Given the political tensions that have sent spasms through the nation over the past two years, you might have expected — hoped — that the 2019 Whitney Biennial would be one big, sharp Occupy-style yawp. It isn’t. Politics are present, but with a few notable exceptions, murmured, coded, stitched into the weave of fastidiously form-conscious, labor-intensive work.

As a result, the exhibition, organized by two young Whitney curators, Rujeko Hockley and Jane Panetta, gives the initial impression of being a well-groomed group show rather than a statement of resistance. Yet once you start looking closely, the impression changes. Artist by artist, piece by piece, there’s a lot of quiet agitation in the air.

And the basics are strong. Demographically, the show — which fills the museum’s fifth and sixth floors, spreads down to the third, into the lobby, and out to the street — adheres to what seems to have become a new Whitney norm: namely, a view of American art far more inclusive than it once was.

The 75 participants include artists hailing from Canada and Puerto Rico and non-coastal points in between, as well as several born in Africa and Asia and at least a few United States citizens living abroad. The ethnic and gender mix is balanced to a degree unimaginable even a decade ago. And it’s a young show: three quarters of the artists are under 40, with 20 of them under 33. So that’s all good.