A companion to the 2026 installment of the Whitney’s signature exhibition features the work of artists defining contemporary art in the United States today
The curators Marcela Guerrero and Drew Sawyer are both known for rigorous and acclaimed exhibitions of a broad range of artists. For the 2026 iteration of the storied Whitney Biennial, they have considered the concerns of American artists working across the country and abroad, resulting in a powerful and important exhibition. Artists’ voices are central to this book; each artist has participated in a conversation with a curator, writer, or art historian, and these insightful and illuminating texts appear alongside the artist’s work. Conceived in the style of longform magazine conversations, they provide a unique window into emerging artists’ work and thinking. Essays by Guerrero and Sawyer surface themes and influences specific to each curator.
Since its introduction in 1932, the Whitney Biennial—the Museum’s signature exhibition—has charted new developments in contemporary art. Amid ongoing upheavals in cultural, social, and political spheres, this volume offers an engaging intergenerational take on the storied institution of the Biennial while continuing to serve, as previous editions have, as an invaluable resource on present-day trends in contemporary art in the United States.
Distributed for the Whitney Museum of American Art
Exhibition Schedule:
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
(March 11–August 30, 2026)