For the better part of its 74-year existence, the Whitney Biennial, whose latest manifestation runs March 6 to June 1, has opened to a chorus of complaints. But there’s a lot at stake with the exhibition, which can boost the career of a young unknown, as it did for the Houston-based collective Otabenga Jones & Associates in 2006, or put an attractive feather in the cap of an established talent. The 81 artists featured this year range from household names like the Los Angeles–based Conceptualist John Baldessari to younger figures, such as Marina Rosenfeld, who is creating a new musical composition on-site with the help of a group of teenagers. A duo of razor-sharp Whitney staffers—Henriette Huldisch and Shamim Momin?led the curatorial team this year, with input from chief curator Donna De Salvo and a few outside advisers. If that sounds like a lot of chefs, the kitchen has gotten bigger: Performances and large-scale installations are to spread into the Park Avenue Armory, a few blocks away, where Rosenfeld’s nightingales can be found.

"The American Scene" 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.