Marcela Guerrero and Drew Sawyer Photo: Bryan Derballa, Whitney Museum of American Art
The Whitney Museum of American Art has selected the curators of its next biennial exhibition, to open in 2026: Marcela Guerrero, known for specialising in Latin American art, and Drew Sawyer, a photography curator who recently came to the Whitney after a tenure at the Brooklyn Museum.
The Whitney Biennial, one of the most high-profile shows in the United States, has come to the Whitney every two years since its inaugural turn in 1973 (prior to which it occurred annually), setting the tone for the contemporary art scene domestically and abroad, and regularly stirring up controversy. It is also one of the most expensive museum shows of contemporary art due to commissioned pieces and artists' fees, but the visitor figures appear to be worth it—the 2024 edition of the Whitney Biennial, which closes 11 August, has attracted nearly 400,000 people to the museum at last count.
Guerrero was promoted from her assistant curatorial role at the museum following the success of her exhibition No existe un mundo poshuracán: Puerto Rican Art in the Wake of Hurricane Maria (2022-23), which made headlines as the first scholarly show on Puerto Rican art in the United States for 50 years. Sawyer broke ground at the Brooklyn Museum with his much-praised exhibition Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make Zines, before bringing his unique perspective to the Whitney. His first curatorial project there, Mark Armijo McKnight: Decreation, opens 24 AUgust and will highlight the emerging artist’s spare, corporeal black-and-white photography.
“I see the Biennial more and more as an engine that moves the whole museum forward," Whitney director Scott Rothkopf told The New York Times. "They are both fantastic talent scouts who think broadly and are able to synthesise really interesting strands of contemporary art.”
Over 3,600 artists have taken part in the Biennial since its inception, and the shows have helped bolster the careers of art world stars including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Glenn Ligon and Julie Mehretu. Participating curators have also been launched into the professional stratosphere by the show, among them New Museum director Lisa Phillips and Studio Museum in Harlem director Thelma Golden, both co-organisers of the 1993 Whitney Biennial.
As Guerrero and Sawyer consider their planning for the 2026 edition, they are taking on ambitious themes. “The institution has always paid attention to how we define America and what is American art,” Sawyer told Times, “but also what those questions look like in relation to the rest of the world. A lot could happen in the next two years—we have a presidential election coming up. We are all thinking about that and what the future could hold.”
The 2026 Whitney Biennial will be the fourth edition of the exhibition to be led by a pair of in-house curators. The current edition was organised by Chrissie Iles, a curator at the museum, and Meg Onli, a Whitney curator-at-large based in Los Angeles (at the time of her selection for the biennial, Onli was an independent curator). The 2022 edition was organised by director of curatorial initiatives David Breslin and director of curatorial affairs Adrienne Edwards. The chaotic 2019 edition was led by Whitney curators Jane Panetta and Rujeko Hockley.
