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The Arizona Biennial 2026 Opens at TMA, Mapping the State’s Creative Range

Arizona Biennial 2026, juried by BAMPFA’s Julie Rodrigues Widholm, opens May 22 with thirty-one artists working across the state. On view through September 27.

BrassTuna
BrassTuna, Sometimes While Growing Up, You Find Yourself, 2025, inkjet print. Courtesy the artist.

Arizona Biennial 2026
May 22–September 27, 2026
Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block

The Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block is proud to present Arizona Biennial 2026, a highly anticipated exhibition celebrating contemporary artists from across the state. On view May 22 through September 27, 2026, this exhibition highlights the diverse voices, perspectives, and practices of artists living and working throughout Arizona.

The Arizona Biennial is the longest-running statewide juried exhibition in Arizona. It has served as a platform for presenting innovative work in a variety of media while offering audiences insight into the evolving artistic landscape of the Southwest. For each Biennial, a new juror is chosen to select the works and create a cohesive exhibition. The 2026 exhibition is juried by Julie Rodrigues Widholm, the executive director of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (BAMPFA) at University of California, Berkeley.

“Serving as a juror for the Arizona Biennial was a genuinely exciting opportunity to take in the creative breadth across the state and deepen my sense of what’s happening in the Southwest,” Rodrigues Widholm said. “The selection process itself was unexpectedly liberating by curating an exhibition based solely on images and artist statements in a space unfamiliar to me. I typically come to curatorial decisions with deep familiarity with the work, the artists, and the venue, so being asked to respond to the work on its own visual terms brought a focus and freedom I found invigorating. Unexpected resonances emerged across the selections, which have informed how the exhibition took shape. I look forward to meeting the artists and seeing the artworks in the galleries in May.”

Through this long-standing exhibition, TMA continues its mission of connecting art to life, amplifying the latest work by a range of living artists while highlighting the cultural vitality and defining issues shaping the region today.

The exhibition will be accompanied by related public programs and opportunities to engage with participating artists throughout the run of the show.

Selected artists: Michael Afsa, Sama Alshaibi, Maria Ruth Aragon De la Fuente, Scott Baxter, Claire Blanchette, BrassTuna, Cherie Buck-Hutchison, Eli Burke, Manny Burruel, Ashley Czajkowski, Hoge Day, Rafael Angel Diaz, Mikey Estes, Nathan Garcia, Lex Gjurasic, Maura Grogan, Kate Hoover, Adia Jamille, Monica Aissa Martinez, Mary Meyer, Daniella Napolitano, Anh-Thuy Nguyen, Sheldon Patten, Tom Patton, George Peñaloza, Wendy Raisanen, Inna Rohr, Dee Ruff, Julius Schlosburg, Karima Walker, Danielle Wood.

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Sama Alshaibi, Tabula Rasa, 2026, mixed-media collage. Courtesy the artist.
Adia Jamille, I am the Seed, 2024, silk organza dyed with cotton and sequoia, silk organza and rayon dyed with turmeric, linen dyed with indigo, variety of naturally dyed yarns, variety of homegrown seeds, raw cotton, and brass beads from West Africa. Courtesy the artist. Copyright Adia Jamille.

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Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block

As an institution built upon the original territories of the O’odham, the Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block (TMA) acknowledges the Indigenous Sonoran Desert communities, past and present, who have stewarded this region throughout generations. The Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block connects art to life through meaningful and engaging experiences that inspire discovery, spark creativity, and promote cultural understanding. TMA is committed to developing quality exhibitions, caring for its collection, providing arts education, presenting relevant and innovative programs, and broadening public access to the arts. As this institution enters its second century of serving communities of Southern Arizona and beyond, its varied collections, interpretative programs, and exhibitions exemplify the museum’s regionality by reflecting multiple perspectives, histories, and cultures as well as highlighting global influences and ideas. TMA’s campus includes five historically significant buildings, an art education center and research library, the Museum Store, and the highly acclaimed museum restaurant Café a la C’Art.

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Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block

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