Naomi Beckwith

Artistic Director of documenta 16
Deputy Director and Jennifer and David Stockman Chief Curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, US

Naomi Beckwith is the Artistic Director of documenta 16 and Deputy Director as well as Jennifer and David Stockman Chief Curator at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation in New York. In this role, she oversees collections, exhibitions, publications, curatorial programs, and archives, and shares responsibility for the strategic direction of the institution within its international network of affiliated museums. Prior to joining the Guggenheim, she held curatorial positions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Studio Museum in Harlem. A graduate of the Courtauld Institute of Art, Beckwith has organized and co-organized numerous acclaimed exhibitions and monographic projects, including the award-winning Howardena Pindell: What Remains to Be Seen (2018) and The Freedom Principle: Experiments in Art and Music, 1965 to Now (2015), both presented at MCA Chicago. She was also a member of the curatorial team that realized Grief and Grievance: Art and Mourning in America (2021) at the New Museum, an exhibition conceived by Okwui Enwezor before his death. Across her exhibitions, lectures, and publications, Beckwith’s work explores the impact and resonance of Black culture on multidisciplinary practices in global contemporary art. As a scholar and art historian, she has served as a visiting professor at the Northwestern University and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and currently teaches as a lecturer at the Kunsthochschule Kassel. She has also received fellowships from the Independent Study Program of the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Institute of Contemporary Art Philadelphia. In 2024, Beckwith was awarded the David C. Driskell Prize by the High Museum of Artfor her contributions to African American art and art history. In fall 2025, she led the curatorial team for the American Season at the Palais de Tokyo, where she oversaw the presentation of ECHO DELAY REVERB — American Art, Francophone Thought and the retrospective of Melvin Edwards.

Naomi Beckwith visited Vienna on a research trip in June 2026.

documenta und Museum Fridericianum gGmbH, Artistic Direction documenta 16, Naomi Beckwith, Kassel 2024, Photo: Nicolas Wefers