Visiting Artist Series Lecturer who came to the Dodd in Spring of 2018, will also exhibit work in this year’s Biennial. Kline makes work and curates exhibitions centered around his concerns with the way technological innovations impact humans. In his words, “For me, it’s about technology changing what it means to be human. There’s a self-actualization aspect to it that’s potentially positive, but I mostly associate it with the relentless push to squeeze more productivity out of workers—turning people into reliable, always-on, office appliances.” His sculptures, installations, and videos are rife with body parts, pharmaceuticals, and sanitizing products, as well as references to politics, labor, and health and hygiene. In an installation titled Nine to Five, Eight to Four, Seven to Three (2015), he presented janitor carts piled with 3D-printed, disembodied human heads, feet, and hands, alongside cleaning products. Among Kline’s more visceral works is ThinkStrong (2013), a pouch of blood laced with the antidepressant Wellbutrin.