NEW MUSEUM ANNOUNCES NAMES OF FIFTY INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS
FOR FIRST EDITION OF “THE GENERATIONAL”
a signature triennial exhibition
The New Museum today announced the names of fifty artists from twenty-fivecountries who will be presented in the first edition of “The Generational,” the institution’s
new signature triennial exhibition. The only exhibition of its kind in the United States,“The Generational: Younger Than Jesus”will offer a rich, intricate, multidisciplinaryexploration of the work being produced by
a new generation of artists born after 1976.
Known to demographers, marketers, sociologists,and pundits variously as theMillennials, Generation Y, iGeneration, andGeneration Me, this age group has yetto be described in any way beyond their habits of consumption. “Younger Than Jesus”will begin to examine the visual culture thisgeneration has created to date. Inspired by the fact that some of the most influential and enduring gestures in art and history have been made by young people inthe early stages of their lives, “Younger Than Jesus” will fill the entire New Museum’s building on the Bowery with approximately 145 works by artists all of whom are under the age of thirty-three years old.
Hailing from countries including Algeria, China, Colombia, Germany, India, Lebanon, Poland, Turkey, and Venezuela, many are showing in a museum for the first time. The exhibition will span mediums and encompass painting, drawing, photography,film, animation, performance, installation, dance,Internet-based works, and video games. “The Generational: Younger than Jesus” will be on view from April 8 through June 14, 2009.
Major support for the exhibition has been provided by The Andy Warhol Foundation.
The exhibition is organized by Lauren Cornell,Director of Rhizome and New Museum Adjunct Curator; Massimiliano Gioni, Director of Special Exhibitions; and Laura Hoptman, Kraus Family Senior Curator.
Artists were selected for “Younger Than Jesus” through an open curatorial model that is participatory, and inspired by the networking proclivities of the generation represented in the show. Initial research for the exhibition was conducted through an international network of correspondents and an information-sharing group of more than 150 curators, writers, teachers, artists, critics, and bloggers worldwide, who were asked to recommend artists for the exhibition. This methodology was intended to expand the curatorial process and challenge the traditional “single-source” method of creating an exhibition. Through this process, more than 500 artists were recommended and researched.
ABOUT THE NEW MUSEUM
Founded in 1977, the New Museum is Manhattan’s only dedicated contemporary art museum and
among the most respected internationally, with a curatorial program known for its global scope
and adventurousness. With the inauguration of our new, state-of-the-art building on the Bowery,
the New Museum is a leading destination for new art and new ideas.
