The New Museum’s Triennial is the only recurring exhibition in the United States devoted to presenting young artists from around the globe. “The Ungovernables,” the museum’s second triennial, which opens tomorrow, holds true to that claim, with over fifty participants—artists, artist groups, and temporary collectives, all born between the mid-1970s and mid-1980s— most of whom have never shown their work in the US.
The title takes its inspiration from a term inspired by the 1976 student uprisings in South Africa, and is meant to suggest “both anarchic and organized resistance and a dark humor about the limitations and potentials of this generation.” According to curator Eungie Joo, the museum’s Keith Haring Director and Curator of Education and Public Programs, the exhibition “acknowledges the impossibility of fully representing a generation in formation and instead embraces the energy of that generation’s urgencies.”
True to the exhibition’s theme, the lineup is eclectic and international, with a markedly non-western focus. “The Ungovernables” opens Feb. 15th and runs through April 22; it includes numerous related public programs, including a roundtable discussion on Thursday, February 16, moderated by Joo, with over twenty participating artists. For a full schedule of the Triennial programs visit: newmuseum.org/ungovernables.
