Artists and Rock Stars Mingle at the Whitney Biennial

“It’s good to have individuals again, in individual, celebrating artwork and the next-generation artists,” stated Adam Weinberg, the director of the Whitney Museum, as he welcomed greater than 1,000 visitors to rejoice the museum’s eightieth biennial on Tuesday.

He had simply come from planting a smooch on the cheek of Jack Shear, the photographer, curator and former husband of the late Ellsworth Kelly. To observe Mr. Weinberg transfer via the museum’s foyer was a research in internet hosting: he ignored nobody, hugging good friend after good friend, artist after artist, donor after donor.

After ready exterior on the freezing sidewalk, visitors made their technique to the fifth and sixth flooring, the place an amazing assemblage of artworks was on show. Artists have been joined by buddies, household, colleagues, followers and the occasional rock star, together with Anthony Kiedis and Flea from the Pink Sizzling Chili Peppers.

Tommy Kha, a photographer whose work (a portrait of himself as Elvis) brought about a hubbub on the Memphis airport, accompanied his good friend Pao Houa Her, a featured artist whose work, she stated, is “concerning the Hmong group the place I’m from in Minnesota. It’s additionally about my very own historical past, my grandmother’s historical past, my dad and mom’ historical past.”

Close by, a lady stopped Miles Greenberg, the efficiency artist, to go with him on his Telfar denims, which have been nearly with out materials within the rear. “Air flow,” he stated.

By 8 p.m., when doorways have been open to non-V.I.P.s, the galleries have been full of (principally mask-free) guests. Probably the most overheard remark of the evening? “I haven’t been round so many individuals since. …”

It was troublesome at occasions to get round. “I can’t even navigate this constructing, as a result of there’s so many individuals,” stated Emily Barker, a featured artist whose oversize plastic kitchen demonstrated the challenges for individuals like her, who use a wheelchair. “I needed to miss 4 elevators full of individuals who I feel most of them can stroll.”

Some visitors took refuge at a bar arrange in a rainbow-hued room on the third ground. Tremaine Emory, the inventive director of Supreme, stood out in his knit Marni vest. “Artwork events are all the time a bit dry,” stated Mr. Emory, who was a visitor of the artist Theaster Gates. “I feel social gathering, I feel dancing.”

Again down within the foyer, visitors have been nonetheless arriving, at the same time as others have been making their manner out.

“I’ve a circulation dysfunction, and it’s being triggered proper now,” stated the artist Chloe Sensible, who waited exterior for an hour in her mom’s Yohji Yamamoto overcoat.

The bars stopped served round 10 p.m., and visitors could possibly be heard planning “for only one extra drink.”

It had been 4 hours because the doorways had opened, and Mr. Weinberg had barely moved. And was nonetheless hugging. At one level, he stood between two buddies, one arm round every, and used them to assist himself in mock exhaustion. Does he by no means tire?

“It’s my job,” he stated. “I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I’m not going to vary.”