Whitney Biennial 2026 | Art & Artists

Through Aug 23


All

39 / 56

Previous Next

Oswaldo Maciá (he/him)

39

Oswaldo Maciá makes sculpture by shaping space with sound and smell. Here he immerses visitors in a symphony playing from speakers hidden inside glass megaphones that spiral down from the ceiling. Paintings loosely modeled after eighteenth-century naturalists’ field sketches form a backdrop for Requiem for the Insects. The composition weaves together the sounds of insects and shattering glass across sixteen different audio channels—an invitation to reflect on the extinction of insects and the loss of their calls. 

Oswaldo Maciá crea esculturas dando forma al espacio con sonido y olores. Aquí sumerge al visitante en una sinfonía que se escucha a través de altavoces ocultos en megáfonos de vidrio que descienden en espiral desde el techo. Pinturas vagamente modeladas a partir de bocetos de campo de naturalistas del siglo XVIII fungen como telón de fondo para Réquiem para los insectos. La composición entreteje conjuntamente los sonidos de insectos y de vidrio rompiéndose a lo largo de dieciséis canales de audio diferentes, una invitación a reflexionar sobre la extinción de los insectos y la pérdida de sus llamados.

Requiem for the Insects, 2026

Two large hanging banners show labeled insect drawings while amber glass horns dangle from the ceiling.
Two large hanging banners show labeled insect drawings while amber glass horns dangle from the ceiling.

Installation view of Whitney Biennial 2026 (Whitney Museum of American Art, March 8–August 2026). Oswaldo Maciá, Requiem for the Insects, 2026. Photograph by Jason Lowrie/BFA.com. © BFA 2026

On the Hour

A 30-second online art project:
Frank WANG Yefeng, The Levitating Perils #2

Learn more about this project

Learn more at whitney.org/artport

On the Hour projects can contain motion and sound. To respect your accessibility settings autoplay is disabled.