Elle Peréz’s Whitney Biennial Photo Diary

It was a rainy Tuesday late afternoon, and for a second we fantasized about taking a cab to the opening of the 2026 Whitney Biennial. 

But then I opened up one of those apps, and saw that it wanted something close to 60 actual dollars for what should be a 12 minute ride. Yellow cabs were as sparse as the apps were absurd, so I convinced a rightfully skeptical KL that riding a corporate e-bike was our BEST option. Besides, we were late!

KL riding a citibike in the rain to the biennial opening. I have since apologized to him for suggesting this.

Wet and a little salty, KL and I docked our bikes on the corner and hurried inside. No line! I winced thinking about what the scene would look like in about an hour. Every biennial opening I’ve been to has always had a black friday level line stretching down the block…except this opening is always on Tuesday. Green Tuesday? 

Good luck out there, comrades.

The lobby of the Whitney Museum during the opening of the 2026 Whitney Biennial 

About half an hour before the official 7pm invitation time, the party had already started. The museum invites biennial artists and their guests to arrive early, around 6pm. This means they can skip the line and actually get inside, instead of getting stuck in a receiving line at the entrance all night. Plus, that’s not even anything compared to how crowded it can be inside. One svelte book editor quipped to me that he felt like he was at a rave because there were so many people. The crowd crush rivals only that of the Printed Matter Book Fair. For the claustrophobic, it’s a bit of a nightmare. 

But I’m a freak, so I actually love it.

DJ Perly

Greg Reynolds, art preparator at the Whitney, delivers curator Marcela Guerrero a drink in style

Inside, we quickly found 2026 biennial co-curator Marcela Guerrero. 

2026 Biennial co-curator Marcela Guerrero

Marcela! Congratulations on the exhibition. How do you feel? 

I’m feeling a little tired and a lot tired. Exhausted, you know—I have all the feels. We had the press preview today, it went awesome. Have you seen Drew yet?

I haven’t yet—but I bet after working together so intensely, you guys must now have a find-my-friends style spidey sense of each other’s location. What was it like working with Drew? 

It was really great to work with Drew. We didn’t realize how well we would work together. Especially the traveling part, you can’t travel with just anyone. But we traveled together something like 95% of the time. We both are really easy travelers. Same flight, same hotel, we went everywhere together. 

What location was the biggest surprise for you, in terms of finding artists?

One big surprise was New Mexico—we went back twice. Love, love New Mexico: so many artists live there who are from there, and now, a lot of other artists are moving there. It’s interesting what’s happening there, and how the arts are involved. We also went to Hawai’i for the Hawai’i Triennial: that was incredible. It was a great show, thinking about the Pacific Ocean and about water as the connective thread between the pacific region. We went to a lot of places in Hawai’i, saw a lot of shows, and met a lot of artists. 

It seems hard to do a show about art in America in 2026—but really, whenever. To pull on any slice of time, to take life and present it as a moment. How did you approach doing that? 

It was weird! Especially the remit of doing a biennial every two years when art and artistic practices don’t really work on that timeline. So it can be kind of hard to map that, and to square those two things together. But it’s also a huge privilege. Almost any artist that we wanted to visit, for the most part they would say yes. People opened their doors to us, and we would get to see where they were working. It was really incredible. It’s something I probably won’t ever do again: I mean, four to ten studio visits a week. 

Do you still call everyone to notify them that they are in the exhibition?

Yeah—we did Zooms! We talked to everyone individually and told them they were in the biennial.  

How does it feel to give that news? 

I loved it. Some people cried, and that was very touching. And other people—and now I understand—but you are reacting as if I just told: you you got mail! [laughs]

They did get mail. It’s like, ‘Now you have a lot of work to do!’ 

Exactly—you’ve got mail! But it was very sweet. Everyone was very excited. We had the artist party the other night—they saw their work first—and now everyone is having a fantastic night. 

Any advice for future Biennial curators?

Oh my gosh. I have so many tips. Call me.

Cool shoes: Apologies to Marcela, but, I had to. The pedicure!

Mahete, Coco, and mom 

How do you feel about your mom being in the Whitney Biennial?

In unison: It’s pretty awesome!

At what moment did you realize it was cool?
Mahete: When I told my teacher where I was going, they were like: The Whitney Biennial? That is really cool! And then I was like: hmm… this might actually be important.

Anna Tsouhlarakis, Marie Lorenz, Lan Tuazon, and Melissa Brown, Artists

Artist Patrice Helmar with Curran Hattleberg, a 2019 Biennial Artist

How’s your night going?

Patrice: It’s great. We are at the biennial, I’m drinking a ginger seltzer. Pretty amazing. 

Do you guys have any friends in the show? 

Curran: Mo Costello! That’s the one you gotta see. Incredible person, incredible art.

KL Mays with the tiny mic interviewing artist Patrice Helmar and Curran Hattleberg, a 2019 Biennial Artist

Artist Chitra Ganesh

Do you have any biennial opening strategies? 

Chitra: Yeah—I’m gonna say hi to fifteen people, and then go home! You guys are one and two. 

Curator Eduardo Andres Alfonso and writer Kat Harriman

Curator Eduardo Andres Alfonso, artist Camille Henrot, and Art in America editor Emily Watlington

Daisy Nam, director and curator of CCA Wattis Institute of Contemporary Art in San Francisco

Amanda Herrera and Akili Tommasino

Wow you guys! So exciting – When’s the baby due? 

Amanda: I’m due March 10th, so sometime next week. Who knows. Hopefully not tonight! 

Do you think that would be the first ever baby born at the Whitney Biennial?

Amanda: Yes. 

Akili: Performance art gone way too far… 

Do you guys have a name yet?

Akili: Whitney is gender neutral!

Charlie Markbreiter, Precious Okoyomon, Bobbi Salvör Menuez, my apologies to the one person i wasn’t able to identify in the whole piece, Quori Theodor

Quinn Harrelson, Gallerist

Adrienne Edwards, Curator at the Whitney, and Natalie Diaz, Artist

Taina Cruz

Congratulations on the Whitney Biennial! You are the youngest artist in the show, right? 

Thank you! I am… 

Ok, so let’s talk about something else. [both laugh] How about the work – what are you showing? 

I have multiple pieces. I have the billboard that’s right outside, so my work starts outside. And inside, I have an installation with a wall drawing, a video animation, painting, and a bronze sculpture. 

Wow! That’s a lot! 

Yeah. I know. I was working with this giant architectural curved space that they gave me, so I just proposed incorporating a bunch of mediums on that wall. 

You are showing a lot of different kinds of work—how long have you been installing? 

Oof. My wall drawing, which was site specific, I did over two weeks ago when they were installing everyone else’s work—and that was just like an intense period seeing everyone scrambling about, but I got to be with the art preparators and the AV team, and they were the ones that really responded to the work and I think that connection really shone through… Shout out to the art preparators and AV team! They held it down for us. 

Does it feel like an accomplishment yet? 

It absolutely does. Especially that my parents are here to witness this, because they put me in everything art-related that was possible as a child. And so for them to see what I’m doing right now…  

Also, just to interject—yay uptown! 

Yeah like!! I’ve been shouting out Uptown, Bronx, Harlem, represent! I mean like, come on… so I think like I do feel a sense of accomplishment. I’ve been working for a very long time with the arts. It was always something about survival for me, so now it feels good to at least celebrate.

Taina Cruz and family

The Lobby around 8pm

Oliver Newton, 47 Canal 

As we were heading upstairs to catch the exhibition, I caught Oliver Newton of 47 Canal (the gallery that reps me) slinking toward the exit. 

What! Leaving? Where are you going?

Oliver Newton: Shhh… I’m trying to go catch the second half of the Knicks game. 

Go Knicks!

The staircase in the lobby around 8:00pm

The only way I can try to explain what it was like to go up these stairs was that it was like I was trying to climb a mountain, during an avalanche. Except instead of snow, it was all of your favorite people you hadn’t seen in like, two years.

Legacy Russell, writer and executive director and chief curator at The Kitchen

Kelly Long, Senior Curatorial Assistant at the Whitney

You’ve gotten to spend time with the show as it’s come together. Do you have any favorite installations yet?

Erin Jane Nelson’s whole installation and ceramic pinhole cameras are quite special to me. I love their weird, beautiful smallness, and the big way they do their work out in the world, creating the images that anchor the nearby, related wall works. There’s some kind of wonderful photo alchemy happening.

Bridget Donahue descending a staircase

Bridget Donahue descending a staircase excitedly!

Artist Doron Langberg attempting to pull me up and out of the stairwell.

Deana Haggag, Program Director for Arts and Culture at Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

What’s your take on the Biennial so far?

I loved seeing Hawaiian artists in the show! Now I want more, and more, and more, and more, and more…

Deana Haggag, Program Director for Arts and Culture at Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Can I ask you another question?

Wait a minute…

Deana Haggag, Program Director for Arts and Culture at Andrew W. Mellon Foundation

Deana: Actually.. I have some questions for you!

Oh man, gotta go! 

CFGNY on an attendee

Like most nightmares, this one started like a dream. Remember that avalanche? And now I felt like I was in a Resident-Evil-style video game dodging zombies… this was turning into the Night of My Living Emails!

Work by Sung Tieu

Grace Sanabria, Director at 47 Canal 

Thankfully, I ran into Grace, who saved me from my e-mail spiral. 

You’ve done this so many times before—any Biennial survival tips?

Come to the opening for the talking, come back another day to actually see the art. 

One last question—do you think we’ll ever make it to the fifth floor? 

Elle, I think you should have taken the elevator…

For a second, I didn’t know if we’d get out of there without being forced to hit accept on a google calendar invitation. The third floor is a heaven where you get three feet of space in any direction. No e-mails here, It’s a much cheerier scene. 

Artist Jessica Vaughn, artist Catherine Telford Keogh, and gallerist Helena Anrather 

You guys look happy! What’s up?

Helena: It’s Catherine’s 40th birthday today! 

Happy birthday, Catherine!

Artist Judith Hudson and writer Linda Yablonsky

Hi Linda! Do you have any early favorite pieces? 

Linda: I do. It’s by a collective, CFGNY. And it’s the work I hated the most at first sight. But well, then I became very intrigued, and then I asked a few questions. And then I found out more. 

I knew it would stay with me because it’s unlike anything else in the show. Everything else feels like, you know, it was done 30, 40 years ago. It’s a very Gen Z show, but I thought that work was an elaborate waste of time until it wasn’t. I’m still thinking about it…

Wow—when did it flip for you? 

Linda: Shortly after seeing it. It grabbed me right away, and then it got better. 

I feel like as an artist, one can only hope to make a piece and have someone feel that way after experiencing it, so i’d say that’s a pretty great reaction. 

I mean, it’s true—I’m gonna pay attention to what they do. 

Linda (to Judith): But also, what were the tiny little photographs we saw? They were very dark, and I couldn’t imagine what they were of. But they were closeups of nails from telephone posts that were left up from posters people put up advertising one thing or another?

That sounds like a Mo Costello piece, but I haven’t seen the show yet so I can’t say. 

Linda: Yes, you’re right! It was Mo Costello. 

Alright! I’m happy that my friends are nailing it for you! Go friends!

Danielle A. Jackson, Curator at Artists Space, and Clarissa Morales, Deputy Director at Carnegie Museum of Art

Have any pieces in particular stood out to you?

Clarissa: I was drawn into Young Joo Kwok’s room. The chartreuse, the sculpture, the sound, the beautiful bright colors! Nice and inviting. 

When you’re looking at a show like this, what are you looking for? 

Dannielle: Funny enough, as a curator, I’m always looking at how things are displayed, and equipment-type things. I feel like half my phone is full of photos of like, projectors or something. [laughs] I’m like, oh! it’s interesting that they displayed that this way... 

But that’s just what I look for at an opening. I do wanna come back and really take all the work in.

Nicole Russo of Chapter Gallery

Do you have any artists in the show this year? 

I have one: Erin Jane Nelson. I always, always have one. Fourth Biennial in a row. 

And how has this year’s biennial stacked up?

To be honest, it’s pretty great. I looked at the list, I didn’t know as many artists as I usually do, and so I’ve just walked around. I only saw [Floors] 5 and 6; I didn’t see downstairs. But it’s really special. I think they gave everybody the space that they needed, and they let them shine. I think that makes a good Biennial.

Jason Benson and Erin Jane Nelson

Choosing to not learn our lesson, we took the stairs again—this time to the Fifth Floor. I ran into Erin Jane Nelson, presiding over her own landing in stair purgatory. 

Congratulations Erin! I’d love to interview you actually, if you had a second. 

Erin: Oh – wait, what? are you working tonight? 

Yeah, I’m actually covering this for Art in America.

Erin: Wait, seriously? Are you joking?

Yes! Why doesn’t anyone believe me?

Cool shoes: socks and sandals go crazy, given that it was raining on Tuesday.

Erin Jane Nelson

For those of a certain dignified generation, Erin has held the championship belt of artistic genius and formal innovation ever since we were all just Cooper Union hopefuls on Livejournal. So, I was very excited to see her installation. I asked her if she’d take me on a tour of what she’d done for the show.

Erin Jane Nelson giving a tour of all their pinhole cameras  

OK, all right all right—show me the cameras. 

Erin: I’ll list them for you. We have angel cam. We have bunny cam. We have thistle cam, sunflower cam. We got mesa cam. We got bubble cam, and we got memory cam. Funny cam is Julia Roberts from when she was a photographer in that movie Closer—do you remember that movie? Julia Roberts plays this sexy, demure photographer and she’s like, shooting on a tripod with a Hasselblad…

Marleigh Belsley and Dumebi Malaika Menakaya, artists 

Marleigh, friend and an artist who just finished grad school, joined our celebration. Congratulations everyone!

Ajay Kurian (2017 Biennial Artist) and Jasmine Imani

Work by Teresa Baker

Jenny Jaskey, Chief Curator, American Academy of Arts and Letters

Danielle Jackson, writer and critic, and co-founder of the Bronx Documentary Center

Work by kekahi wahi

Artists Liam Curtis and Andrew Hawkes

So, is this biennial weird enough for you?

Andrew: I think what the curators have done here, besides offering a kaleidoscopic window into the weird times this nation is facing, is create a space where we can all gather, nod thoughtfully, and pretend we finally understand what America looks like.

Pat Oleszko in front her video

Hi Pat! I just saw you last week when you hosted the Civitella Rainieri Artist’s Party, which was so fun. And when I arrived, I saw you had also made all these amazing hats for the staff! It was really truly special. 

And the girls looked beautiful! 

They looked incredible. How is your Whitney Biennial going?

It’s going great. I’d be a lot happier if I had a drink, but other than that, everything’s been fabulous. 

You know, I feel like they should let the artists at least have drinks up here in the galleries. That would make it a lot better. 

I think there should be some coming from the ceiling. 

If you could have anything coming from the ceiling right now, what would be coming from the ceiling? 

I just need a beer. 

So like, just a downpour of Miller? 

No! No, I would have to have like, Craft IPA. 

We’ll work on getting that ceiling tap… So about your piece in the show, is there anything that you would like to say? 

Blowhard (1995) was originally done for a busker festival that was being held on the plaza of the World Trade Center. There were a lot of winds there. It’s a busker, so therefore it became a kind of a jester with the serpentine horn. I had also made an acrobat and a juggler. But since then, it has gotten to have other meanings, so I call it a Trump-eter, because it’s blowing fire that’s worthless. And he’s a fool.

Details of Pat Oleszko’s outfit for the evening

Nearby, I spotted Drew Sawyer, co-curator of the 2026 Biennial.

Drew Sawyer, 2026 Biennial Co-curator, in front of Pat Oleszko’s installation 

Hey Drew! Congratulations How has your biennial opening been going?

It has been a lot of fun actually! And I haven’t even been downstairs to dance or listen to DJs. 

It’s fun down there—just don’t try to take the stairs!

Mere minutes before the clock struck 9:30, I left KL behind and ran, literally ran, to get up the stairs to the sixth floor as the biennial was starting to close down. This could be a marathon route. I set a three minute timer on my fruit watch. I was determined to get some photos!

Work by Kimowan Metchewais and Malcolm Peacock

Work by Gabriela Ruiz

Work by Carmen de Monteflores

Work by Young Joon Kwak

While running to the 5th floor stairwell, I literally ran into marathon distance runner and 2026 biennial artist Malcolm Peacock.

Malcolm Peacock

Sharon Hayes, David L. Johnson, Emilio Martínez Poppe, Beatriz Cifuentes, and Malcolm Peacock

He was chatting in a group with Sharon Hayes, who was featured in the 2024 Biennial. “Sharon—look at all your kids!” Malcolm joked affectionately, “We’re all in the Biennial!” 

I asked to take a family picture.

Sharon Hayes, David L. Johnson, Emilio Martínez Poppe, and Malcolm Peacock

Sharon, what do you think of the show?

Sharon: Overall a really awesome show! I’m a little bit biased because I do have a ton of former students included here. Emilie Louise Gossiaux was a student of mine, David L. Johnson, Emilio Martínez Poppe, and though Malcolm Peacock was technically not one of my students, he pretty much could have been. 

It’s really great to see their work become itself, to watch it take off, claim space, and claim power. 

Work by Emilie Louise Gossiaux

As I wiped tears from my eyes, I realized we were now in the museum gallery overtime.

Work by Anna Tsouhlarakis

What follows is like our version of the Lourve scene in “Bande a part,” except if it featured me and KL artfully dodging uncles from the Bronx. My apologies to the Whitney security team. 

Work by Mo Costello

Work by Mo Costello

Work by Emilio Martínez

Work by David L. Johnson.

Remember. We’re running. Go through these fast!

Aziz Hazara

Scroll faster! We’re running! 

Work by Agosoto Machado

Work by Michelle Lopez

Whew. Possibly my best time yet. I finally got caught up in a tide of friends getting pushed toward the exit, and reunited with KL. 

Work by Ash Arder and Akira Ikezoe

Artists Estefania Puerta, Chiffon Thomas, Ilana Savadie

We got some extra chatting time thanks to the time it took to board the elevator.

Artist Joiri Minaya in the elevator 

Well, back downstairs, it was exactly what you’d expect: It was the final level of THE STAIRS. 

Here’s the epic coat check line at 9:30pm

Onyedika Chuke, artist and founder of STORAGE, Jesse Bandler Firestone, independent curator

While we’re waiting, any Biennial hot takes? 

Onyedika: I feel like this one was more on the ground. I’ve looked at a lot of early, early emerging artists with my project STORAGE in the last five years, and some of them are in here. That’s a good sign… 

There are artists [in the show] where the only way you’d know about them is to go and see their exhibitions…This is how a biennial should feel.  

Jesse, how about you—any favorite pieces?

Jesse: I think the work I responded to the most tonight was Maia Chao’s Scores for the Museum Visitor. I’m always really interested in artists who are kind of talking to institutional protocols, or standard modes of viewership. 

Nile Harris & Dyer Rhodes have an artwork that has sort of an appendage to it that will be sort of revealed over time. I also like this idea that one might not see the thing right now, but know that it will be revealed at another point in time.

Artist Natasha Moustache

At this point, everyone was pretty delirious. We shuffled downstairs in a herd, brains melted. The mood was goofy. 

Mo Costello, 2026 Biennial Artist

While contemplating the coat check line, a little voice behind me said my name. I turned around and out of the wall came Mo Costello. 

Wow, I’ve been looking for you all night!

My phone is totally dead. Blue screen, totally gone. I didn’t resist.

Congratulations. [laughs] Number one, your photographs look great. I loved seeing the hand-made photogram books, too. But I saw you had to put them in a vitrine. I get it, but I wish we could experience them the way that I know we’re supposed to experience them: looking through them, as they change.

There’s a kind of delight for me in the fact that there’s hundreds of them back in Athens [Georgia], and this isn’t their home… you know?

Artists Pat Oleszko and Natasha Moustache 

Suhaly Bautista-Carolina 

After the last coat was collected, the coat check team erupted into cheers. I asked them if they wanted to take a celebratory team picture, but they demurred. Apologetic as they walked away, they explained “we still have to come back here tomorrow!”

Scott Rothkopf, Alice Pratt Brown Director of the Whitney, with Martha Larose, who has worked front of house at the museum for over 28 years – an estimated 14 biennials!

Scott Rothkopf, Alice Pratt Brown Director of the Whitney

Congratulations on opening your second Biennial as Director! What do you think of what Marcela and Drew have done here? 

What I most admire about this Biennial is that it has this sense of conceptual stringency and a certain wackiness around the edges. 

What do you think the Whitney Biennial represents for emerging artists, or artists whose first time it is in the show? 

Well, I hope for an artist it’s a chance to join a community of artists that goes back almost 100 years, and to be a part of a history and a dialogue that this museum has fostered. And I also hope that for many of them, it’s their first chance to present their work to a broad audience. 

This is the first biennial that we’ve made free for everyone 25 and under, wherever they’re from. We have a younger, bigger, newer audience, and I’m so excited about the possibility of those visitors encountering this work. And, I think to be a young artist in a dialogue within the art world is so crucial and important, but I also think it’s really worthwhile to test out your ideas as part of a larger conversation. 

Scott Rothkopf—last to leave the party! 

After four hours of marathon talking, KL and I found ourselves outside the museum, freshly reborn.

I had poked around for afterparty plans, but hadn’t come up with much. It was after all, the second or third day of Biennial events, and this crowd knew how to pace themselves. When I asked Tin Nguyen of CFGNY about plans, he told me that CFGNY had actually had a super cute dinner Sunday night – because they knew tonight would be crazy.

There had also been a Commonwealth and Council party at Undercote celebrating Mariah Garnett, Michelle Lopez, and Young Joon Kwak the night before, which I had thought was tonight. That was, until Kibum Kim texted me to chastise me for RSVPing and not showing up. Oops! 

Not much to work with, we contemplated going home. We could cut the tape, file the piece early even, and call it a night. We had almost convinced ourselves when we got a text from Patrice Helmar, writing on behalf of Mo Costello: We’re at Julius! 

Out of the misting rain and into the warm bar, we put down our mini-mics and picked up a burger and beer. I found these on my camera the next day. 

Amber Rose Johnson, Taylor Janay Manigoult, Malcolm Peacock

Bennett Hopkins, Marcelo Gabriel Yáñez, Patrice Helmar,  Yossi Scheiner, Andy Campbell, Mo Costello

Clifford Prince King, Malcolm Peacock

Mo Costello and Andy Campbell

See you in 2028!