Ekow Eshun outlines his curatorial vision for the next Site Santa Fe biennial
The Art Newspaper
12 NOV 2026
13th SITE SANTA FE International Biennial
There Are Other Worlds
Opening June 11, 2027, There Are Other Worlds brings together artists from around the world to explore imagination, possibility, and new ways of seeing in uncertain times. Featuring new commissions by Edgar Arceneaux, Firelei Báez, Sanford Biggers, Raven Chacon, Lotus L. Kang, Cauleen Smith, and others. Curated by Ekow Eshun.
June 11, 2027 — January 10, 2028
A Biennial Rooted in New Mexico
New Mexico provides both the setting and an important point of departure for There Are Other Worlds. The region’s layered histories of Indigenous presence and displacement, migration, cultural exchange, and artistic experimentation offer a rich context in which to consider how different worlds might materialize.
The Biennial places contemporary artistic practices in conversation with New Mexico’s distinctive cultural histories, convening artists from around the world who explore issues of belonging, transformation, survival, ecology, and the future.
“Bringing the Biennial to Santa Fe again is an opportunity to connect artists and ideas from around the world with a place that has such a deep and distinctive history of artistic experimentation,” said Louis Grachos, Phillips Executive Director of SITE SANTA FE. “We’re excited to present the thirteenth iteration of the Biennial and to welcome this incredible group of artists to Santa Fe.”
As with the previous International Biennial, There Are Other Worlds will extend beyond SITE SANTA FE to various locations throughout the city. Together, these venues will invite audiences to experience the Biennial across a range of cultural and architectural contexts.
Identity by Studio LHOOQ
CURATOR
Ekow Eshun
Ekow Eshun OBE is a distinguished curator, writer, and broadcaster, renowned for his multifaceted contributions to contemporary culture. Described by Vogue as “the most inspired—and inspiring—curator in Britain”, he has staged acclaimed exhibitions internationally and was awarded the Association for Art History’s Curatorial Prize 2023.
A trailblazer in British culture, he made history as the first Black head of a major UK arts institution, as Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. As Chairman of the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, he leads one of the world’s most iconic public art projects.
Eshun’s writing—featured in outlets such as The New York Times, Financial Times, and Vogue, among others—reflects his expansive intellectual vision. He is also the author of books including The Strangers: Five Extraordinary Black Men and the Worlds That Made Them, winner of the LA Times Book Prize for biography, and Black Earth Rising: Colonialism and Climate Change in Contemporary Art.
He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and holds an honorary doctorate from London Metropolitan University.
Photo by Brad Trone
CURATORIAL STATEMENT
Three Worlds
There Are Other Worlds unfolds in three interconnected sections:
Worlds Beyond
Worlds Beyond explores the space between inner and outer worlds, drawing on perception as both a sensory and psychological condition. Informed in part by the legacy of New Mexico’s Transcendental Painting Group, the section considers interiority as a site from which new routes to meaning and ways of seeing can emerge.
Worlds in Common
Worlds in Common reflects on artists’ imaginings of alternative possibilities for community and kinship. Through speculative and poetic practices, artists propose ways in which worlds might be opened up for forms of existence and belonging that exceed the sedimented binaries and hierarchies of power characteristic of contemporary society.
Worlds Alive
Worlds Alive expands the exhibition beyond the human, exploring ecological interdependence and the relationships among humans, animals, plants, landscapes, migration, and memory. The works question human-centered narratives and imagine the planet as an interrelated web of reciprocal dependencies and shared vulnerabilities.
ARTISTS
John Akomfrah
Hurvin Anderson
Edgar Arceneaux
Firelei Báez
Sanford Biggers
Frank Bowling
Nikesha Breeze
Raven Chacon
Olafur Eliasson
Ellen Gallagher
Cy Gavin
Jeffrey Gibson
Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg
Louise Giovanelli
Nan Goldin
Rafik Greiss
Shilpa Gupta
Sky Hopinka
Klára Hosnedlová
Marguerite Humeau
Tomashi Jackson
Arthur Jafa
Julianknxx
Hayv Kahraman
Lotus L. Kang
Idris Khan
Bharti Kher
Christopher Kulendran Thomas
Cannupa Hanska Luger
Danielle Mckinney
Delcy Morelos
Michael Namingha
Eamon Ore-Giron
Mohammed Sami
Zineb Sedira
Rose B. Simpson
Emilija Škarnulytė
Cauleen Smith
Tavares Strachan
Emma Talbot
Sandra Vásquez de la Horra
Carmen Winant
COLLABORATORS
SPONSORS
Thank you!
There Are Other Worlds is generously supported by the Friends of the International Biennial; Anonymous; AG Foundation, Cornelia Bryer and Herman Siegelaar; The Emerling-Torres Family Foundation, in memory of A. Thomas Torres, AIA; Courtney Finch Taylor and Scott Taylor; Helen Frankenthaler Foundation; The Hearthland Foundation; Anne and John Marion; Joan and Mitchell Markow; A. Alfred Taubman Foundation; Robert Lehman Foundation; Thornburg Investment Management; The Vista Foundation; the City of Santa Fe Occupancy Tax Advisory Board, and New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs.
Additional support is provided by the City of Santa Fe Arts and Culture Department and the 1% Lodgers Tax.
Friends of the International Biennial
Anonymous, Sarah Arison, Cornelia Bryer and Herman Siegelaar, Bettina Bryant, Marleen De Bode and Marc Olivié, Laura Donnelley, Carolyn Eason and James Rubin, Bobbie Foshay and Tom Turney, Maria and Edward Gale, Diane and Werner Grob, Andrew and Suzanna Grossman, Marti Meyerson and Jamie Hooper, Nancy Parker Magoon, Joan and Mitchell Markow, Andrew Rudnick, Courtney Finch Taylor and Scott Taylor, Andrew Wallerstein and Mary Sloane, and Rosina Yue.
Learn more about the Friends of the International Biennial Program
Featured Press
SITE Santa Fe Announces Theme and Artist List for 13th International Biennial
ARTNews
12 NOV 2026Site Santa Fe Announces Theme and Artist List for 13th International Biennial in 2027
Southwest Contemporary
12 NOV 2026
Ekow Eshun to curate thirteenth SITE SANTA FE International Biennial
e-flux
09 FEB 2026
Art Movements: Ekow Eshun Heads to Santa Fe
Hyperallergic
05 FEB 2026
Ekow Eshun to curate 13th SITE SANTA FE International
ArtReview
04 FEB 2026CURATOR TALK SERIES
Ekow Eshun at SITE SANTA FE
Past Internationals
- PAST
Once Within a Time: 12th International
27 JUN 2025 / 12 JAN 2026
- PAST
SITElines.2018: Casa tomada
The third installment in the SITElines biennial series focusing on contemporary art from the Americas, Casa Tomada featured 23 artists from eight coun...
03 AUG 2018 / 06 JAN 2019
- PAST
SITElines.2016: much wider than a line
much wider than a line articulated the interconnectedness of the Americas and various shared experiences such as the recognition of colonial legacies,...
16 JUL 2016 / 08 JAN 2017
- PAST
SITElines.2014: Unsettled Landscapes
Unsettled Landscapes looked at the urgencies, political conditions and historical narratives that inform the work of contemporary artists across the A...
20 JUL 2014 / 11 JAN 2015
- PAST
The Dissolve
A paradigm shift in contemporary art is rare and hard to recognize at its inception, but that is what curators Sarah Lewis and Daniel Belasco did in T...
20 JUN 2010 / 02 JAN 2011
- PAST
Lucky Number Seven
Process, experimentation, and collaboration were the hallmarks of Lucky Number Seven, which proposed an alternative to the biennial as an internationa...
22 JUN 2008 / 04 JAN 2009
- PAST
Still Points of the Turning World
Intensity, experimentation, and visceral presence were the hallmarks of 13 significant one-person installations – some of them newly commissioned, all...
09 JUL 2006 / 07 JAN 2007
- PAST
Disparities and Deformations: Our Grotesque
18 JUL 2004 / 09 JAN 2005
- PAST
Beau Monde: Toward a Redeemed Cosmopolitanism
Instead of trying to make an ideological point, Beau Monde: Toward a Redeemed Cosmopolitanism organized 27 international artists around the fundamenta...
14 JUL 2001 / 06 JAN 2002
- PAST
Looking for a Place
Extended earlier biennials’ meditations on place, the 29 artists from 23 countries in Looking for a Place punctured SITE SANTA FE’s walls and reached ...
01 JUL 1999 / 31 DEC 1999
- PAST
TRUCE: Echoes of Art in an Age of Endless Conclusions
TRUCE: Echoes of Art in an Age of Endless Conclusions engaged 27 artists from 20 countries in dialogues with local voices, featured work connecting is...
18 JUL 1997 / 12 OCT 1997
- PAST
Longing and Belonging: From the Faraway Nearby
Longing and Belonging included 31 international artists who explore identities in global culture, addressing culturally-based ideas of permanency, dis...
14 JUL 1995 / 08 OCT 1995
IMAGE CREDITS
Jeffrey Gibson, THIS BURNING WORLD, 2022. Courtesy of the artist and ICA SF. Photo by Impart Photography
There Are Other Worlds. Design by Studio LHOOQ
Ekow Eshun, 2026. Photo by Brad Trone
Tavares Strachan, Black Madonna (Louise Little and Malcolm X), 2022. Courtesy of the artist and Perrotin. Photo by Claire Dorn