Marcela Guerrero, curator: ‘The tone of the 2026 Whitney Biennial will be much higher, full of sharper nuances’

Marcela Guerrero (San Juan, 1980) has made history twice: in 2022, by becoming the first Latina principal curator of the Whitney Museum of Contemporary Art in New York, and by being the first Latina to co-direct — along with Drew Sawyer — the museum’s contemporary art biennial, after being entrusted with the 2026 edition. The Whitney Art Biennial is the oldest and most prestigious in the United States — it began in 1932 — and has catapulted to fame now-essential artists such as Jackson Pollock and Jeff Koons. It is also one of the leading fairs for taking the pulse of contemporary art. Guerrero’s leadership is a milestone considering that Latinos represent only 3% of museum leaders, curators, and educators, according to a study by the Mellon Foundation that, although conducted in 2015, remains the most specific.

From her office at the Whitney, Guerrero discusses current Latinx art and shares her journey to success — from how she felt at 18 that the art world could be the path she needed to follow, to the various jobs she took without skipping a beat, to becoming one of the country’s leading Latina curators.

Question. How did your interest in art arise?

Answer. Many curators come from parents who are artists or collectors, but that wasn’t my case. I didn’t grow up going to museums. I became interested in art after reading a book, Happy Days, Uncle Sergio, by Magali García Ramis. The protagonist, Uncle Sergio, was a Matisse fanatic, and that’s how I became curious about who that artist was. Later, when I was 18 and went to visit my sister who was studying in Washington, D.C., I visited many museums because the Smithsonians were free. There I could think and reflect, and being a single woman, I felt free from harassment, safe. That’s when I began to see art as a possible career for me.

Q. You received your PhD from the University of Wisconsin. Did you intend to pursue an academic career?

A. My parents were professors, so I originally thought about pursuing a PhD and becoming a professor of art history. But I decided to experience working in a museum while writing my thesis on Caribbean art. I got my first job at 29 at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. I was a research coordinator under Mari Carmen Ramírez, director of the International Center for the Arts of the Americas (ICAA). It was the perfect time and the perfect job to dip my toe in the water.

Q. Was it difficult to rise to the position of senior curator at the Whitney Museum?

A. It’s difficult to advance in curatorship at the same museum. Moving up the ranks often requires changing institutions, which often involves changing cities and states. I moved from Wisconsin to Houston, then to Los Angeles, and finally to New York. After three years working with Mari Carmen Ramírez, I landed a curatorial assistant position at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. It was a temporary position to organize the exhibition Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960–1985, and I spent another three years there learning the entire curatorial process, from the research phase, which I had already mastered, to the implementation phase, which was very rewarding. I never skipped a step. Only after that experience did I feel capable of applying for the curatorial assistant position that the Whitney Museum had advertised on their website. They hired me, and everything changed from then on.

Q. In what sense?

A. While at the Whitney, I’ve been promoted twice, to associate curator and then to full curator. It’s not often that you get opportunities to advance within a single institution. That’s why I want to do my best to make it easier for younger people, to be a kind of mentor to the Latinx people who work with me, and to ensure that after working with me here, they can move on to another museum as curatorial assistants. So far, I’ve supervised three fellows: Alana Hernández, who now works at the ASU Art Museum in Tempe, Arizona; Angélica Arbelaez, who is at the High Museum of Art; and Sofía Silva, who is pursuing her PhD at Stanford University.

Q. How will the 2026 Whitney Biennial differ from previous editions?

A. The last biennial was quieter, more somber. It was before the elections, and I think you could feel that pressure coming, but not directly, just latently. The tone of this biennial is much higher, full of sharper nuances.

Q. What has it been like working with Drew Sawyer?

A. We’ve decided to approach this biennial with an open mind. Since we began the research process in August, visiting artists’ studios, we’ve been traveling twice a month outside of New York. We’ve been to Puerto Rico, Mexico, Hawaii, New Orleans, Toronto... And when we’re in New York, we do four to eight visits a week, in addition to the virtual ones. We’re still absorbing, so we haven’t decided what the guiding thread will be. Our strategy is not to go in with a well-defined thesis, but to focus on the present with a granular view and understand what artists are thinking at this moment. Whether or not they’re responding to what’s happening politically, and if so, how. But in general, the artists have already been working for a long time on ideas that have to do with climate change, the community — especially among trans artists — and how the government extends its tentacles in different ways. There are Latinx artists who, decades ago, had already felt the presence of the United States as a giant neoliberal political entity with many consequences.

Q. Is the inclusion of Latinx artists in major cultural institutions real or still symbolic?

A. We'll have to wait and see if the museums have a real commitment or if it was just a symbolic representation. I'm very interested to see how they react. I don't want to see cowardice on the part of either the museums or the patrons.

Q. How do you think current U.S. politics might impact Latin art?

A. At the end of February, two exhibitions of Caribbean and queer art were canceled at the Art Museum of the Americas in Washington, D.C., but I haven’t noticed any changes toward Latinx art at the museum where I work. I think there’s more sensitivity to the Gaza war. What I fear is that collectors and donors will start taking measures that no one asked them to and that an unnecessary conservative shift will occur.

Q. How can we reframe American art history to better reflect the diversity of voices?

A. By making exhibitions more plural. For example, from November 2024 to February 2026 we have an exhibition called Shifting Landscapes, where the vast majority of the works on display are acquisitions the museum has made in the last five years, and 40% of the 80 artists on display are Latinx.

Q. What do you think about the recent rejection of the Spanish language by government agencies?

A. I’m concerned because at the Whitney, we’ve invested in a very strong bilingual program, developed by the Education Department headed by Cris Scorza. Starting this summer, we’ll have all the exhibits translated for the first time — the explanations, the fact sheets, the labels, all the exhibits in the gallery.

Q. What is your biggest challenge right now?

A. Not to get lost, overwhelmed, or intimidated by everything that’s happening in the sociopolitical context. Curators are at the service of art and artists, and that will always be the main goal.

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