The Twenty by Sixteen Biennial 2019: Group Exhibition | Curated in collaboration with Geoffrey Young
Eric Hibit Karen Lederer Alex McQuilkin
Chie Fueki Douglas Melini Kirsten Deirup
Cary Smith Robert Otto Epstein Joshua Marsh
Daniel Zeller Fred Cooper Zachary Keeting
Yuri Masnyj Sue Muskat Erin O’Keefe
Barbara Friedman Cordy Ryman Mark Olshansky
Jenifer Kobylarz Jennifer Coates Elisa Johns
Philip Knoll Elliott Green Tim Bavington
Rebecca Chamberlain Andrew Schwartz Catherine Haggarty
Emilie Stark-Menneg Peggy Reeves
Meg Lipke Andrea Belag
Audrey Stone Juliana Ellman
Trevor Winkfield Hanna Hannah
In this third “Twenty by Sixteen Biennial,” the visual adventure continues. With only the one constraint – size—each of the 35 artists in the show is free to invent, explore, befuddle, dazzle, bemuse, challenge, celebrate. Represented by two works each, artists get a chance to show what they do best twice: with imagery, touch, color, figuration, abstraction, hybridity, absurdity, profundity, or none of the above. If no two artists look alike, it is because no two artists ARE alike. What is particular to one is foreign to another; what is anathema to one is central to another. What the artists in this Biennial share is integrity. And at the helm of each practice is sincerity, integrity’s first cousin. Thus do the works in this show bop, amble, strut, juxtapose, cruise, clash, propose and cuddle…for all they’re worth. Pick your favorite. Question its presence. Revel in pictorial uniqueness. Consider the language each work speaks. Consider the dialects, the slang, the asides, never forgetting that each work bears the stamp of its maker. Not “Made in America.” Rather, made by a human, for the craziest reasons: necessity and joy.
-Geoffrey Young
