The Whitney Museum of American Art has announced that Marcela Guerrero and Rujeko Hockley have been appointed as assistant curators. Hockley, an assistant curator at the Brooklyn Museum, will begin working at the Whitney on March 6; Guerrero, a curatorial fellow at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, will join the curatorial team on April 25.

Scott Rothkopf, the Whitney’s Deputy Director for Programs and Nancy and Steve Crown Family Chief Curator, noted: “Marcela and Ru have distinguished themselves as two of the brightest and most passionate curatorial voices of their generation. Having worked across the country in California, Texas, and New York, they add a wide range of knowledge and new field-specific expertise to the Whitney’s curatorial team. Their scholarly acumen is matched by a frontline commitment to emerging artists, and I have no doubt their contributions to the Whitney’s program and collection will help broaden and reshape our narratives of the art of the United States, both past and present.”

“It is a great honor to join the curatorial staff of a museum that has historically sought to redefine and celebrate the ever-evolving concept of American art and support its dynamism,” said Guerrero. “I’m especially interested in exploring the contributions and impact of Latinx artists in the United States. The possibilities enabled by such a forward-thinking museum are truly energizing.”

Hockley remarked: “I am thrilled to be transitioning from one incredible world-class institution to another. I am looking forward to working with a fantastic team of colleagues and an unparalleled permanent collection, advancing the Whitney’s vital mission at this exciting moment in its history.”

Since 2014 Guerrero has been a curatorial fellow at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, where she is involved in the upcoming exhibition Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960–1985 (2017), organized as part of the Getty Foundation’s Pacific Standard Time: LA/LA initiative and guest-curated by Cecilia Fajardo-Hill and Andrea Giunta. Along with Fajardo-Hill, Guerrero curated the show’s selection of Latina and Chicana artists and has written the catalogue chapter on Caribbean women artists, along with more than sixty biographical entries.

Prior to her position at the Hammer, she worked in the Latin American and Latino Art Curatorial department at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH) where she served as Research Coordinator for the International Center for the Arts of the Americas (ICAA). As researcher-in-house, she was in charge of reviewing, vetting, and publishing all primary and secondary sources on the ICAA’s digital archive “Documents of 20th-Century Latin American and Latino Art.” At the MFAH she also participated in the acquisition of artworks from the Caribbean region for the permanent collection.

Guerrero’s writing has appeared in a variety of publications including ArtNexus; Caribbean Intransit: The Arts Journal; and Gulf Coast: A Journal of Literature and Fine Arts; and two articles are forthcoming in the Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies and Diálogo. Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Guerrero holds a Ph.D in Art History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Born and raised in Puerto Rico, Guerrero received her BA from the University of Puerto Rico, Rio Piedras Campus, and holds a Ph.D. in Art History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Hockley joins the Whitney after four years at the Brooklyn Museum, where she is assistant curator of contemporary art. While at the Brooklyn Museum, she contributed to numerous exhibitions and related public programs, including LaToya Ruby Frazier: A Haunted Capital (2013), Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic (2015), and Tom Sachs: Boombox Retrospective, 1999–2016 (2016), as well as several permanent collection exhibitions. Additionally, she co-curated Crossing Brooklyn: Art from Bushwick, Bed-Stuy, and Beyond (2014) and the upcoming We Wanted a Revolution: Black Radical Women, 1965–85 (2017). Hockley has also been closely involved with collection planning and acquisitions, as well as the Brooklyn Museum’s Contemporary Art Acquisitions Committee.

Hockley started her career as a curatorial assistant at The Studio Museum in Harlem, and has also worked at San Diego’s Museum of Contemporary Art. Her writing has appeared in numerous exhibition catalogues and in publications including Artforum, Aperture, The Miami Rail, San Francisco Arts Quarterly, and Studio. She has lectured and served on panels and juries widely. Hockley is a Board Member of the Art Matters Foundation, and serves on the Advisory Board of Recess.

She received her BA from Columbia University and is a Ph.D. candidate in Art History, Theory & Criticism at the University of California, San Diego.