NEW YORK.- For Reasons of State, this year’s annual spring exhibition of the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program, will be presented from May 16 to June 7, 2008, at The Kitchen, 512 West 19th Street.

The exhibition features artists who explore issues of public access to information in
American society, focusing on the availability of knowledge to the general public and the censorship or misrepresentation that results from governmental and/or corporate influence. Artworks by Bik van der Pol, the Bureau of Inverse Technology, Jenny Holzer, Lin + Lam, Mark Lombardi, Julia Meltzer and David Thorne, Trevor Paglen, Ben Rubin, and Susan Schuppli prompt viewers to consider exchanging the frequently deployed phrase "need-to-know" with the more democratic "right-to-know." Foreshadowing the upcoming presidential election, this exhibition addresses the ability of citizens to function as a democracy in the face of governmental secrecy.

This exhibition is curated by Angelique Campens, Erica Cooke, and Steven Lam, the 2007-08 Helena Rubinstein Curatorial Fellows of the Whitney Museum of American Art Independent Study Program.