Meg Onli and Zack Winokur to Curate 2028 Whitney Biennial

Bringing together two visionary artistic leaders whose practices span contemporary visual art, performance, music, and interdisciplinary collaboration, Onli and Winokur will lead the development of the eighty-third edition of the Museum’s landmark exhibition series, set to open in March 2028.

Onli, who co-organized Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing, is currently co-curator of the Whitney’s blockbuster exhibition Roy Lichtenstein: Like New, on view through May 10, 2027, the first full-scale retrospective of the artist’s work in New York City in more than three decades. 

Winokur is an internationally recognized director, the Co-Founder of AMOC* (American Modern Opera Company), and the former Artistic Director of Little Island. Together, they bring expansive perspectives on artistic practice today and a shared commitment to championing artists, fostering experimentation, and exploring new possibilities across disciplines.

“Every Whitney Biennial springs from a distinct curatorial alchemy, and I couldn’t be more excited to bring Meg and Zack together to lead the 2028 edition,” said Scott Rothkopf, Alice Pratt Brown Director of the Whitney Museum of American Art. “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.”

“I’m thrilled to be returning to the Whitney Biennial after co-curating Even Better Than the Real Thing in 2024,” said Onli. “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.”

“I’m honored to be curating the Whitney Biennial with Meg,” said Winokur. “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.”

Meg Onli is the Nancy and Fred Poses Curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, where she plays a central role in shaping the Museum's contemporary exhibition program and collection. An innovative curator, writer, and champion of emerging and underrecognized artists, Onli is known for her rigorous and expansive approach to contemporary artistic practice and her commitment to reexamining established narratives in art history.

Onli co-organized Whitney Biennial 2024: Even Better Than the Real Thing with Chrissie Iles, an exhibition that explored notions of reality at a moment of profound technological, political, and cultural transformation. She is currently co-curator of Roy Lichtenstein: Like New, alongside artist Alex Da Corte. Bringing together more than 130 works spanning six decades, the exhibition is the first full-scale retrospective of Lichtenstein's work in New York City in more than thirty years and offers an ambitious reconsideration of one of the most influential artists of the twentieth century.

Onli joined the Whitney in 2023 as Curator-at-Large before being named Nancy and Fred Poses Curator in 2024. Prior to the Whitney, she served as co-director and curator of the Underground Museum in Los Angeles. Previously, she was the Andrea B. Laporte Associate Curator at the Institute of Contemporary Art at the University of Pennsylvania (ICA Philadelphia), where she organized exhibitions including Colored People Time: Mundane Features, Quotidian Pasts, Banal Presents and Jessica Vaughn: Our Primary Focus Is To Be Successful, and co-curated Ulysses Jenkins: Without Your Interpretation.

Onli founded the Black Visual Archive in 2010, a project dedicated to reviewing contemporary Black visual culture, for which she received a 2012 Andy Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant from Creative Capital. She is also the recipient of a Graham Foundation Grant, the Leeway Foundation's Transformation Award, and the inaugural Figure Skating Prize, awarded by Virgil Abloh's Art Space. 

Zack Winokur is an acclaimed director whose work spans opera, theater, dance, music, and the visual arts. Winokur is known for his genre-defying productions and collaborations with some of today’s most innovative artists and performers. His interdisciplinary approach challenges traditional boundaries between art forms and creates new possibilities for artistic expression and audience engagement.

Winokur is the Artistic Director and Co-Founder of AMOC* (American Modern Opera Company), a collective of singers, dancers, and instrumentalists dedicated to creating new work across disciplines. In 2025, AMOC* presented an unprecedented five-week festival across the Lincoln Center campus, featuring twelve new productions.

The collective has been celebrated for its inventive approach to performance and its commitment to developing ambitious new work through sustained artistic collaboration. Winokur’s recent projects include directing The Seasons, Complications in Sue, and The Black Clown at Opera Philadelphia; Both Ends, starring Justin Vivian Bond, at the Cherry Lane Theatre in celebration of a new partnership between A24 and Dior; The Wizard of Oz at Sphere in Las Vegas; and Yo-Yo Ma: Words and Music, presented throughout the United States.

His work in the visual arts includes an installation created with artist Hugh Hayden and Davóne Tines for the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Triennial. Additional highlights include Only an Octave Apart, presented at St. Ann’s Warehouse, the New York Philharmonic, Wilton's Music Hall in London, and the Gate Theatre in Dublin; Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde at the Santa Fe Opera; and Messiaen’s Harawi, created with Julia Bullock, Conor Hanick, Bobbi Jene Smith, and Or Schraiber, at the Aix-en-Provence Festival and on tour throughout Europe and the United States. 

Upcoming projects include Gershwin’s Let ‘Em Eat Cake at Opera Philadelphia and New York City Center Encores! in spring 2027. From 2024 to 2026, Winokur served as the first Producing Artistic Director of Little Island in New York City, where he oversaw the programming and production of more than twenty world premieres across three sold-out summer seasons. He also served as Artistic Director of NYPopsUp, a statewide initiative that helped reopen the performing arts following the COVID-19 pandemic through more than 300 performances across New York State. He has co-taught a transdisciplinary storytelling course at Harvard University with Davóne Tines.

Main Image: Meg Onli and Zack Winokur; Photo by Bryan Derballa.