The Art Angle
Whitney Biennial Trends, a New Baroque Art Star, and Banksy Unmasked
Why It Matters
Understanding the Whitney Biennial’s curatorial choices helps readers grasp shifting narratives about national identity and the art world’s response to digital overload. The rise of a forgotten Baroque artist underscores how art history can be reshaped by new scholarship, and the Banksy investigation raises questions about authorship, market value, and the cultural impact of anonymity in contemporary art.
Key Takeaways
- •Whitney Biennial drops title, encourages open‑ended interpretation.
- •New Museum show mixes historic curiosities, avoids digital focus.
- •Outsider artist Sam Doyle gains renewed attention after solo show.
- •Banksy identity investigation sparks debate over relevance.
- •Elmgren Drag creates performative audience‑reflection installations in Berlin.
Pulse Analysis
The 2026 Whitney Biennial opened without a title, a deliberate move that forces visitors to navigate the exhibition on their own terms. Curated by Marcella Guerrero and Drew Sawyer, the show leans into mood and texture, foregrounding handmade objects and subtle emotional cues rather than overt political statements. Critics note the broadened definition of "American"—including artists linked to former U.S. territories—highlighting ongoing debates about national identity in contemporary art.
Across the river, the New Museum’s "New Humans: Memories of the Future" offers a contrasting curatorial experiment. Lead curator Massimiliano Gioni blends cutting‑edge contemporary pieces with historic curiosities—early brain‑neuron drawings and vintage fetal photographs—to create a cabinet‑of‑curiosity aesthetic. While the exhibition appears to comment on digital anxiety, its emphasis on tactile, physical artifacts suggests a collective retreat from the relentless pace of online culture, positioning the museum as a refuge for embodied experience.
Meanwhile, the art world’s peripheral narratives continue to shape its core. Outsider painter Sam Doyle, a self‑taught South Carolina artist who used house paint on found wood, is enjoying a resurgence after a solo show at London’s Gallery of Everything. In Berlin, duo Elmgren Drag staged "Performing Yourself," a meta‑performance that turned gala audiences into spectators, probing the performative nature of art events. Finally, a new investigative report claiming to unmask Banksy reignites the perennial question of whether the artist’s anonymity matters, underscoring how mystery still fuels market intrigue. These threads together illustrate a sector balancing heritage, technology, and the allure of the unknown.
Episode Description
Spring is upon us. March has seen a burst of big art events—the true start of a busy year. This week, Kate Brown and Ben Davis are joined by senior writer Eileen Kinsella to discuss some of the biggest art stories of the month.
In this episode, will be discussing:
— The 2026 Whitney Biennial, which opened at the beginning of the month. It always gives a snapshot of who’s in and who’s out, and what’s on curators minds. (I've written two pieces on it, here and here)
— The rise of a new art historical art star: the Flemish baroque painter Michaelina Wautier (1604–1689).
— And a new investigation that claims to definitively, absolutely, positively once and for settle the question of who Banksy really is. Do we think they did it? Does it matter?
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