Description: Paloma Checa-Gismero traces an archeology of contemporary art biennials to uncover the processes that prompted these exhibitions to become the global art world's defining events at the end of the twentieth century.
Review Quotes: "Biennials are a definitive--some say, the definitive--exhibitionary form for contemporary art. This is a forensic study of three of the biennials that moved beyond the modern model of art battles between nations, staged at Venice since 1895, into contemporary modes. They laid key markers for the subsequent biennial 'boom.' Paloma Checa-Gismero combines archival research, personal experience, a wide-ranging knowledge of critical theory, along with an invigorating intolerance of cliché, to show the collisions between aspiration and reality in play at these times and places. She tracks how artists, critics, curators, and viewers from local communities responded to the 'aesthetic conversions' of social forces that these biennials enabled, paving the way for the multi-facetted phenomenon known as 'global contemporary art.'"--Terry Smith, author of, Art to Come: Histories of Contemporary Art
"In this erudite, insightful, and immensely readable book Paloma Checa-Gismero puts her finger on how the profound inequality, chauvinism, Eurocentrism, and problematic space of the contemporary art world came into being. While others may wax poetic on contemporary aesthetics without necessarily being aware of the conditions of the art world, Checa-Gismero actually shows what makes contemporary art take on its cultural capital. Biennial Boom makes an important intervention into historicizing and making sense of the global art world."--Tatiana Flores, author of, Mexico's Revolutionary Avant-Gardes: From Estridentismo to ¡30-30! "Checa-Gismero's careful consideration of the myriad political, social, and economic shifts of the post-Cold War neoliberal world order positions biennials as critical to the construction of what is referred to as 'global contemporary art, ' laying the groundwork for future study. Her study is a significant contribution to the burgeoning field of exhibition histories, through its critical examination of the politics of display. With it, artists and curators can be cognizant of how their work might be operationalized on a global stage, to envision more equitable art worlds."--Leah Triplett, C Magazine "Biennial Boom contributes to understanding biennials not only through their specificities, but as contesting spaces whose final objectives are guided by canonical discourses. The book invites readers to rethink globalism so it can genuinely serve local agents and concerns still shaped and affected by the global order."--Marco Polo Juarez Cruz, Latin American and Latinx Visual Culture