The Medina Triennial, a new recurring art exhibition set to launch in the titular Western New York village this summer, has revealed the artist list for its inaugural edition, due to open on June 6 in close proximity to the Erie Canal. The 39 participants include a range of artists well-known on the biennial circuit.
Lina Lapelytė, one of the artist’s behind the Golden Lion–winning Lithuanian Pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale, is taking part, staging Faithfully Recording, through which local singers and construction workers will build a sculpture together.
Taysir Batniji, a Palestinian photographer, will count the Medina Triennial as his third biennial this year, after appearances in ones held in Saudi Arabia and Sydney, and Tania Candiani, a Mexican artist, will stage a new commission called Two Waters, one of many works here dealing with bodies of water.
Artist with local ties are also taking part. Asad Raza, a Berlin-based artist born in nearby Buffalo, will stage a new work in which he will redirect water from the Erie Canal to one of the show’s venues, and Jay Carrier (Onondaga/Tuscarora Nations, Wolf Clan), a Niagara Falls–based painter who died in 2025, will also appear here.
Kari Conte and Karin Laansoo are serving as co-artistic director of the Medina Triennial, which this year takes the theme “All That Sustains Us.” They attributed its focus on ecology and sustainability to Mierle Laderman Ukeles, one of the exhibition’s participants.
“What excites us most about this inaugural edition is that more than a year of conversations with artists and Medina residents will finally take public form. The exhibition has grown out of those exchanges and out of the village itself,” Conte and Laansoo said in an email to ARTnews.
Moreover, they said, “We hope visitors will feel what the artists have felt: that Medina is not simply the setting for the Triennial, but its central animating force.”
The full artist list follows below.
Ash Arder (she/they) b. 1988, Flint, MI; lives in Detroit, MI
Selva Aparicio (she/her) b. 1987, Barcelona, Spain; lives in Alfred, NY, and Chicago, IL
James Beckett (he/him) b. 1977, Harare, Zimbabwe; lives in New York, NY and Amsterdam, Netherlands
Taysir Batniji (he/him) b. 1966, Gaza, Palestine; lives in Paris, France
Alice Bucknell (they/them) b. 1993, London, UK; lives in Los Angeles, CA
Tania Candiani (she/her) b.1974, Mexico City, Mexico; lives in Mexico City, Mexico
Jay Carrier (he/him) Onondaga/Tuscarora Nations, Wolf Clan; b. 1963, Six Nations reservation in Ontario, Canada; d. 2025, Niagara Falls, NY
FIBRA est. 2019, Lima, Peru; Lucia Monge, b. 1983; Gianine Tabja, b.1983; Gabriela Flores del Pozo, b. 1979
Harun Farocki (he/him) b. 1944, Nový Jičín, Czechoslovakia (present-day Czechia); d. 2014, Berlin, Germany
Futurefarmers est. 1994, San Francisco, CA; including Amy Franceschini, b. 1970, Patterson, CA; Michael Swaine, b. 1971, Buffalo, NY; and FS Bàssïbét, b. 1997, Elmina, Ghana
Jeneen Frei Njootli (they/them) b. 1988, Vuntut Gwitchin First Nation, Whitehorse, Yukon, Canada; lives in Old Crow, Yukon, Canada
Greg Halpern (he/him) b. 1977, Buffalo, NY; lives in Rochester, NY
Terike Haapoja (she/her) b. 1974, Helsinki, Finland; lives in Berlin, Germany
Carole Harris (she/her) b. 1943, Detroit, MI; lives in Detroit, MI
Scott Hocking (he/him) b. 1975, Detroit, MI; lives in Detroit, MI
Gözde İlkin (they/them) b. 1981, Kütahya, Türkiye; lives in İstanbul, Türkiye
AKI INOMATA (she/her) b. 1983, Tokyo, Japan; lives in Tokyo, Japan
Richard Ibghy (he/him) & Marilou Lemmens (she/her) b. 1964, Montreal, Canada; lives in Durham-Sud, Canada b. 1976, Ascot Corner, Canada; lives in Durham-Sud, Canada
Kärt Ojavee (she/her) b. 1982, Rakvere, Estonia; lives in Tallinn, Estonia
Anne Duk Hee Jordan (they/them) b.1978, South Korea; lives in Berlin, Germany
Jane Jin Kaisen (she/her) b. 1980, Jeju, South Korea; lives in Copenhagen, Denmark, and New York, NY
Matt Kenyon (he/him) b. 1977, Baton Rouge, LA; lives in Buffalo, NY
Evelyne Leblanc-Roberge (she/they) b. 1981, Maria, Quebec, Canada; lives in Rochester, NY
Dionne Lee (she/her) b.1988, New York, NY; lives in Columbus, OH
Lina Lapelytė (she/her) b. 1984, Kaunas, Lithuania; lives in London, UK, and Vilnius, Lithuania
Matthew López-Jensen (he/him) b. 1980, CT; lives in Bronx, NY
Cathy Lu (she/her) b. 1984, Miami, FL; lives in Richmond, CA
Mary Mattingly (she/her) b. 1978, Rockville, CT; lives in New York, NY
Asad Raza (he/him) b. 1974, Buffalo, NY; lives in Berlin, Germany
Gamaliel Rodriguez (he/him) b.1977, Bayamón, Puerto Rico; lives in Cabo Rojo, Puerto Rico
Deirdre O’Mahony (she/her) b. 1956, Limerick, Ireland; lives in Cork City, Ireland
Abraham O. Oghobase (he/him) b.1979, Lagos, Nigeria; lives in Toronto, Canada
Selma Selman (she/her) b. 1991, Bihać, Bosnia and Herzegovina; lives in Amsterdam, Netherlands
Finnegan Shannon (they/them) b. 1989, Berkeley, CA; lives in New York, NY
Jean Shin (she/her) b. 1971, Seoul, South Korea; lives in Hurley, NY
SIDE CORE est. 2012, Tokyo, Japan; based in Tokyo, Japan
Victoria-Idongesit Udondian (she/her) b. 1982, Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria; lives in New York, NY, and Lagos, Nigeria
Mierle Laderman Ukeles (she/her) b. 1939, Denver, CO; lives in New York, NY and Jerusalem, Israel
Michael Wang (he/him) b. 1981, Olney, MD, USA; lives in Upper Grandview, NY
