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The Whitney Museum has named the curators for the next Biennial: Whitney curator Meg Onli and director Zack Winokur. The 83rd edition of one of the country’s top biennials—and almost always most polarizing—will open in March 2028.
Onli will co-curate the Whitney Biennial for the second time, having done the 2024 edition, titled “Even Better Than the Real Thing,” with Chrissie Iles. Onli joined the Whitney was a curator-at-large in 2023, and she was promoted to the title of Nancy and Fred Poses Curator in 2024. She had previously been codirector and curator of the Underground Museum in Los Angeles and an associate curator at Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia.
With artist Alex Da Corte, Onli is also a co-curator of the Whitney’s current retrospective for Pop artist Roy Lichtenstein, which opened last month. In a review, ARTnews deputy editor Alex Greenberger called it a “stylish show” that contends that Lichtenstein “saw our pictures-obsessed moment coming … and even deliberately fed into it.”
Onli’s collaboration with Da Corte for an exhibition is perhaps an indicator of what visitors can likely expect in her working with Winokur when the Biennial opens in less than a year and a half. A press release announcing their appointment described Onli and Winokur as bring “expansive perspectives on artistic practice today and a shared commitment to championing artists, fostering experimentation, and exploring new possibilities across disciplines.”
“I’m thrilled to be returning to the Whitney Biennial,” Onli said in a statement. “From the Whitney’s early Annuals to its many subsequent iterations, the Biennial has a rich history of reinvention that is already giving us much to think about. I couldn’t be more excited to explore what the Biennial can be alongside Zack, who is such a dynamic thinker, and to see where our conversations with artists lead.”
Winokur is the cofounder of AMOC* (American Modern Opera Company), which presented a five-week festival at Lincoln Center in 2025 that including 12 new productions. He has directed productions like Complications in Sue and The Black Clown at the Opera Philadelphia, as well as Both Ends, starring Justin Vivian Bond and made to celebrate a partnership with A24 and Dior. He also has collaborated on an installation for the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Triennial with artists Hugh Hayden and Davóne Tines.
He is also the former artistic director of Little Island, which was an off-site venue of the 2026 Whitney Biennial, which closed less than a month ago and saw more than 550,000 visitors. That edition, curated by Marcela Guerrero and Drew Sawyer, saw Julio Torres and Martine Gutierrez stage a commissioned performance, titled Marina, on Little Island this past August.
In a statement about his working with Onli, Winokur said, “Our shared desire to center objects and people and the collision between them already echoes our collaboration. It’s that energy that makes the dialogue with her so fun and inspiring. As an artist, what excites me most is being in service to other artists, and I’m delighted to have the opportunity to do so in the context of the Whitney.”
Speaking of the “distinct curatorial alchemy” of each Biennial and the collaboration between Onli and Winokur specifically, Whitney director Scott Rothkopf said in a statement, “Meg is one of the most compelling curatorial voices working today, with an extraordinary ability to champion artists and bring fresh perspectives to the history of American art. Zack is an equally inventive artistic programmer who has become one of the leading voices of his generation through groundbreaking work across opera, theater, dance, and the visual arts. Their partnership promises a radical new vision for the 2028 Biennial.”