Marcela Guerrero leads the 2026 Whitney Biennial with a bold Latinx vision

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

The Puerto Rican makes history by being the first Latina to co-direct the Whitney Art Biennial, the oldest and most prestigious in the United States

Marcela Guerrero (San Juan, 1980) has made history twice: in 2022 by becoming the first Latina senior 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 art fair in the United States—it began in 1932—promoted to fame artists who are now essential, such as Jackson Pollock and Jeff Koons, and is one of the benchmark 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 Mellon Foundation study that, although conducted in 2015, remains the most specific.

From her office at the Whitney, Guerrero talks about Latinx art today and shares her journey to success; from how she felt at 18 that the art world could be the path to follow, to the various jobs she took without skipping a step, to becoming one of the most important Latina curators in the country.

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 a book, Happy Days, Uncle Sergio, by Magali García Ramis. The protagonist, Uncle Sergio, was a fan of Matisse, 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 Smithsonian was free. There I could think and reflect, and as a single woman, I felt safe and free from harassment. That's when I began to see art as a possible career for me.

Q. You earned your doctorate from the University of Wisconsin. Was your intention to pursue an academic career?

A. My parents were professors, so I initially thought about pursuing a doctorate 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 the age of 29, at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. I was a research coordinator under the leadership of Mari Carmen Ramírez, director of the International Center for the Arts of the Americas (ICAA). It was the perfect moment and the perfect job to dip my toe in the water.