Taína

Artist Taína Cruz (@virtualtai ) discusses her image archive, recurring motifs of canines and jesters seen in her work, growing up in New York City, and more with artist manuel arturo abreu (@mabreu91 ) in our latest Artist Profile. Read at the link in bio! 🎾 1- Taína Cruz, “Rest”. Cast Bronze. Dimensions variable. Image: Julian Blum 2- Taína Cruz, “Motor Hound”, 2023. Rotary motor, rubber dog head, tennis ball  3- Installation view, “Code Switch: Distributing Blackness, Reprogramming Internet Art ” at Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, Detroit, 2025. Pictured Left: Taína Cruz, rentaroot.com (2025), Oil on Canvas; Right: Liberty.exe (2025), Oil on Canvas; etc. Courtesy of Timothy Johnson.  4- Taína Cruz, “Two Hounds Wait Patiently,” 2025. Oil on canvas. Image Courtesy of Julian Blum. 5- Taína’s desktop

At 27, Taína Cruz is the youngest artist to be included in this year’s Whitney Biennial. The native New Yorker began making waves in the art world with her paintings of ghoulish, grimacing figures. She managed to secure gallery representation (with Berlin’s Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler) before she even graduated from Yale’s MFA program. Now fresh out of graduate school, she’s been selected for two of New York’s most coveted exhibitions this spring: the aforementioned Biennial and the Greater New York quinquennial at @momaps1 (opening April 16). In a practice that spans video, sculpture, and painting, digital-native Cruz uses 3D animation as one tool among many. At the @whitneymuseum , she’s created a billboard—holding court above Gansevoort Street—of one of her haunting young girls. “I was thinking about how the future can feel both beautiful and terrifying at the same time,” Cruz says in the audioguide. “I wanted to paint a moment that feels like hope and danger mixed together, like looking at the sun even when you know it might hurt your eyes.” Ahead of her big New York moment, Cruz let CULTURED take a look around her New Haven studio. Link in bio for her Studio Frequencies. Photography: @blackpowerprincess

2003

Being invited to show in Greater New York at @momaps1 means so much to me. Thank you to the PS1 team and to everyone who have been holding and supporting the work🌙

Honored to be invited to the upcoming Whitney Biennial 2026 cheeers to the fellow artists in the show, it’s going to be so exciting!!!! Thank you Marcela @marcelacguerrero and Drew @drewmsawyer and the entire Whitney team for all the support🦭

Añasco, oil on canvas ୭˚⋆✴︎˚｡⋆♡₊˚ ・₊✧˚⋆✴︎˚｡⋆ last day at @newartdealers with @embajadada thank you so much to everyone who came thru and shared this moment with the work🌱

Charm Written In Steam and Light, 2025 Oil on canvas On view at my solo presentation with @embajadada for @newartdealers Booth B307 until tmrw! Gracias infinitas a Christopher y Manuela por todo el apoyo en este proyecto muuuuy especial 💌🐸🌆💫🌲☕️

Two Hounds Wait Patiently… Oil on canvas a trembling tray of oranges, her heart aches Showing with @kraupatuskanyzeidler for @artcolognefair

Figure with Burning Face A dash of oil and uh dash of pastel and lots of love on canvas Showing with @kraupatuskanyzeidler at @artcolognefair 📷 by Julian Blum

@80wse Escapements on view until January 24 Thank you so much to Howie for including me in this drawing centric show I loveeee mark making and drawing on a wall, a corner, a building, with a creamy soft texture paint stick fufills my overfilled sense of wonder, it’s healing. This time, the character emerges and growls from a corner in a deep dark room wooooof🐾 ‘Stage Left’ Drawing on Corner Ft. my sister💌 Courtesy: 80 Washington Square East (80WSE), NYU Photo: Carter Seddon