Whitney Launching Pad

How do you get into the Whitney Biennial? Go to Houston, it seems. Since 1997 the Core Program of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston—a two-year postgraduate residency—has produced at least one artist for each edition of the prestigious event, a remarkable feat considering there are only eight residents at a time. For 2008, Whitney curators have tapped Leslie Hewitt, whose 2005–06 sculpture Untitled (Capsule) is pictured at left, and William Cordova. The two artists join such other Whitney/Core alums as Julie Mehretu, Amy Blakemore and Leandro Erlich. Why the unusually high percentage of success? A key connection might be Joseph Havel, Core’s director since 1995 and a sculptor who showed in the biennial himself, in 2000. Next question: How do you get into the Core Program?

"Whitney Launching Pad" originally appeared in the March 2008 issue of Art+Auction. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Art+Auction's March 2008 Table of Contents.