Lawrence Rinder's lecture at SITE Santa Fe, "Beings, Spaces, and Tribes: Making Sense of Contemporary American Art," will focus on his curatorial concept for the 2002 Whitney biennial. In a statement released by the Whitney Museum, Rinder said, "The 2002 Biennial pays tribute to the spirit and variety of American artistic practice throughout the country. Artists are exploring a wide range of media and new technologies that are giving them previously unimagined freedoms. At the same time there is a resurgent interest in traditional media and visceral, do-it-yourself practices. Not restricted by a single theme, the biennial will expose multiple, sometimes conflicting currents, as well as extraordinary works that fall outside of any conventional aesthetic definition."

Rinder developed the Whitney's 2002 biennial exhibition in collaboration with three of his Whitney colleagues: Chrissie Iles, Christiane Paul, and Debra Singer. The exhibition is the largest Whitney Biennial since 1981, and features 113 artists from 23 countries, who work in 20 states and Puerto Rico, and range in age from 24 to 71.

Prior to his appointment at the Whitney Museum, Rinder was director of the CCAC Institute at the California College of Arts and Crafts in Oakland and San Francisco. He was also assistant director and curator of 20th century art at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. He has organized numerous exhibitions including In a Different Light and Louise Bourgeois: Drawings at the Berkeley Museum, Searchlight: Consciousness at the Millennium at the CCAC Institute, and BitStreams at the Whitney Museum in 2000. He is a contributing editor and writer for Nest Magazine and has written extensively for catalogues and periodicals including Artforum, Flash Art, and Art Journal.

SITE Santa Fe's Art & Culture series is partially supported by Lannan Foundation, LLWW Foundation, Madelin Coit and Alan Levin, Bobbie Foshay-Miller and Chuck Miller, and Marlene Nathan Meyerson.