Hicham Gardaf, still from In Praise of Slowness, 2023

The Whitney Museum of American Art’s Independent Study Program (ISP) marks the culmination of the 2022–23 academic year with a symposium at the Whitney, May 12, and two exhibitions at the ISP and Artists Space, May 17–28. These presentations showcase the work of the 2022–23 ISP cohort across three areas of concentration: Critical Studies Program, Curatorial Program, and Studio Program.

The 2022–23 Helena Rubinstein Critical Studies Fellows will present their current research at the annual ISP Critical Studies Symposium on Friday, May 12, in the Museum’s Susan and John Hess Family Gallery and Theater. The fellows, Maddie Hampton, Sophia Larigakis, Dahlia Li, Jazmín López, Sonya Merutka, and Max Tolleson, will share short papers that address critical topics in contemporary culture. The fellows will be joined in conversation by Sharon Hayes, Professor of Fine Arts, Weitzman School of Design, University of Pennsylvania, and Jennifer González, Professor, History of Art and Visual Culture, University of California, Santa Cruz, with an introduction by Cassandra Guan, Ph.D., Whitney Museum of American Art, Joanne Leonhardt Cassullo Fellow, and Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow in the Program of Art, Culture, and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute for Technology.

The Curatorial Studies Program exhibition, Clocking Out: Time Beyond Management, includes a series of performances and film screenings that challenge the dominant modern conception of time as objective, divisible, and linear. The artworks on view explore how time is represented, lived, and contested in the catastrophic present. The exhibition is curated by the 2022–23 Helena Rubinstein Curatorial Fellows: KJ Abudu, Zachary B. Feldman, Emily Small, and Johanna Thorell. Clocking Out: Time Beyond Management brings together works by 24 artists and collectives—Kobby Adi, Julieta Aranda and Anton Vidokle, Julieta Aranda, Yto Barrada, Black Quantum Futurism, Helen Cammock, Maria Chávez, Kajsa Dahlberg, Kevin Jerome Everson, Brendan Fernandes, ektor garcia, Hicham Gardaf, Gerard & Kelly, Simon Gush, Sky Hopinka, Clare Hu, Samson Kambalu, Karrabing Film Collective, Victor Masayesva Jr., Rosalind Nashashibi, Katie Paterson, Dario Robleto, Finnegan Shannon, Mona Vatamanu and Florin Tudor. The exhibition will be on view May 17–28 at Artists Space, located at 11 Cortlandt Alley, New York, NY 10013, and will be accompanied by a performance program. Screenings at e-flux Screening Room, located at 172 Classon Ave, Brooklyn, NY 11205, will take place on May 20 and May 25. Admission to both venues is free. An opening reception for Clocking Out: Time Beyond Management will be held at Artists Space on Wednesday, May 17, 5–7 pm, and is open to the public. A limited edition curatorial catalogue will accompany the exhibition and will be available free of charge.

The Studio Program exhibition, No Necessary Correspondence, presents recent work by the 2022–23 Studio Program participants: Philip Cartelli, Tony Chrenka, Eli Coplan, Giulia Gabrielli, Utsa Hazarika, Jack Hogan and Francis Jones, Kyle Bellucci Johanson, Ayesha Kamal Khan, Sophie Kovel, Emilio Martínez Poppe, Anna Rubin, and Chi Yin Sim. The exhibition will be on view at the ISP building located at 100 Lafayette Street, 8th floor, New York, NY 10013, from May 17–28. An opening reception for No Necessary Correspondence will be held on Wednesday, May 17, 7–9 pm, and will include the performance I Thought I Hated You, Moon Snail by Jack Hogan and Francis Jones at 7pm. The exhibition and accompanying limited edition artist book are free.

The Independent Study Program exhibitions, opening events, and symposium are all free and open to the public. For full event details and additional information on the ISP, please visit whitney.org/research/isp.

PROGRAM SUPPORT

Generous support for the Independent Study Program is provided by endowments created by Joanne Leonhardt Cassullo, the Dorothea L. Leonhardt Foundation, and the Helena Rubinstein Foundation.

Significant support is provided by The Capital Group Charitable Foundation and Margaret Morgan and Wesley Phoa.

Additional support is provided by an endowment created by George S. Harris.

ABOUT THE ISP

The Independent Study Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art consists of three interrelated areas of study: the Studio Program, Curatorial Program, and Critical Studies Program. The ISP provides a setting where students pursuing art practice, curatorial work, art historical scholarship, and critical writing engage in ongoing discussions and debates that examine the historical, social, and intellectual conditions of artistic production. The program encourages the theoretical and critical study of the practices, institutions, and discourses that constitute the field of culture. Each academic year fifteen students are selected to participate in the Studio Program, four in the Curatorial Program, and six in the Critical Studies Program. Curatorial and critical studies students are designated as Helena Rubinstein Fellows in recognition of the substantial support provided to the program by the Helena Rubinstein Foundation. The program begins in early September and concludes at the end of May. Many participants are enrolled at universities and art schools and may receive academic credit for their participation, while others have recently completed their formal studies.

ABOUT THE WHITNEY

The Whitney Museum of American Art, founded in 1930 by the artist and philanthropist Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), houses the foremost collection of American art from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Mrs. Whitney, an early and ardent supporter of modern American art, nurtured groundbreaking artists when audiences were still largely preoccupied with the Old Masters. From her vision arose the Whitney Museum of American Art, which has been championing the most innovative art of the United States for ninety years. The core of the Whitney’s mission is to collect, preserve, interpret, and exhibit American art of our time and serve a wide variety of audiences in celebration of the complexity and diversity of art and culture in the United States. Through this mission and a steadfast commitment to artists, the Whitney has long been a powerful force in support of modern and contemporary art and continues to help define what is innovative and influential in American art today.

Whitney Museum Land Acknowledgment

The Whitney is located in Lenapehoking, the ancestral homeland of the Lenape. The name Manhattan comes from their word Mannahatta, meaning “island of many hills.” The Museum’s current site is close to land that was a Lenape fishing and planting site called Sapponckanikan (“tobacco field”). The Whitney acknowledges the displacement of this region’s original inhabitants and the Lenape diaspora that exists today.

As a museum of American art in a city with vital and diverse communities of Indigenous people, the Whitney recognizes the historical exclusion of Indigenous artists from its collection and program. The Museum is committed to addressing these erasures and honoring the perspectives of Indigenous artists and communities as we work for a more equitable future. To read more about the Museum’s Land Acknowledgement, visit the Museum’s website.

VISITOR INFORMATION

The Whitney Museum of American Art is located at 99 Gansevoort Street between Washington and West Streets, New York City. Public hours are: Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, 10:30 am–6 pm; Friday, 10:30 am–10 pm; and Saturday and Sunday, 10:30 am–6 pm. Closed Tuesday. Visitors eighteen years and under and Whitney members: FREE. Admission is pay-what-you-wish on Fridays, 7–10 pm. COVID-19 vaccination and face coverings are not required but strongly recommended. We encourage all visitors to wear face coverings that cover the nose and mouth throughout their visit.