Biennials and Texanicity in Contemporary Art: A Survey of Surveys
2011 Texas Biennial Special #1
Benjamin Lima
In the spirit of expanding the Texas Biennial beyond venues in Austin to include organizations and activities across the state, we’ve endeavored to produce a complementary set of discursive coordinates. We’ve edited a special edition: a set of Biennial texts disseminated via Art Lies’ website reflecting on the range of artistic production occurring under the banner “Texas”—as a community, a geography, a history, a culture, a curatorial (or other) conceit or simply an address, however temporary. We hope to enrich the critical dialogue surrounding this most current roundup by contextualizing the Biennial project in terms of trends both unique to Texas and pertinent to contemporary art at large, to map out a sense of where “Texas art” has been and where it might go.
Three original features related to the 2011 Texas Biennial will be posted at intervals throughout the run of the exhibition, now on view through May 14. Each text will be available as a downloadable PDF file, which we encourage you to read, share, print and then store in the pocket on the last page of your 2011 Texas Biennial catalogue.
To download and read the first contribution: Biennials and Texanicity in Contemporary Art: A Survey of Surveys by Benjamin Lima, please click here.
– Kurt Mueller, Interim Editor, Art Lies, and Virginia Rutledge, 2011 Texas Biennial Curator