Naomi Beckwith, the artistic director of Documenta 16, has announced the members of her curatorial team for the prestigious international art exhibition scheduled to take place in Kassel, Germany from June 12 to September 19, 2027. The team consists of four accomplished women: Carla Acevedo-Yates, Romi Crawford, Mayra A. Rodríguez Castro, and Xiaoyu Weng, marking the first time in Documenta's history that the artistic leadership team is entirely female.
"I am grateful to be shaping Documenta 16 together with this team. I admire the independence of spirit and thought that characterizes all of them, shaped by equal respect for artists and audiences alike," Beckwith said in an official statement. "We look forward to exploring together the diverse fields of contemporary artistic practices and entering into dialogue with the pressing questions that shape the social and cultural landscapes of our planet and their futures."
Carla Acevedo-Yates brings extensive expertise as a curator and scholar specializing in art from the Caribbean, Latin America, and the United States. She has worked at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and focuses on cultural production within diaspora communities. Her research and curatorial practice examine how cultural identity and displacement influence artistic expression.
Romi Crawford serves as an educator, author, and professor of Visual and Critical Studies at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her work centers on collective art-making and the intersection of art, politics, and economics. She founded both the Black Arts Movement School Modality and New Art School Modality platforms, which aim to establish new value systems for art education and cultural transmission.
Mayra A. Rodríguez Castro is an accomplished author and publisher who has edited a collection of lectures by US writer and activist Audre Lorde. In 2018, she was a fellow at the John F. Kennedy Institute for North American Studies at the Free University of Berlin, where she continued her research on cultural and literary practices.
Xiaoyu Weng has built an impressive curatorial career working at major institutions including the Guggenheim Museum in New York, the Art Gallery of Ontario in Toronto, the Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art in Yekaterinburg, and the Kadist Art Foundation in both San Francisco and Paris. Her curatorial focus emphasizes intercultural collaboration and interdisciplinary art practices. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she developed an online series for the New York Guggenheim addressing anti-Asian racism.
The team composition reflects Beckwith's close ties to Chicago, her birthplace and former workplace. Beckwith currently serves as deputy director of the Guggenheim Museum in New York and was appointed as artistic director of Documenta 16 in December 2024. Her selection of team members demonstrates a commitment to diverse perspectives and global artistic practices.
Documenta, held every five years in Kassel, is one of the world's most important exhibitions of contemporary art. The upcoming 16th edition promises to continue the exhibition's tradition of presenting cutting-edge artistic practices while addressing contemporary social and cultural issues through the lens of this groundbreaking all-female curatorial team.
