New Museum Triennial

A signature initiative of the New Museum, the Triennial is the only recurring international exhibition in New York City devoted to early-career artists from around the world.

The Triennial’s predictive, rather than retrospective, model embodies the institution’s thirty-seven-year commitment to exploring the future of culture through the art of today. This third iteration of the Triennial is titled “Surround Audience” and is co-curated by New Museum Curator Lauren Cornell and artist Ryan Trecartin.

“Surround Audience” explores the effects of an increasingly connected world both on our sense of self and identity as well as on art’s form and larger social role. The exhibition looks at our immediate present, a time when culture has become more porous and encompassing and new considerations about art’s role and potential are surfacing. Artists are responding to these evolving conditions in a number of ways, from calculated appropriations to critical interrogations to surreal or poetic statements.

Featuring fifty-one artists from over twenty-five countries, “Surround Audience” pursues numerous lines of inquiry, including: What are the new visual metaphors for the self and subjecthood when our ability to see and be seen is expanding, as is our desire to manage our self-image and privacy? Is it possible to opt out of, bypass, or retool commercial interests that potentially collude with national and international policy? How are artists striving to embed their works in the world around them through incursions into media and activism? A number of artists in the exhibition are poets, and many more use words in ways that connect the current mobility in language with a mutability in form. The exhibition also gives weight to artists whose practices operate outside of the gallery—such as performance and dance—and to those who test the forums of marketing, comedy, and social media as platforms for art. The building-wide exhibition encompasses a variety of artistic practices, including sound, dance, comedy, poetry, installation, sculpture, painting, video, one online talk show, and an ad campaign.

Participating Artists:

Nadim Abbas
(b. 1980, Hong Kong, China. Lives and works in Hong Kong, China)
Lawrence Abu Hamdan
(b. 1985, Amman, Jordan. Lives and works in London, UK)
niv Acosta
(b. 1988, New York, NY, US. Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY, US)
Njideka Akunyili Crosby
(b. 1983, Enugu, Nigeria. Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, US)
Sophia Al-Maria
(b. 1983, Tacoma, WA, US. Lives and works in Doha, Qatar, and London, UK)
Ketuta Alexi-Meskhishvili
(b. 1979, Tbilisi, Georgia. Lives and works in Berlin, Germany)
Ed Atkins
(b. 1982, Oxford, UK. Lives and works in London, UK)
Olga Balema
(b. 1984, Lviv, Ukraine. Lives and works in Amsterdam, Netherlands, and Berlin, Germany)
Frank Benson
(b. 1976, Norfolk, VA, US. Lives and works in New York, NY, US)
Sascha Braunig
(b. 1983, Vancouver Island, Canada. Lives and works in Portland, ME, US)
Antoine Catala
(b. 1975, Toulouse, France. Lives and works in New York, NY, US)
Aslı Çavuşoğlu
(b. 1982, Istanbul, Turkey. Lives and works in Istanbul, Turkey)
José León Cerrillo
(b. 1976, San Luis Potosí, Mexico. Lives and works in Mexico City, Mexico)
Onejoon CHE
(b. 1979, Seoul, South Korea. Lives and works in Seoul, South Korea)
Tania Pérez Córdova
(b. 1979, Mexico City, Mexico. Lives and works in Mexico City, Mexico)
Verena Dengler
(b. 1981, Vienna, Austria. Lives and works in Vienna, Austria)
DIS (Founded 2010, New York, NY, US)
Aleksandra Domanović
(b. 1981, Novi Sad, SFR Yugoslavia. Lives and works in Berlin, Germany)
Casey Jane Ellison
(b. 1988, Los Angeles, CA, US. Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, and New York, NY, US)
Exterritory
(Founded 2009, the Extraterritorial Waters)
Geumhyung Jeong
(b. 1980, Seoul, South Korea. Lives and works in Seoul, South Korea)
Ane Graff
(b. 1974, Bodø, Norway. Lives and works in Oslo, Norway, and Amsterdam, Netherlands)
Guan Xiao
(b. 1983, Sichuan Province, China. Lives and works in Beijing, China)
Shadi Habib Allah
(b. 1977, Jerusalem. Lives and works in New York, NY, US)
Eloise Hawser
(b. 1985, London, UK. Lives and works in London, UK)
Lena Henke
(b. 1982, Warburg, Germany. Lives and works in New York, NY, US)
Lisa Holzer
(b. 1971, Vienna, Austria. Lives and works in Vienna, Austria, and Berlin, Germany)
Juliana Huxtable
(b. 1987, Houston, TX, US. Lives and works in New York, NY, US)
Renaud Jerez
(b. 1982, Narbonne, France. Lives and works in Berlin, Germany)
K-HOLE
(Founded 2010, New York, NY, US)
Shreyas Karle
(b. 1981, Mumbai, India. Lives and works in Mumbai, India)
Kiluanji Kia Henda
(b. 1979, Luanda, Angola. Lives and works in Luanda, Angola, and Lisbon, Portugal)
Josh Kline
(b. 1979, Philadelphia, PA, US. Lives and works in New York, NY, US)
Eva Koťátková
(b. 1982, Prague, Czech Republic. Lives and works in Prague, Czech Republic)
Donna Kukama
(b. 1981, Mafikeng, South Africa. Lives and works in Johannesburg, South Africa)
Firenze Lai
(b. 1984, Hong Kong, China. Lives and works in Hong Kong, China)
Oliver Laric
(b. 1981, Innsbruck, Austria. Lives and works in Berlin, Germany)
Li Liao
(b. 1982, Hubei, China. Lives and works in Shenzhen, China)
Rachel Lord
(b. 1986, Washington, DC, US. Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, US)
Basim Magdy
(b. 1977, Assiut, Egypt. Lives and works in Cairo, Egypt, and Basel, Switzerland)
Nicholas Mangan
(b. 1979, Geelong, Australia. Lives and works in Melbourne, Australia)
Ashland Mines
(b. 1982, Pittsburgh, PA, US. Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, US)
Shelly Nadashi
(b. 1981, Haifa, Israel. Lives and works in Brussels, Belgium)
Eduardo Navarro
(b. 1979, Buenos Aires, Argentina. Lives and works in Buenos Aires, Argentina)
Steve Roggenbuck
(b. 1987, Harbor Beach, MI, US. Lives and works in Brunswick, ME, US)
Avery K. Singer
(b. 1987, New York, NY, US. Lives and works in New York, NY, US)
Daniel Steegmann Mangrané
(b. 1977, Barcelona, Spain. Lives and works in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
Martine Syms
(b. 1988, Los Angeles, CA, US. Lives and works in Los Angeles, CA, US)
Lisa Tan
(b. 1973, New York, NY, US. Lives and works in Stockholm, Sweden)
Luke Willis Thompson
(b. 1988, Auckland, New Zealand. Lives and works in Auckland, New Zealand, and Frankfurt, Germany)
Peter Wächtler
(b. 1979, Hannover, Germany. Lives and works in Brussels, Belgium, and Berlin, Germany)

About the Triennial

The New Museum Triennial was initiated in 2009. The first edition, “Younger Than Jesus,” was organized by Massimiliano Gioni, Laura Hoptman, and Lauren Cornell. The second Triennial, “The Ungovernables,” was organized by Eungie Joo in 2012. The 2015 Triennial is organized by Lauren Cornell, Curator, 2015 Triennial, Museum as Hub, and Digital Projects, and artist Ryan Trecartin, with Sara O’Keeffe and Helga Christoffersen, Assistant Curators. The catalogue was overseen by Helga Christoffersen.