The Whitney Museum of American Art has announced an unexpected pairing to organise its next Biennial. Curator Meg Onli and stage director Zack Winokur will jointly curate the 83rd Whitney Biennial, which opens in March 2028. Winokur, who has never previously curated a major museum show, is an unprecedented choice for one of the art world's most scrutinised jobs.

Winokur is best known as a director and choreographer, and as co-founder of AMOC, the American Modern Opera Company, which staged a five-week festival at Lincoln Center in 2025 featuring twelve new productions. The Whitney's announcement emphasises the pairing's shared interest in bringing objects and people together: Winokur spoke in a press statement of a shared desire to centre objects and people and the collision between them.

Onli, meanwhile, is returning to familiar territory. She previously co-curated the 2024 Whitney Biennial with Chrissie Iles, an edition titled Even Better Than the Real Thing. Onli joined the Whitney as curator-at-large in 2023 and was promoted to Nancy and Fred Poses Curator in 2024. Her second turn at the helm gives the 2028 edition an experienced anchor alongside Winokur's outsider perspective.

Nothing has yet been revealed about the pair's plans for the exhibition, and the museum has not announced a theme or an artist list. Whitney director Scott Rothkopf pointed to the distinct curatorial alchemy of each edition of the survey, suggesting the institution sees the unusual collaboration as a strength. The 82nd edition, organised by Marcela Guerrero and Drew Sawyer, ran from March to August 2026. The 2028 show will be the latest test of whether the Biennial, the United States' most prominent survey of contemporary art, can still surprise.