Counterpublic Triennial Names 47 Artists And Collectives For 3Rd Edition

A Mississippi Riverfront commission, a historically Black neighborhood, and a roster that spans St. Louis to the Global South will shape Counterpublic's third edition, opening September 12 and running through December 12, 2026. The triennial has announced 47 artists and collectives for the exhibition, titled“Coyote Time,” which takes its name from a commission by American artist Alice Bucknell (b. 1993).

The five-person curatorial team - Jordan Carter, Raphael Fonseca, Stefanie Hessler, Nora N. Khan, and Wanda Nanibush - said the project brings together artists working in material practice, time-based media, and emerging technologies. Their stated focus includes civic life, displacement, ecological crisis, migration, identity, and the accelerating relationship between computation and lived experience.

Among the best-known participants are American artist Glenn Ligon (b. 1960), Danish-Icelandic artist Rirkrit Tiravanija (b. 1961), American artist Ryan Trecartin (b. 1981) and Lizzie Fitch, Kosovar artist Petrit Halilaj (b. 1986), Canadian artist Rebecca Belmore (b. 1960), American artist Tom Burr (b. 1963), American artist Tony Cokes (b. 1956), Native American artist Nicholas Galanin (b. 1979), and American artist Max Hooper Schneider (b. 1982). The triennial will also include posthumous presentations of American painter Juanita McNeely, who died in 2023, and Benjamin Patterson, the American Fluxus cofounder who died in 2016.

Several of the participating artists are also appearing in other major 2026 biennials and recurring exhibitions. Cooper Jacoby, Malcolm Peacock, Margaret Honda, and Ali Eyal are in the Whitney Biennial; Guadalupe Rosales and Carolina Caycedo will appear in the Venice Biennale; and Li Yi-Fan is set for the Carnegie International. Frieze New York, meanwhile, will host an installation and performance by Kite as part of an institutional collaboration with Counterpublic.

Ligon and Belmore will anchor opposite ends of the Mississippi Riverfront, where more than a dozen works will be installed. Another major site is The Ville, a historically Black neighborhood in north St. Louis, which will feature works by Cokes, Honda, Dail Chambers, the People's Art and Recreation Center, and Timmy Simmonds. Simmonds has created a series examining the history of the local Sumner High School.

In a statement, executive and artistic director James McAnally described the artist list as“decidedly diasporic in scope,” noting that it reflects a global outlook while remaining rooted in St. Louis. That balance - between local history and transnational perspective - appears to be the organizing logic of“Coyote Time,” a triennial that treats public space as both a civic stage and a site of contested memory.

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