The 2026 Border Biennial / Bienal Fronteriza features 31 artists and two collectives representing Arizona, Chihuahua, New Mexico, and Texas. The exhibition is organized by the City of El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department in collaboration with the Secretaría de Cultura de México and the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBAL).
Inaugurated in 2008, the Border Biennial celebrates contemporary art from the U.S./Mexico border. The 2026 Biennial theme, Imagining the Border, invites visitors to engage with, experience, and challenge the narratives commonly associated with the borderlands. This edition draws from artists living within 300 miles of the El Paso/Juárez border and brings together over 80 artworks across two institutions less than ten miles apart: the Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez and the El Paso Museum of Art.
The 2026 iteration is curated by Dr. Adriana Miramontes Olivas and Alejandro Morales.
“Through subject matter and artistic experimentation, the selected artists propose new ways of thinking and seeing the borderlands.” - Adriana Miramontes Olivas, PhD
“The selection process became an exchange of perspectives on the border that opened readings neither of us had reached alone, as well as a valuable opportunity to encounter new voices and engage with proposals that address the contemporary concerns and questions surrounding the desert borderlands across political, affective, communal, and personal registers.” - Alejandro Morales
The 2026 Border Biennial / Bienal Fronteriza 2026 will open on September 4, 2026, at the El Paso Museum of Art and September 5, 2026, at the Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez (MACJ).
The exhibition is organized by the City of El Paso Museums & Cultural Affairs Department and the Secretaría de Cultura de México & the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBAL).
Support for the 2026 Border Biennial is provided by the Mellon Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Texas Commission on the Arts, the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation, and the City of El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department.
2026 Border Biennial Selections
