SITE SANTA FE is pleased to announce that Ekow Eshun has been appointed curator of the 13th SITE SANTA FE International Biennial, opening in summer 2027 and on view through early 2028.
Eshun is an internationally recognized curator, writer, and broadcaster. He made history as the first Black director of a major UK arts institution, serving as Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London. As Chair of the Fourth Plinth in Trafalgar Square, he leads one of the world’s most high-profile public art commissions. He is also the curator of British Art Show 10, opening in September 2026.
Eshun’s appointment follows Cecilia Alemani’s critically acclaimed Once Within a Time, an expansive exhibition inspired by characters who inhabited, traversed, or left their mark on the Santa Fe region across the centuries. Building on this foundation, Eshun, as a London-based curator whose work spans multiple continents, will bring a global outlook to SITE SANTA FE. His Biennial will further expand the exhibition’s conceptual horizons, offering new ways of considering contemporary art’s role in shaping our understanding of identity, history, and possibility.
“The Biennial thrives on dialogue and experimentation, and with each edition, SITE SANTA FE invites curators whose unique perspectives challenge us to see the world differently. Eshun’s visionary approach, informed by Black diasporic histories, transnational experience, and an engagement with art, literature, music, and film, is both intellectually rigorous and globally resonant. We are confident he will extend and reimagine the Biennial’s legacy,” said Louis Grachos, Phillips Executive Director of SITE SANTA FE.
Like previous editions, the 13th SITE SANTA FE International Biennial will extend beyond the institution’s galleries to activate sites throughout Santa Fe. These citywide presentations will invite audiences to experience the city, foregrounding dialogue between place, people, and artistic practice.
“I’m honored to be invited to curate the 13th SITE SANTA FE International Biennial. New Mexico, known as the Land of Enchantment, is a place where land, imagination, and lived experience are deeply entwined, and where ecological forces have profoundly shaped cultural and human relations. Santa Fe is a site where multiple histories, cultures, and stories intersect, and that richness offers a compelling starting point for an exhibition. I’m excited to collaborate with artists to shape a project that moves between the local and the global, the real and the imagined,” commented curator Ekow Eshun.
His recent exhibitions have attracted significant critical attention. In 2022, In the Black Fantastic at the Hayward Gallery brought together eleven contemporary artists of the African diaspora united by a shared engagement with mythology and speculative imagination, marking the first major UK exhibition devoted to Black artists for whom the fantastical is central to their practice. The Time Is Always Now, which debuted at the National Portrait Gallery in 2024 and toured internationally, explored representations of the Black figure in Western art history through works by some of today’s most significant contemporary artists. Black Earth Rising traced connections between climate change and colonialism through works by contemporary African diasporic, Latin American, and Native American artists. His nonfiction book, The Strangers, examines the lives of five prominent Black men, weaving history, biography, and personal reflection.
Beginning with this edition, the exhibition will once again use its full name: the SITE SANTA FE International Biennial. The reintroduction of “Biennial” honors the exhibition’s foundational role since 1995 while recommitting to a cyclical model.
Further details, including participating artists, exhibition themes, and public programming, will be announced in the fall of 2026.
About the SITE SANTA FE International Biennial
Since its creation in 1995, the International Biennial has served as a model for international contemporary art exhibitions and has inspired countless exhibitions of its kind globally. When it launched, it was the only community-wide biennial of contemporary art in the United States and one of only a handful of biennials around the world. As an anchor of SITE SANTA FE’s programming, it has served as the foundation for robust year-round events and exhibitions at the institution. The International Biennial provides a platform for artists and curators to realize work they would not be able to make elsewhere, while inviting participants from around the world to respond to the unique geography, history, and cultures of New Mexico. Since its founding in 1995, SITE SANTA FE has used the International Biennial as a platform to connect the vibrant cultural life of Santa Fe and its diverse communities with the global art world.
About SITE SANTA FE
Guided by artists, rooted in New Mexico, SITE SANTA FE celebrates contemporary creative expression. SITE SANTA FE is an internationally recognized destination for art and artists and a community hub for creativity and learning. Founded in 1995 to establish the first international contemporary art biennial in the United States, SITE SANTA FE is a non-collecting art institution committed to supporting new developments in contemporary art, encouraging artistic exploration, and expanding traditional museum experiences through robust year-round programming. Since its launch, SITE SANTA FE has presented twelve international biennials, more than 130 contemporary art exhibitions, and works by hundreds of emerging and established artists from around the world and right here in New Mexico. SITE SANTA FE also presents a wide range of public and educational programs that include conversations with artists and curators, performances, film screenings, concerts, hands-on workshops, and collaborations with dozens of local schools and community organizations. sitesantafe.org
About 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, and reflects his expansive intellectual vision. He served as editor of the former men’s magazine, Arena. He is also the author of The Strangers: Five Extraordinary Black Men and the Worlds That Made Them, longlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize and the Jhalak Prize, 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: Zeinab Batchelor