Medina Triennial Names Artists For First Edition Along Erie Canal

A new triennial in Western New York is taking shape around water, ecology, and local exchange. The Medina Triennial will open its first edition on June 6 in Medina, New York, with 39 artists and collectives participating in a program that organizers say grew directly out of conversations with residents and artists in the village.

The exhibition's theme,“All That Sustains Us,” signals a broad focus on environmental systems and the fragile infrastructures that support daily life. Kari Conte and Karin Laansoo, the co-artistic directors, said the project has been built over more than a year of dialogue and that Medina itself is central to the exhibition's identity, not merely its backdrop.

Among the participants is Lithuanian artist Lina Lapelytė (b. 1984), who was part of the Golden Lion-winning Lithuanian Pavilion at the 2019 Venice Biennale. For Medina, she will present“Faithfully Recording,” a work in which local singers and construction workers will collaborate to build a sculpture. Palestinian photographer Taysir Batniji (b. 1966) will appear in the triennial after participating in biennials in Saudi Arabia and Sydney this year, while Mexican artist Tania Candiani (b. 1974) will unveil a new commission,“Two Waters.”

Several projects are tied directly to the region's geography. Berlin-based artist Asad Raza, who was born in nearby Buffalo, will create a work that redirects water from the Erie Canal to one of the venues. The exhibition also includes Jay Carrier (Onondaga/Tuscarora Nations, Wolf Clan), a Niagara Falls-based painter who died in 2025, underscoring the triennial's attention to local and Indigenous ties.

Conte and Laansoo said they hope visitors will feel that Medina is“the central animating force” of the triennial. That framing places the exhibition within a growing field of contemporary art projects that treat place, ecology, and community not as themes to illustrate, but as the conditions from which the work emerges.

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