The Wrong Gallery’s Biennial contribution is a one-room exhibition-within-the-exhibition, now on view in the Gilman Gallery on the museum’s mezzanine. An exploration of the myth of the American outlaw, the project, entitled Down By Law, is curated by Maurizio Cattelan, Massimiliano Gioni, and Ali Subotnick (founders of the Wrong Gallery and curators of the upcoming Berlin Biennial), who selected works both old and new, from the Whitney’s permanent collection and elsewhere. Down by Law is organized by the Wrong Gallery, with Cecilia Alemani and Jenny Moore.

As stated in the show’s wall text, “Down by Law brings together a family of bad men and women, a parade of wrong behaviors, illegal practices, suspicious faces, and corrupted minds. Assembling works by more than 50 artists from the 1930s to the present, Down by Law presents a gallery of mug shots, police sketches, menacing portraits, and twisted icons, both celebrating and degrading the dark heroes of the American Dream.”

From the Whitney’s collection are works by such artists as Dennis Adams, Paul Cadmus, Larry Clark, Leon Golub, Boris Gorelick, Glenn Ligon, Mark Lombardi, Louis Lozowick, Vik Muniz, Raymond Pettibon, Tim Rollins & K.O.S., Ed Ruscha, Dread Scott, Fred Tomaselli, Andy Warhol, Weegee, and David Wojnarowicz. Selections by these artists are potently mixed with works by Matthew Antezzo, Edgar Arceneaux, Richard Barnes, Monica Bonvicini, Fernando Bryce, Chris Burden, Paul Chan, Chivas Clem, Verne Dawson, Jules de Balincourt, Jeremy Deller, Sam Durant, Marcel Dzama, Gardar Eide Einarsson and Oscar Tuazon, Kota Ezawa, Mathias Faldbakken, Félix González-Torres, Gregory Green, Karl Haendel, Barkley Hendricks, Jonathan Horowitz, Matthew Day Jackson and Dan Peyton, Sergej Jensen, Mike Kelley, Christopher Knowles, Nate Lowman, Robert Mapplethorpe, Henrik Olesen, Andres Serrano, David Shrigley, Taryn Simon, Kerry Tribe, Visible Collective/Naeem Mohaiemen, Kara Walker, Kehinde Wiley, and others.

Installation photos by Sheldan C. Collins. Please click here for all image credits