Precious Okoyomon’s Whitney Biennial Installation Is on View After a Delay, and It’s a True Shocker
Precious Okoyomon’s room-filling installation Everything wants to kill you and you should be afraid (2026) went on view at the Whitney Museum of American Art’s 2026 Whitney Biennial after a delay, ARTnews reported. The work—featuring about 50 stuffed animals and racist dolls suspended by nooses—was originally planned for the lobby but was pulled shortly before press previews because the artist and curators decided the space was insufficient for the intended viewing experience. The installation finally opened on the museum’s eighth floor on Wednesday (as reported by ARTnews), with Okoyomon saying the objects needed to hang lower so visitors could more directly engage with them. ARTnews notes the piece is an expanded, reconfigured version of a work shown in 2025 at Kunsthaus Bregenz in Austria and incorporates some of the artist’s childhood toys alongside thrifted items and materials such as taxidermy feathers.
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This story was covered in Museums Unearthed, Biennales in the Crosshairs