The People's Biennial

The People's Biennial is an exhibition series conceived by artist Harrell Fletcher and curator Jens Hoffmann in 2009. It examines the work of artists and other creative individuals, who operate outside the conventional art world. As such it recognizes a wide array of artistic expression present in many communities across the United States. In covering the little known, the overlooked, the marginalized, and the excluded, the project offers a view into a diverse range of creative practices in America today. The People’s Biennial also proposes an alternative to the standard contemporary art biennial, which mostly focuses on art from a few select cities (New York, Los Angeles, occasionally Chicago, Miami or San Francisco). It questions the often exclusionary and insular process of selecting art that has at times turned the spaces where art is exhibited into privileged havens seemingly detached from the realities of everyday life. 

Following the People’s Biennial 2010, which focused attention on underrepresented artists from five diverse non-art center geographical regions in the United States (Portland, Oregon; Rapid City, South Dakota; Winston-Salem, North Carolina; Scottsdale, Arizona; and Haverford, Pennsylvania), the People’s Biennial 2014 will attempt again to showcase artwork that might otherwise not be shown in a museum context. 

For the second iteration of this exhibition series the curators have asked 17 recognized artists based in a wide set of locations around the United States to connect and collaborate with a creative individuals they personally know who are not part of the art world in any way. These solo presentations will each be displayed in free-standing structures within the refurbished Woodward Gallery of the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit creating a creative community of the unknown, overlooked surprising.