“The Ungovernables” Triennial at the New Museum

The New Museum is not exactly new. It's been around since 1977. It is young, however, if you like your museums grizzled. So it was fitting that their first triennial in 2009, Younger Than Jesus, featured artists under the age of thirty-three. It was brash, unwieldy, and full of promise. Youthful, in a word. The Ungovernables is the second such survey mounted by the museum, and it might as well be aimed at the eye of the Whitney, whose biennial opens in two weeks. So duck, old man, this could be the first round of a very interesting Smackdown.

For all its meditative moments, the show wants to be noisy, broad, provisional, performative and exceedingly diverse. There are individual artists and collectives from Beirut, Mumbai, Yogyakarta and Ho Chi Minh City. There is everything from unfired clay to Formica, fingernails to copper sheeting, video installations, and a still full of crude oil. Featured artists include Adrián Villar Rojas and Danh Võ (who steal the show) as well as Julia Dault, Amalia Pica, Slavs and Tatars, Iman Issa, The Propeller Group and a compelling suite by José Antonio Vega Macotela. And if there is a line when you get there, there is a wonderful Gary-Ross Pastrana adhered to the window.