Taína H. Cruz: I Saw the Future and It Smiled Back

This artwork is featured on the building facade on Gansevoort Street across from the Whitney and the High Line.

Graffiti is a major inspiration for Taína H. Cruz’s (b. 1998, New York, NY) paintings and drawings, including those she created on-site on one of the Whitney’s fifth-floor gallery walls for the 82nd edition of the Museum’s Biennial. Her work, I Saw the Future and It Smiled Back, on the Gansevoort Street billboard, reflects a child-like sense of newness and anticipation.

This work is part of Whitney Biennial 2026.

This project is made possible by the Whitney Museum of American Art, TF Cornerstone, and the High Line.

Taína Cruz: I Saw the Future and It Smiled Back is part of Outside of the Box programming, which is supported by a generous endowment from the Jacques and Natasha Gelman Foundation.