Artists Announced for Whitney Biennial 2026

The Whitney Museum of American Art announces that 56 artists, duos, and collectives will participate in Whitney Biennial 2026. Opening March 8, 2026, this is the 82nd edition of the Museum’s landmark exhibition series, the longest-running survey of American art. A presentation of the most relevant art and ideas of our time, the artists featured in the Whitney Biennial showcase work across most of the Museum’s gallery space as well as through a robust series of performance and public programs available at the Museum and online. Co-organized by two Whitney curators, Marcela Guerrero and Drew Sawyer, the Biennial presents the work of contemporary artists working across media and disciplines, representing evolving notions of American art.

Whitney Biennial 2026 offers a vivid atmospheric survey of contemporary American art shaped by a moment of profound transition. The work of 56 artists, duos, and collectives reflects the current moment and examines various forms of relationality, including interspecies kinships, familial relations, geopolitical entanglements, technological affinities, shared mythologies, and infrastructural supports. Rather than offering a definitive answer to life today, this Whitney Biennial foregrounds mood and texture, inviting visitors into environments that evoke tension, tenderness, humor, and unease. Together, the works capture the complexity of the present and propose imaginative, unruly, and unexpected forms of coexistence.

Whitney Biennial 2026 is co-organized by Whitney curators Marcela Guerrero, the DeMartini Family Curator, and Drew Sawyer, the Sondra Gilman Curator of Photography, with Beatriz Cifuentes, Biennial Curatorial Assistant, and Carina Martinez, Rubio Butterfield Family Fellow.

Artist information is also available online. Full details are available here.

Exhibition Tickets on Sale

Starting January 13, 2026, visitors can purchase timed tickets for Whitney Biennial 2026, which opens March 8, 2026. The opening day coincides with one of the Whitney’s Free Second Sundays, offering free admission to visitors of all ages. More ticketing information will be available on the Museum’s website.

Catalogue

The 2026 Whitney Biennial is accompanied by a 500-page catalogue with more than 400 images designed by Mỹ Linh Triệu Nguyễn of Studio LHOOQ, published by the Whitney, and distributed by Yale University Press. Edited by Marcela Guerrero and Drew Sawyer, the book features insightful conversations between each Biennial artist and someone intimately familiar with their work, including fellow artists, critics, writers, curators, mentors, and family members. Copies will be available for purchase in the Whitney Shop, online, and at bookstores ($50).

Free Public Programs

A series of free virtual and in-person programs is offered in conjunction with Whitney Biennial 2026. More information about these programs and how to register will be available on the Museum’s website as details are confirmed.

ABOUT THE WHITNEY BIENNIAL

A constellation of the most relevant art and ideas of our time, the Whitney Biennial showcases contemporary artists working across media and disciplines, representing evolving notions of American art. Established by the Museum’s founder, Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney, in 1932, the Whitney Biennial is the longest-running survey of American art. More than 3,600 artists have participated to date, including Jean-Michel Basquiat, Lynda Benglis, Louise Bourgeois, Frank Bowling, Mark Bradford, Alexander Calder, Theresa Hak Kyung Cha, Raven Chacon, Ellen Gallagher, Nikita Gale, Jeffrey Gibson, Nan Goldin, Renee Green, Wade Guyton, Rachel Harrison, Jenny Holzer, Edward Hopper, Suzanne Jackson, Joan Jonas, Ellsworth Kelly, Mike Kelley, Willem de Kooning, Barbara Kruger, Pope. L, Jacob Lawrence, Carolyn Lazard, Zoe Leonard, Roy Lichtenstein, Glenn Ligon, Agnes Martin, Daniel Joseph Martinez, Julie Mehretu, Sarah Michelson, Joan Mitchell, Tiona Nekkia McClodden, Georgia O’Keeffe, Claes Oldenburg, Laura Owens, Jackson Pollock, Postcommodity, Yvonne Rainer, Robert Rauschenberg, Cindy Sherman, Lorna Simpson, Rose B. Simpson, Martine Syms, Tourmaline, Wu Tsang, Cy Twombly, Kara Walker, Andy Warhol, Kiyan Williams, and David Wojnarowicz.

EXHIBITION SUPPORT

Whitney Biennial 2026 is presented by HYUNDAI.

The exhibition is also sponsored by Fondazione BVLGARI.

Leadership support for the 2026 Whitney Biennial is provided by David Cancel, and Stephanie March and Dan Benton.

Major support is provided by the Adam D. Weinberg Artists First Fund, Marcia Dunn and Jonathan Sobel, The Holly Peterson Foundation, the Kapadia Equity Fund, The KHR McNeely Family Foundation | Kevin, Rosemary, and Hannah Rose McNeely, and the Whitney’s National Committee.

Significant support is provided by Sotheby’s.

2026 Biennial Committee Co-Chairs: Paul Arnhold and Wes Gordon, Suzanne and Bob Cochran, Salvador Espinoza and Jonathan Rozoff, Amanda and Glenn Fuhrman, Further Forward Foundation, Becky Gochman, Christina Hribar, Deepa Kumaraiah and Sean Dempsey, Miyoung Lee and Neil Simpkins, Dawn and David Lenhardt, Sueyun and Gene Locks, the George Petrocheilos and Diamantis Xylas, Nancy and Fred Poses, Dr. Jan Siegmund and Dr. Benjamin Maddox, Jackson Tang, Teresa Tsai, and Todd White and Cameron Carani.

2026 Biennial Committee: Shelley Fox Aarons and Philip Aarons, Susan and Matthew Blank, Estrellita and Daniel Brodsky, James Keith Brown and Eric Diefenbach, Yolanda Colón-Greenberg and Craig Greenberg, Christy and Bill Gautreaux, Elaine Goldman and John Benis, Grace Gould and Jonathan Goldberg, Michèle Gerber Klein, Bernard I. Lumpkin and Carmine D. Boccuzzi, Marc S. Solomon, Cindy Levine & Interlaken LLC, Jamie Watson in memory of Emmett Watson, George Wells and Manfred Rantner, Casey and Lauren Weyand, and Allison Wiener and Jeffrey Schackner.

Generous support is provided by The Keith Haring Foundation Exhibition Fund and the Trellis Art Fund.

Biennial funding is also provided by endowments created by Emily Fisher Landau, Leonard A. Lauder, and Fern and Lenard Tessler.

Curatorial research and travel for this exhibition were funded by an endowment established by Rosina Lee Yue and Bert A. Lies, Jr., MD.

Support is also provided by the Marshall Weinberg Fund for Performance, endowed in honor of his parents Anna and Harold Weinberg who taught him the meaning of giving.

The Whitney Biennial and Hyundai Terrace Commission are a multiyear partnership with Hyundai Motor. The Hyundai Terrace Commission is an annual site-specific installation on the Whitney Museum’s fifth floor outdoor gallery.

ABOUT THE WHITNEY

The Whitney Museum of American Art, founded in 1930 by the artist and philanthropist Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney (1875–1942), houses the foremost collection of American art from the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Mrs. Whitney, an early and ardent supporter of modern American art, nurtured groundbreaking artists when audiences were still largely preoccupied with the Old Masters. From her vision arose the Whitney Museum of American Art, which has been championing the most innovative art of the United States for ninety years. The core of the Whitney’s mission is to collect, preserve, interpret, and exhibit American art of our time and serve a wide variety of audiences in celebration of the complexity and diversity of art and culture in the United States. Through this mission and a steadfast commitment to artists, the Whitney has long been a powerful force in support of modern and contemporary art and continues to help define what is innovative and influential in American art today.

Whitney Museum Land Acknowledgment

The Whitney is located in Lenapehoking, the ancestral homeland of the Lenape. The name Manhattan comes from their word Mannahatta, meaning “island of many hills.” The Museum’s current site is close to land that was a Lenape fishing and planting site called Sapponckanikan (“tobacco field”). The Whitney acknowledges the displacement of this region’s original inhabitants and the Lenape diaspora that exists today.

As a museum of American art in a city with vital and diverse communities of Indigenous people, the Whitney recognizes the historical exclusion of Indigenous artists from its collection and program. The Museum is committed to addressing these erasures and honoring the perspectives of Indigenous artists and communities as we work for a more equitable future. To read more about the Museum’s Land Acknowledgment, visit the Museum’s website.

VISITOR INFORMATION

The Whitney Museum of American Art is located at 99 Gansevoort Street between Washington and West Streets, New York City. Public hours are Monday, Wednesday, and Thursday, 10:30 am–6 pm; Friday, 10:30 am–10 pm; and Saturday and Sunday, 10:30 am–6 pm. Closed Tuesday. Visitors twenty-five years and under and Whitney members: FREE. The Museum offers FREE admission and special programming for visitors of all ages every Friday evening from 5–10 pm and on the second Sunday of every month.