Whitney Biennial 2008

As artists we go to shows for a sense of the zeitgeist and things we can use (ideas, materials). There is little here in either case.

The most exciting things happening today are (i) online, and (ii) with how artists are navigating the space between the web, home computers, and "real space." These topics are barely addressed in the show.

Although not in the above categories, the best work is by a deceased artist, Jason Rhoades. It is the disordered double to the Phoebe Washburn installation (plants growing in Gatorade), which was calm and formally pleasing but could have been less sprawling. With Rhoades the sprawl is the point--like Cady Noland in its damaged nihilism, except funny.