The Whitney Biennial is the longest-running survey of American art, and has been a hallmark of the Museum since 1932. Initiated by the Museum's founder Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney as an invitational exhibition featuring artwork created in the preceding two years, the biennials were originally organized by medium, with painting alternating with sculpture and works on paper.///

The artists and collectives in the latest chapter of the exhibition—Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing—will follow in the footsteps of hundreds of Biennial artists before them to interpret our current landscape and tell stories, spark discussion, and comment on issues across a variety of media and disciplines.

As the curators of the latest edition of biennale said, "we have had the privilege of spending time with so many incredible artists over the last year, visiting studios and discussing ideas prevalent in the art world to determine the shape of the 2024 Biennial. After finalizing the list of artists last summer, we have built a thematic Biennial that focuses on the ideas of the real. Society is at an inflection point around this notion, in part brought on by artificial intelligence challenging what we consider to be real, as well as critical discussions about identity".