The Whitney Museum of American Art has named two curators from its ranks to organize the next edition of its Biennial, what is arguably the most important art show in the United States. The 2026 exhibition will be helmed by Marcela Guerrero, who is known for elevating the work of Latin American artists, and Drew Sawyer, a photography curator who joined the institution last year from the Brooklyn Museum.
“This is a huge endeavor,” said Guerrero, 44, who also said that she was excited to partner with Sawyer, 42. “He has a great eye; great discipline.”
Both curators have received praise for organizing exhibitions that quickly became must-sees in New York. Guerrero was promoted last year from an assistant curatorial position after her exhibition on Puerto Rican art in the wake of Hurricane Maria. (The show was billed as the first scholarly exhibition on Puerto Rican art at a major American institution in nearly 50 years.)
Sawyer recently finished his tenure at the Brooklyn Museum with “Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make Zines,” an exhibition about zine culture that he organized with the art historian Branden Joseph. The art critic Martha Schwendener called the show “an echo from the past, but also a blueprint for future generations of artists and dissidents.” Sawyer has curated his first show at the Whitney, opening Aug. 24: “Mark Armijo McKnight: Decreation,” which features this emerging photographer’s black and white prints of anonymous nude people in stark landscapes.
Scott Rothkopf, the director of the Whitney, said that both curators excel at finding new voices. “I see the Biennial more and more as an engine that moves the whole museum forward,” he said in an interview. “They are both fantastic talent scouts who think broadly and are able to synthesize really interesting strands of contemporary art.”
The modern format of the Whitney Biennial started in 1973, though the museum has produced regular surveys of contemporary art since 1937. It has become a defining feature of the institution, playing its role as a cultural barometer and occasional lightning rod.
Rothkopf said the Whitney Biennial is one of the most expensive shows produced at the museum because of its scope, commissioned artworks and artists’ fees. But the institution also relies on the exhibition to drive public interest. Total attendance for the current 2024 biennial, ending Sunday, is at nearly 400,000, with almost a quarter of all visitors coming for free admissions hours on Friday evenings and the second Sunday of every month.
More than 3,600 artists have participated in the program over the last half-century, creating an alumni roster filled with names like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Louise Bourgeois, Glenn Ligon and Julia Mehretu. The exhibition is also a star vehicle for curators looking to eventually lead institutions of their own. Lisa Phillips, director of the New Museum, and Thelma Golden, director of the Studio Museum in Harlem, both helped organize the 1993 Whitney Biennial alongside the curators John G. Hanhardt and Elisabeth Sussman.
Guerrero and Sawyer have only just started planning for the 2026 edition, and the next couple years will involve traveling across the globe to survey the field. Recent biennials have expanded on the idea of contemporary American art to include artists living out of the country or who might have already died.
“The institution has always paid attention to how we define America and what is American art,” Sawyer said, “but also what those questions look like in relation to the rest of the world.”
One theme has emerged since the curators started thinking about their Biennial: climate change. Guerrero said that sustainability and the environment has become a concern for artists and institutions. (Many curators have taken on this topic, most recently The Asia Society’s “Coal & Ice.” )
However, the curatorial pair are leaving the door open. “A lot could happen in the next two years — we have a presidential election coming up,” Sawyer said. “We are all thinking about that and what the future could hold.”
