Editor’s Note: This article has been edited to note that the deadline for the 2020 Texas Biennial has been extended to February 29.
Prize Cow, 2018, Acrylic and oil on wood panel, 5 x 18” by TX★09 artist Marc Burckhardt .
With a respectable grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, and two new curators, the Texas Biennial has announced its 2020 open call. Artists working in any media or discipline may apply online from December 2, 2019-February 29, 2020. The Biennial is an independent survey of contemporary art in Texas founded in 2005 to provide an exhibition opportunity for artists living and working in the state. It is organized by Austin’s Big Medium.
The 2020 edition is the Biennial’s seventh, and takes place next fall (between September and December, 2020). For this edition (a first for the Biennial), the 2020 scope will include Texas natives and artists with deep connections to Texas working in any part of the world.
Ryan N. Dennis and Evan Garza, the curators and creative directors of the 2020 Texas Biennial, will consider some of the following questions as they conduct studio visits, planning, and engagement with artists and partner institutions: What are the historical, political, ecological and social conditions that impact the work artists are currently producing? What social or cultural impact are artists from Texas making? What identity politics are at stake in Texas? How are those issues reflected in contemporary art produced here and by Texans elsewhere? What does it mean to identify as Texan in the present moment?
Central exhibitions and programming will take place in Austin, but will expand t to include sites and cities across the state, with satellite exhibitions, performances, panels, and programs happening throughout the duration of the Biennial.
For more info and to apply, please go here.
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The Texas Biennial is open to all artists living and/or working in Texas, artists native to Texas and Texas expats working anywhere in the world, and artists who have produced or exhibited significant work in Texas in the last three years. Artists attending Texas-based residency or fellowship programs are eligible, as long as the work submitted for consideration was produced or conceptualized while in Texas. Invitations to participate in the Texas Biennial are at the sole discretion of the curators. Artists will be selected on the basis of work entered. Works completed before 2017 should not be entered, and works shown more than twice in Texas since 2017 should not be entered.
