From June 1 to September 16, 2018, the El Paso Museum of Art (EPMA) and the Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez (MACJ) present the 5th Transborder Biennial, their fifth such collaboration. This year’s exhibition includes paintings, sculptures, videos, and sound works by thirty-two contemporary artists or collectives living along the US-Mexico border. The artwork explores issues related to the U.S.-Mexico border region, including immigration, crossing, and physical, linguistic, and cultural hybridity.
EPMA staged its first major exhibition on art and artists associated with the U.S.-Mexico border in 2007. In 2008 the museum began collaborating with MACJ on a biennial program. In 2011 their biennial program received recognition for U.S.-Mexico Cross-Border Cooperation and Innovation from the Border Research Partnership. The biennial program involves awards for acquisitions, exhibitions, and residencies.
This 5th biennial received submissions from over two-hundred artists. Jurors Gilbert Vicario, Selig Family Chief Curator, Phoenix Art Museum, and Carlos E. Palacios, Curator, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, MACJ staff, and EPMA curator Kate Green selected thirty-two artists or collectives practicing within two-hundred miles of the U.S.-Mexico border, whose work addresses border conditions. Highlights of this two-part exhibition, which features artwork by each artist at EPMA and at MACJ simultaneously, include a site-specific large-scale textile wall piece (Adrian Esparza), archival immigration photographs collaged with text (Andrea Blancas Beltran), an interactive border “target” activity (Angel Cabrales), and a video of the border projected over ceramic objects (María José Crespo). For the viewer, the Transborder Biennial 2018 activates all senses and prompts reflection on the conditions of living on the border.
Support for the 5th Transborder Biennial is generously provided by S-Mart, the Rogers Family, BBVA Compass, and Texas Commission on the Arts
5th Transborder Biennial artists / Artistas seleccionados para la 5ta Bienal Transfronteriza:
Animales de Poder (Cd. Juárez, Chihuahua)
Apodaca, Alexia G. (Cd. Juárez, Chihuahua)
Avila, Abraham (Tijuana, Baja California)
Blancas Beltran, Andrea (El Paso, Texas)
Boils Terán, Gabriel (Tijuana, Baja California)
Cabrales, Angel (El Paso, Texas)
De la Rosa-Carrillo, León (Cd. Juárez, Chihuahua)
De los Reyes, Tony (Los Angeles, California)
Elsoldelrac (Tijuana, Baja California)
Esparza, Adrian C. (El Paso, Texas)
Galería Perdida (Rancho Cucamonga, California)
Gere, Rich (Corpus Christi, Texas)
Gutierrez, Guillermo (El Paso, Texas)
Hernández, Ingrid and Pieter Wisse (Tijuana, Baja California)
Hernández, Nayeli (Cd. Juarez, Chihuahua)
José Crespo, María (Tijuana, Baja California)
Kline, Wes and Erika Lynne Hanson (Las Cruces, New Mexico)
Leyva, Ingrid (El Paso, Texas)
Manríquez, Iván (Monterrey, Nuevo León)
Meador, Daryl and Andrés Cárdenas (Brownsville, Texas)
Partegàs, Ester (Marfa, Texas)
Peña, Zeke (El Paso, Texas)
Pimienta, Omar (San Diego, California)
Randall, SV (Las Cruces, New Mexico)
Rocha-Rochelli, Gil (Laredo, Texas)
Sáenz, Mauricio (Matamoros, Tamaulipas)
Turounet, Paul (Cardiff, California)
Unknown Fish (San Diego, California)
Vielma, Carlos (Saltillo, Coahuila)
Villalobos, Jose (San Antonio, Texas)