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In this exhibition, Blast confronts the tension between desire, survival, and overindulgence in contemporary American culture. This body of work lives in the space between aspiration and disillusionment. Through exaggerated color, distorted symbols of wealth and entertainment, and imagery pulled from everyday street life, the artwork reflects how systems of consumption shape identity, behavior, self-worth and survival. Rooted in the lived realities of the borderlands, the exhibition speaks to the experiences of working-class communities and people often pushed outside of the margins of society.
Blast is a recipient of the Museums and Cultural Affairs Department (MCAD) Cultural Funding Program. As part of its mission to drive El Paso’s cultural vitality, MCAD provides support annually to local artists, area non-profit arts organizations and creative entrepreneurs through a competitive granting process in six categories that is designed for maximum transparency. The Artist Incubator Program (AIP) supports the creation of new work by El Paso artists in all disciplines.
Trancazos de la Vida Real is presented in partnership with MCAD’s Artist Incubator Program.
Support for the project is provided by the Mellon Foundation and the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation.
In this exhibition, Blast confronts the tension between desire, survival, and overindulgence in contemporary American culture. This body of work lives in the space between aspiration and disillusionment. Through exaggerated color, distorted symbols of wealth and entertainment, and imagery pulled from everyday street life, the artwork reflects how systems of consumption shape identity, behavior, self-worth and survival. Rooted in the lived realities of the borderlands, the exhibition speaks to the experiences of working-class communities and people often pushed outside of the margins of society.
Blast is a recipient of the Museums and Cultural Affairs Department (MCAD) Cultural Funding Program. As part of its mission to drive El Paso’s cultural vitality, MCAD provides support annually to local artists, area non-profit arts organizations and creative entrepreneurs through a competitive granting process in six categories that is designed for maximum transparency. The Artist Incubator Program (AIP) supports the creation of new work by El Paso artists in all disciplines.
Trancazos de la Vida Real is presented in partnership with MCAD’s Artist Incubator Program.
Support for the project is provided by the Mellon Foundation and the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation.
On the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence, this exhibition portrays recent national historical moments through the lens of Mexican American, Chicano, and other contemporary artists. Centering the borderlands within the broader narrative of the American dream, these selections from the Zoe Diaz Collection explore the cultural, social, and political forces that shape the nation’s identity. El Paso-rooted artists Adriana Corral, Gaspar Enriquez, and Luis A. Jiménez Jr. reflect on national identity through works that question democratic ideals and portray the livelihood and stark realities of binational communities. Additional artists, including Mel Chin, Rubio, Vincent Valdez, and Kathy Vargas, confront the grotesque, surreal, and unjust in depictions of power and its potentially distorting effect on truth and reality.
Through the artworks on loan from the Zoe Diaz Collection, this nation is rendered as a beautiful yet complex tapestry – an embattled landscape, a canvas for dreams, and a stage for the ongoing pursuit of representation, justice, and belonging.
Edward Hayes Jr., Director, El Paso Museum of Art
This exhibition is organized by the El Paso Museum of Art with Georgina & Joe Diaz and EPMA Education and Curatorial Associate Eun-Ji Jun.
Support for this exhibition is provided by the Texas Commission on the Arts, the Mellon Foundation, and the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation. Additional support provided by the City of El Paso’s Museums & Cultural Affairs Department.
In this exhibition, Blast confronts the tension between desire, survival, and overindulgence in contemporary American culture. This body of work lives in the space between aspiration and disillusionment. Through exaggerated color, distorted symbols of wealth and entertainment, and imagery pulled from everyday street life, the artwork reflects how systems of consumption shape identity, behavior, self-worth and survival. Rooted in the lived realities of the borderlands, the exhibition speaks to the experiences of working-class communities and people often pushed outside of the margins of society.
Blast is a recipient of the Museums and Cultural Affairs Department (MCAD) Cultural Funding Program. As part of its mission to drive El Paso’s cultural vitality, MCAD provides support annually to local artists, area non-profit arts organizations and creative entrepreneurs through a competitive granting process in six categories that is designed for maximum transparency. The Artist Incubator Program (AIP) supports the creation of new work by El Paso artists in all disciplines.
Trancazos de la Vida Real is presented in partnership with MCAD’s Artist Incubator Program.
Support for the project is provided by the Mellon Foundation and the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation.
On the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence, this exhibition portrays recent national historical moments through the lens of Mexican American, Chicano, and other contemporary artists. Centering the borderlands within the broader narrative of the American dream, these selections from the Zoe Diaz Collection explore the cultural, social, and political forces that shape the nation’s identity. El Paso-rooted artists Adriana Corral, Gaspar Enriquez, and Luis A. Jiménez Jr. reflect on national identity through works that question democratic ideals and portray the livelihood and stark realities of binational communities. Additional artists, including Mel Chin, Rubio, Vincent Valdez, and Kathy Vargas, confront the grotesque, surreal, and unjust in depictions of power and its potentially distorting effect on truth and reality.
Through the artworks on loan from the Zoe Diaz Collection, this nation is rendered as a beautiful yet complex tapestry – an embattled landscape, a canvas for dreams, and a stage for the ongoing pursuit of representation, justice, and belonging.
Edward Hayes Jr., Director, El Paso Museum of Art
This exhibition is organized by the El Paso Museum of Art with Georgina & Joe Diaz and EPMA Education and Curatorial Associate Eun-Ji Jun.
Support for this exhibition is provided by the Texas Commission on the Arts, the Mellon Foundation, and the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation. Additional support provided by the City of El Paso’s Museums & Cultural Affairs Department.
In this exhibition, over 60 El Paso Independent School District (EPISD) students were selected by their respective instructors to participate in a unique opportunity with the El Paso Museum of Art (EPMA). As part of the program, EPISD students gathered at EPMA to learn about the museum, curatorial practices, tour the museum’s collection and learn about various careers within the arts from museum professionals on staff. The works on view reflect the diverse perspectives, creative strengths, and engagement with their personal and cultural experiences. This is the second student exhibition between EPMA and EPISD showcasing the imagination and ingenuity of students representing Austin, Bowie, Burges, Coronado, El Paso, Franklin, Irvin, Transmountain Early College and Young Women’s High Schools.
Support for this exhibition is provided by the Mellon Foundation. Additional support is provided by the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation and City of El Paso’s Museums & Cultural Affairs Department
In composites-my eyes tear in the sun, Eric Santoscoy Mckillip explores the interconnected relationships between space, time, memory, and place through a body of work rooted in the U.S.–Mexico borderlands. Drawing from both personal experience and the wonder of the cosmos, the exhibition blends abstraction, vernacular design traditions, and celestial imagery to examine shifting perspectives on history, identity, and belonging. Through forms that exist between the familiar and the speculative, Santoscoy Mckillip reflects on the porous boundaries connecting culture, landscape, and lived experience.
Support for this exhibition is provided by the Mellon Foundation, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation. Additional support provided by the City of El Paso’s Museums & Cultural Affairs Department.
In this exhibition, Blast confronts the tension between desire, survival, and overindulgence in contemporary American culture. This body of work lives in the space between aspiration and disillusionment. Through exaggerated color, distorted symbols of wealth and entertainment, and imagery pulled from everyday street life, the artwork reflects how systems of consumption shape identity, behavior, self-worth and survival. Rooted in the lived realities of the borderlands, the exhibition speaks to the experiences of working-class communities and people often pushed outside of the margins of society.
Blast is a recipient of the Museums and Cultural Affairs Department (MCAD) Cultural Funding Program. As part of its mission to drive El Paso’s cultural vitality, MCAD provides support annually to local artists, area non-profit arts organizations and creative entrepreneurs through a competitive granting process in six categories that is designed for maximum transparency. The Artist Incubator Program (AIP) supports the creation of new work by El Paso artists in all disciplines.
Trancazos de la Vida Real is presented in partnership with MCAD’s Artist Incubator Program.
Support for the project is provided by the Mellon Foundation and the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation.
On the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence, this exhibition portrays recent national historical moments through the lens of Mexican American, Chicano, and other contemporary artists. Centering the borderlands within the broader narrative of the American dream, these selections from the Zoe Diaz Collection explore the cultural, social, and political forces that shape the nation’s identity. El Paso-rooted artists Adriana Corral, Gaspar Enriquez, and Luis A. Jiménez Jr. reflect on national identity through works that question democratic ideals and portray the livelihood and stark realities of binational communities. Additional artists, including Mel Chin, Rubio, Vincent Valdez, and Kathy Vargas, confront the grotesque, surreal, and unjust in depictions of power and its potentially distorting effect on truth and reality.
Through the artworks on loan from the Zoe Diaz Collection, this nation is rendered as a beautiful yet complex tapestry – an embattled landscape, a canvas for dreams, and a stage for the ongoing pursuit of representation, justice, and belonging.
Edward Hayes Jr., Director, El Paso Museum of Art
This exhibition is organized by the El Paso Museum of Art with Georgina & Joe Diaz and EPMA Education and Curatorial Associate Eun-Ji Jun.
Support for this exhibition is provided by the Texas Commission on the Arts, the Mellon Foundation, and the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation. Additional support provided by the City of El Paso’s Museums & Cultural Affairs Department.
In this exhibition, over 60 El Paso Independent School District (EPISD) students were selected by their respective instructors to participate in a unique opportunity with the El Paso Museum of Art (EPMA). As part of the program, EPISD students gathered at EPMA to learn about the museum, curatorial practices, tour the museum’s collection and learn about various careers within the arts from museum professionals on staff. The works on view reflect the diverse perspectives, creative strengths, and engagement with their personal and cultural experiences. This is the second student exhibition between EPMA and EPISD showcasing the imagination and ingenuity of students representing Austin, Bowie, Burges, Coronado, El Paso, Franklin, Irvin, Transmountain Early College and Young Women’s High Schools.
Support for this exhibition is provided by the Mellon Foundation. Additional support is provided by the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation and City of El Paso’s Museums & Cultural Affairs Department
In composites-my eyes tear in the sun, Eric Santoscoy Mckillip explores the interconnected relationships between space, time, memory, and place through a body of work rooted in the U.S.–Mexico borderlands. Drawing from both personal experience and the wonder of the cosmos, the exhibition blends abstraction, vernacular design traditions, and celestial imagery to examine shifting perspectives on history, identity, and belonging. Through forms that exist between the familiar and the speculative, Santoscoy Mckillip reflects on the porous boundaries connecting culture, landscape, and lived experience.
Support for this exhibition is provided by the Mellon Foundation, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation. Additional support provided by the City of El Paso’s Museums & Cultural Affairs Department.
The 2026 Border Biennial / Bienal Fronteriza features 31 artists and two collectives representing Arizona, Chihuahua, New Mexico, and Texas. The exhibition is organized by the City of El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department in collaboration with the Secretaría de Cultura de México and the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBAL).
Inaugurated in 2008, the Border Biennial celebrates contemporary art from the U.S./Mexico border. The 2026 Biennial theme, Imagining the Border, invites visitors to engage with, experience, and challenge the narratives commonly associated with the borderlands. This edition draws from artists living within 300 miles of the El Paso/Juárez border and brings together over 80 artworks across two institutions less than ten miles apart: the Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez and the El Paso Museum of Art.
The 2026 iteration is curated by Dr. Adriana Miramontes Olivas and Alejandro Morales.
“Through subject matter and artistic experimentation, the selected artists propose new ways of thinking and seeing the borderlands.” - Adriana Miramontes Olivas, PhD
“The selection process became an exchange of perspectives on the border that opened readings neither of us had reached alone, as well as a valuable opportunity to encounter new voices and engage with proposals that address the contemporary concerns and questions surrounding the desert borderlands across political, affective, communal, and personal registers.” - Alejandro Morales
The 2026 Border Biennial / Bienal Fronteriza 2026 will open on September 4, 2026, at the El Paso Museum of Art and September 5, 2026, at the Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez (MACJ).
The exhibition is organized by the City of El Paso Museums & Cultural Affairs Department and the Secretaría de Cultura de México & the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBAL).
Support for the 2026 Border Biennial is provided by the Mellon Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Texas Commission on the Arts, the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation, and the City of El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department.
2026 Border Biennial Selections
This solo presentation by multimedia artist Connie Arismendi honors the lives of migrants who died while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in search of better opportunities for themselves and their families. For decades, thousands of migrants–many of whom have never been identified–have perished from extreme heat, drowning, or violence at the hands of transnational criminal organizations that exploit their desperation.
Created more than two decades apart, Arismendi’s installations, Victoria and San Antonio, commemorate the victims who died after being abandoned inside tractor-trailers in 2003 and 2022, respectively. As news of these tragedies spread across the nation, media coverage often overlooked the names, identities, and lived experiences of those who lost their lives. Through these elegies, Arismendi creates space for reflection, where names of the victims resurface, not to be forgotten from public memory.
The El Paso Museum of Art invites members of the museum and the public to the opening of a new large-scale installation Dislocations by artist Julia Barello, in collaboration with Cully + Leslie Studio, in the Patricia and Jonathan Rogers Grand Lobby.
Dislocations is made from thousands of discarded, recycled, and dyed medical imaging films, handmade steel pins, and oil paintings by Craig Cully. Barello and Cully bring these elements together to reflect on a contemporary condition of fragility and impermanence. It treats lived experience as a layered text – momentarily coherent yet constantly shifting – giving form to forces that were once peripheral but now defined the center of human experience.
Julia Barello is professor emerita at New Mexico State University, in Las Cruces, where she lives and works. Her work has been exhibited widely, including at the Rubin Center for the Visual Arts at UTEP and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York.
Support for this installation is provided by the Mellon Foundation. Additional support is provided by the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation and the City of El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department.
In this exhibition, Blast confronts the tension between desire, survival, and overindulgence in contemporary American culture. This body of work lives in the space between aspiration and disillusionment. Through exaggerated color, distorted symbols of wealth and entertainment, and imagery pulled from everyday street life, the artwork reflects how systems of consumption shape identity, behavior, self-worth and survival. Rooted in the lived realities of the borderlands, the exhibition speaks to the experiences of working-class communities and people often pushed outside of the margins of society.
Blast is a recipient of the Museums and Cultural Affairs Department (MCAD) Cultural Funding Program. As part of its mission to drive El Paso’s cultural vitality, MCAD provides support annually to local artists, area non-profit arts organizations and creative entrepreneurs through a competitive granting process in six categories that is designed for maximum transparency. The Artist Incubator Program (AIP) supports the creation of new work by El Paso artists in all disciplines.
Trancazos de la Vida Real is presented in partnership with MCAD’s Artist Incubator Program.
Support for the project is provided by the Mellon Foundation and the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation.
On the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence, this exhibition portrays recent national historical moments through the lens of Mexican American, Chicano, and other contemporary artists. Centering the borderlands within the broader narrative of the American dream, these selections from the Zoe Diaz Collection explore the cultural, social, and political forces that shape the nation’s identity. El Paso-rooted artists Adriana Corral, Gaspar Enriquez, and Luis A. Jiménez Jr. reflect on national identity through works that question democratic ideals and portray the livelihood and stark realities of binational communities. Additional artists, including Mel Chin, Rubio, Vincent Valdez, and Kathy Vargas, confront the grotesque, surreal, and unjust in depictions of power and its potentially distorting effect on truth and reality.
Through the artworks on loan from the Zoe Diaz Collection, this nation is rendered as a beautiful yet complex tapestry – an embattled landscape, a canvas for dreams, and a stage for the ongoing pursuit of representation, justice, and belonging.
Edward Hayes Jr., Director, El Paso Museum of Art
This exhibition is organized by the El Paso Museum of Art with Georgina & Joe Diaz and EPMA Education and Curatorial Associate Eun-Ji Jun.
Support for this exhibition is provided by the Texas Commission on the Arts, the Mellon Foundation, and the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation. Additional support provided by the City of El Paso’s Museums & Cultural Affairs Department.
In this exhibition, over 60 El Paso Independent School District (EPISD) students were selected by their respective instructors to participate in a unique opportunity with the El Paso Museum of Art (EPMA). As part of the program, EPISD students gathered at EPMA to learn about the museum, curatorial practices, tour the museum’s collection and learn about various careers within the arts from museum professionals on staff. The works on view reflect the diverse perspectives, creative strengths, and engagement with their personal and cultural experiences. This is the second student exhibition between EPMA and EPISD showcasing the imagination and ingenuity of students representing Austin, Bowie, Burges, Coronado, El Paso, Franklin, Irvin, Transmountain Early College and Young Women’s High Schools.
Support for this exhibition is provided by the Mellon Foundation. Additional support is provided by the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation and City of El Paso’s Museums & Cultural Affairs Department
In composites-my eyes tear in the sun, Eric Santoscoy Mckillip explores the interconnected relationships between space, time, memory, and place through a body of work rooted in the U.S.–Mexico borderlands. Drawing from both personal experience and the wonder of the cosmos, the exhibition blends abstraction, vernacular design traditions, and celestial imagery to examine shifting perspectives on history, identity, and belonging. Through forms that exist between the familiar and the speculative, Santoscoy Mckillip reflects on the porous boundaries connecting culture, landscape, and lived experience.
Support for this exhibition is provided by the Mellon Foundation, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation. Additional support provided by the City of El Paso’s Museums & Cultural Affairs Department.
The 2026 Border Biennial / Bienal Fronteriza features 31 artists and two collectives representing Arizona, Chihuahua, New Mexico, and Texas. The exhibition is organized by the City of El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department in collaboration with the Secretaría de Cultura de México and the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBAL).
Inaugurated in 2008, the Border Biennial celebrates contemporary art from the U.S./Mexico border. The 2026 Biennial theme, Imagining the Border, invites visitors to engage with, experience, and challenge the narratives commonly associated with the borderlands. This edition draws from artists living within 300 miles of the El Paso/Juárez border and brings together over 80 artworks across two institutions less than ten miles apart: the Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez and the El Paso Museum of Art.
The 2026 iteration is curated by Dr. Adriana Miramontes Olivas and Alejandro Morales.
“Through subject matter and artistic experimentation, the selected artists propose new ways of thinking and seeing the borderlands.” - Adriana Miramontes Olivas, PhD
“The selection process became an exchange of perspectives on the border that opened readings neither of us had reached alone, as well as a valuable opportunity to encounter new voices and engage with proposals that address the contemporary concerns and questions surrounding the desert borderlands across political, affective, communal, and personal registers.” - Alejandro Morales
The 2026 Border Biennial / Bienal Fronteriza 2026 will open on September 4, 2026, at the El Paso Museum of Art and September 5, 2026, at the Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez (MACJ).
The exhibition is organized by the City of El Paso Museums & Cultural Affairs Department and the Secretaría de Cultura de México & the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBAL).
Support for the 2026 Border Biennial is provided by the Mellon Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Texas Commission on the Arts, the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation, and the City of El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department.
2026 Border Biennial Selections
This solo presentation by multimedia artist Connie Arismendi honors the lives of migrants who died while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in search of better opportunities for themselves and their families. For decades, thousands of migrants–many of whom have never been identified–have perished from extreme heat, drowning, or violence at the hands of transnational criminal organizations that exploit their desperation.
Created more than two decades apart, Arismendi’s installations, Victoria and San Antonio, commemorate the victims who died after being abandoned inside tractor-trailers in 2003 and 2022, respectively. As news of these tragedies spread across the nation, media coverage often overlooked the names, identities, and lived experiences of those who lost their lives. Through these elegies, Arismendi creates space for reflection, where names of the victims resurface, not to be forgotten from public memory.
The El Paso Museum of Art invites members of the museum and the public to the opening of a new large-scale installation Dislocations by artist Julia Barello, in collaboration with Cully + Leslie Studio, in the Patricia and Jonathan Rogers Grand Lobby.
Dislocations is made from thousands of discarded, recycled, and dyed medical imaging films, handmade steel pins, and oil paintings by Craig Cully. Barello and Cully bring these elements together to reflect on a contemporary condition of fragility and impermanence. It treats lived experience as a layered text – momentarily coherent yet constantly shifting – giving form to forces that were once peripheral but now defined the center of human experience.
Julia Barello is professor emerita at New Mexico State University, in Las Cruces, where she lives and works. Her work has been exhibited widely, including at the Rubin Center for the Visual Arts at UTEP and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York.
Support for this installation is provided by the Mellon Foundation. Additional support is provided by the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation and the City of El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department.
Get creative with clay during this fun, hands-on week-long ceramics camp! Taught by local artist Fernando Armendariz, students ages 10–13 will explore the fundamentals of both hand building and the pottery wheel. Campers will learn basic ceramic techniques while creating their own unique pieces and developing their creativity and confidence in the studio. Because ceramic pieces require time to dry, be fired, and finished, completed work will be available for pickup at a later date following the camp.
Get creative with clay during this fun, hands-on week-long ceramics camp! Taught by local artist Efren Villalobos, students ages 10–13 will explore the fundamentals of both hand building and the pottery wheel. Campers will learn basic ceramic techniques while creating their own unique pieces and developing their creativity and confidence in the studio. Because ceramic pieces require time to dry, be fired, and finished, completed work will be available for pickup at a later date following the camp.
Let your young artist explore, experiment, and create during a fun-filled week of painting and mixed media at the El Paso Museum of Art’s Intersession Fall Camp. This week-long camp is designed especially for children ages 6–9 who are curious about art and excited to discover their own creative voice. Students will be guided by local artist Angie-Michelle Barraza as they explore the foundations of painting, learn basic acrylic painting techniques, and experiment with a variety of mixed-media materials and creative processes. Each day will introduce students to new ideas and techniques, encouraging them to experiment, make creative choices, and develop confidence in their artistic abilities. The camp will also give students the opportunity to experience art within the museum environment. Inspired by works in the galleries, campers can discover new ways of looking at art and bring those ideas back into the studio to create their own original pieces. EPMA’s youth programs are designed to connect gallery exploration with hands-on studio experiences. By the end of the week, campers will have created a collection of original artwork while gaining a better understanding of painting and mixed-media techniques, building their creative confidence, and, most importantly, having fun making art. All art materials and services are included with the cost of tuition. Students should come ready to get creative, experiment, and have a little fun getting messy along the way.
Pottery wheel workshop Discover the fundamentals of pottery wheel throwing in this focused, hands-on six-session course taught by an experienced local ceramic artist. Designed specifically for beginners and students who want to dedicate their time exclusively to wheel throwing, this small intimate class provides plenty of practice and personalized instruction in a supportive studio environment. You’ll learn the basics of preparing clay, centering, opening, pulling walls, shaping, trimming, and finishing your pieces on the pottery wheel. With six sessions to build your skills, you’ll have the opportunity to gain confidence, develop your technique, and create functional and decorative pieces of your own. Classes are held Sundays from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM. All materials and firings are included, so you can focus entirely on learning and making. No previous pottery experience is required—just come ready to get your hands dirty and have fun with clay! Perfect for: Beginners, returning potters, or anyone looking for a class dedicated solely to wheel throwing.
Explore ceramics in a welcoming, creative studio environment at the El Paso Museum of Art. Guided by local artist Fernando Armendáriz, these open studio classes are designed for all skill levels—from beginners discovering ceramics for the first time to established artists looking for dedicated studio space and kiln access. Participants can develop their skills, work independently, and connect with a community of fellow ceramic artists.
All materials and studio services, including kiln firings, are included in the cost of tuition.
Join local artist Angie Michelle Barraza for a six-session acrylic painting class at the El Paso Museum of Art. Open to artists of all experience levels, this class offers hands-on instruction in acrylic painting techniques while encouraging creativity and individual expression. All materials and services are included, so students can focus on learning, creating, and enjoying the process.
In this exhibition, Blast confronts the tension between desire, survival, and overindulgence in contemporary American culture. This body of work lives in the space between aspiration and disillusionment. Through exaggerated color, distorted symbols of wealth and entertainment, and imagery pulled from everyday street life, the artwork reflects how systems of consumption shape identity, behavior, self-worth and survival. Rooted in the lived realities of the borderlands, the exhibition speaks to the experiences of working-class communities and people often pushed outside of the margins of society.
Blast is a recipient of the Museums and Cultural Affairs Department (MCAD) Cultural Funding Program. As part of its mission to drive El Paso’s cultural vitality, MCAD provides support annually to local artists, area non-profit arts organizations and creative entrepreneurs through a competitive granting process in six categories that is designed for maximum transparency. The Artist Incubator Program (AIP) supports the creation of new work by El Paso artists in all disciplines.
Trancazos de la Vida Real is presented in partnership with MCAD’s Artist Incubator Program.
Support for the project is provided by the Mellon Foundation and the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation.
On the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence, this exhibition portrays recent national historical moments through the lens of Mexican American, Chicano, and other contemporary artists. Centering the borderlands within the broader narrative of the American dream, these selections from the Zoe Diaz Collection explore the cultural, social, and political forces that shape the nation’s identity. El Paso-rooted artists Adriana Corral, Gaspar Enriquez, and Luis A. Jiménez Jr. reflect on national identity through works that question democratic ideals and portray the livelihood and stark realities of binational communities. Additional artists, including Mel Chin, Rubio, Vincent Valdez, and Kathy Vargas, confront the grotesque, surreal, and unjust in depictions of power and its potentially distorting effect on truth and reality.
Through the artworks on loan from the Zoe Diaz Collection, this nation is rendered as a beautiful yet complex tapestry – an embattled landscape, a canvas for dreams, and a stage for the ongoing pursuit of representation, justice, and belonging.
Edward Hayes Jr., Director, El Paso Museum of Art
This exhibition is organized by the El Paso Museum of Art with Georgina & Joe Diaz and EPMA Education and Curatorial Associate Eun-Ji Jun.
Support for this exhibition is provided by the Texas Commission on the Arts, the Mellon Foundation, and the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation. Additional support provided by the City of El Paso’s Museums & Cultural Affairs Department.
In composites-my eyes tear in the sun, Eric Santoscoy Mckillip explores the interconnected relationships between space, time, memory, and place through a body of work rooted in the U.S.–Mexico borderlands. Drawing from both personal experience and the wonder of the cosmos, the exhibition blends abstraction, vernacular design traditions, and celestial imagery to examine shifting perspectives on history, identity, and belonging. Through forms that exist between the familiar and the speculative, Santoscoy Mckillip reflects on the porous boundaries connecting culture, landscape, and lived experience.
Support for this exhibition is provided by the Mellon Foundation, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation. Additional support provided by the City of El Paso’s Museums & Cultural Affairs Department.
The 2026 Border Biennial / Bienal Fronteriza features 31 artists and two collectives representing Arizona, Chihuahua, New Mexico, and Texas. The exhibition is organized by the City of El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department in collaboration with the Secretaría de Cultura de México and the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBAL).
Inaugurated in 2008, the Border Biennial celebrates contemporary art from the U.S./Mexico border. The 2026 Biennial theme, Imagining the Border, invites visitors to engage with, experience, and challenge the narratives commonly associated with the borderlands. This edition draws from artists living within 300 miles of the El Paso/Juárez border and brings together over 80 artworks across two institutions less than ten miles apart: the Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez and the El Paso Museum of Art.
The 2026 iteration is curated by Dr. Adriana Miramontes Olivas and Alejandro Morales.
“Through subject matter and artistic experimentation, the selected artists propose new ways of thinking and seeing the borderlands.” - Adriana Miramontes Olivas, PhD
“The selection process became an exchange of perspectives on the border that opened readings neither of us had reached alone, as well as a valuable opportunity to encounter new voices and engage with proposals that address the contemporary concerns and questions surrounding the desert borderlands across political, affective, communal, and personal registers.” - Alejandro Morales
The 2026 Border Biennial / Bienal Fronteriza 2026 will open on September 4, 2026, at the El Paso Museum of Art and September 5, 2026, at the Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez (MACJ).
The exhibition is organized by the City of El Paso Museums & Cultural Affairs Department and the Secretaría de Cultura de México & the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBAL).
Support for the 2026 Border Biennial is provided by the Mellon Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Texas Commission on the Arts, the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation, and the City of El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department.
2026 Border Biennial Selections
This solo presentation by multimedia artist Connie Arismendi honors the lives of migrants who died while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in search of better opportunities for themselves and their families. For decades, thousands of migrants–many of whom have never been identified–have perished from extreme heat, drowning, or violence at the hands of transnational criminal organizations that exploit their desperation.
Created more than two decades apart, Arismendi’s installations, Victoria and San Antonio, commemorate the victims who died after being abandoned inside tractor-trailers in 2003 and 2022, respectively. As news of these tragedies spread across the nation, media coverage often overlooked the names, identities, and lived experiences of those who lost their lives. Through these elegies, Arismendi creates space for reflection, where names of the victims resurface, not to be forgotten from public memory.
The El Paso Museum of Art invites members of the museum and the public to the opening of a new large-scale installation Dislocations by artist Julia Barello, in collaboration with Cully + Leslie Studio, in the Patricia and Jonathan Rogers Grand Lobby.
Dislocations is made from thousands of discarded, recycled, and dyed medical imaging films, handmade steel pins, and oil paintings by Craig Cully. Barello and Cully bring these elements together to reflect on a contemporary condition of fragility and impermanence. It treats lived experience as a layered text – momentarily coherent yet constantly shifting – giving form to forces that were once peripheral but now defined the center of human experience.
Julia Barello is professor emerita at New Mexico State University, in Las Cruces, where she lives and works. Her work has been exhibited widely, including at the Rubin Center for the Visual Arts at UTEP and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York.
Support for this installation is provided by the Mellon Foundation. Additional support is provided by the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation and the City of El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department.
Pottery wheel workshop Discover the fundamentals of pottery wheel throwing in this focused, hands-on six-session course taught by an experienced local ceramic artist. Designed specifically for beginners and students who want to dedicate their time exclusively to wheel throwing, this small intimate class provides plenty of practice and personalized instruction in a supportive studio environment. You’ll learn the basics of preparing clay, centering, opening, pulling walls, shaping, trimming, and finishing your pieces on the pottery wheel. With six sessions to build your skills, you’ll have the opportunity to gain confidence, develop your technique, and create functional and decorative pieces of your own. Classes are held Sundays from 11:00 AM to 2:00 PM. All materials and firings are included, so you can focus entirely on learning and making. No previous pottery experience is required—just come ready to get your hands dirty and have fun with clay! Perfect for: Beginners, returning potters, or anyone looking for a class dedicated solely to wheel throwing.
Explore ceramics in a welcoming, creative studio environment at the El Paso Museum of Art. Guided by local artist Fernando Armendáriz, these open studio classes are designed for all skill levels—from beginners discovering ceramics for the first time to established artists looking for dedicated studio space and kiln access. Participants can develop their skills, work independently, and connect with a community of fellow ceramic artists.
All materials and studio services, including kiln firings, are included in the cost of tuition.
Join local artist Angie Michelle Barraza for a six-session acrylic painting class at the El Paso Museum of Art. Open to artists of all experience levels, this class offers hands-on instruction in acrylic painting techniques while encouraging creativity and individual expression. All materials and services are included, so students can focus on learning, creating, and enjoying the process.
In this exhibition, Blast confronts the tension between desire, survival, and overindulgence in contemporary American culture. This body of work lives in the space between aspiration and disillusionment. Through exaggerated color, distorted symbols of wealth and entertainment, and imagery pulled from everyday street life, the artwork reflects how systems of consumption shape identity, behavior, self-worth and survival. Rooted in the lived realities of the borderlands, the exhibition speaks to the experiences of working-class communities and people often pushed outside of the margins of society.
Blast is a recipient of the Museums and Cultural Affairs Department (MCAD) Cultural Funding Program. As part of its mission to drive El Paso’s cultural vitality, MCAD provides support annually to local artists, area non-profit arts organizations and creative entrepreneurs through a competitive granting process in six categories that is designed for maximum transparency. The Artist Incubator Program (AIP) supports the creation of new work by El Paso artists in all disciplines.
Trancazos de la Vida Real is presented in partnership with MCAD’s Artist Incubator Program.
Support for the project is provided by the Mellon Foundation and the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation.
On the 250th anniversary of U.S. independence, this exhibition portrays recent national historical moments through the lens of Mexican American, Chicano, and other contemporary artists. Centering the borderlands within the broader narrative of the American dream, these selections from the Zoe Diaz Collection explore the cultural, social, and political forces that shape the nation’s identity. El Paso-rooted artists Adriana Corral, Gaspar Enriquez, and Luis A. Jiménez Jr. reflect on national identity through works that question democratic ideals and portray the livelihood and stark realities of binational communities. Additional artists, including Mel Chin, Rubio, Vincent Valdez, and Kathy Vargas, confront the grotesque, surreal, and unjust in depictions of power and its potentially distorting effect on truth and reality.
Through the artworks on loan from the Zoe Diaz Collection, this nation is rendered as a beautiful yet complex tapestry – an embattled landscape, a canvas for dreams, and a stage for the ongoing pursuit of representation, justice, and belonging.
Edward Hayes Jr., Director, El Paso Museum of Art
This exhibition is organized by the El Paso Museum of Art with Georgina & Joe Diaz and EPMA Education and Curatorial Associate Eun-Ji Jun.
Support for this exhibition is provided by the Texas Commission on the Arts, the Mellon Foundation, and the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation. Additional support provided by the City of El Paso’s Museums & Cultural Affairs Department.
In composites-my eyes tear in the sun, Eric Santoscoy Mckillip explores the interconnected relationships between space, time, memory, and place through a body of work rooted in the U.S.–Mexico borderlands. Drawing from both personal experience and the wonder of the cosmos, the exhibition blends abstraction, vernacular design traditions, and celestial imagery to examine shifting perspectives on history, identity, and belonging. Through forms that exist between the familiar and the speculative, Santoscoy Mckillip reflects on the porous boundaries connecting culture, landscape, and lived experience.
Support for this exhibition is provided by the Mellon Foundation, the Texas Commission on the Arts, and the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation. Additional support provided by the City of El Paso’s Museums & Cultural Affairs Department.
The 2026 Border Biennial / Bienal Fronteriza features 31 artists and two collectives representing Arizona, Chihuahua, New Mexico, and Texas. The exhibition is organized by the City of El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department in collaboration with the Secretaría de Cultura de México and the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBAL).
Inaugurated in 2008, the Border Biennial celebrates contemporary art from the U.S./Mexico border. The 2026 Biennial theme, Imagining the Border, invites visitors to engage with, experience, and challenge the narratives commonly associated with the borderlands. This edition draws from artists living within 300 miles of the El Paso/Juárez border and brings together over 80 artworks across two institutions less than ten miles apart: the Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez and the El Paso Museum of Art.
The 2026 iteration is curated by Dr. Adriana Miramontes Olivas and Alejandro Morales.
“Through subject matter and artistic experimentation, the selected artists propose new ways of thinking and seeing the borderlands.” - Adriana Miramontes Olivas, PhD
“The selection process became an exchange of perspectives on the border that opened readings neither of us had reached alone, as well as a valuable opportunity to encounter new voices and engage with proposals that address the contemporary concerns and questions surrounding the desert borderlands across political, affective, communal, and personal registers.” - Alejandro Morales
The 2026 Border Biennial / Bienal Fronteriza 2026 will open on September 4, 2026, at the El Paso Museum of Art and September 5, 2026, at the Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez (MACJ).
The exhibition is organized by the City of El Paso Museums & Cultural Affairs Department and the Secretaría de Cultura de México & the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes y Literatura (INBAL).
Support for the 2026 Border Biennial is provided by the Mellon Foundation. Additional support is provided by the Texas Commission on the Arts, the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation, and the City of El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department.
2026 Border Biennial Selections
This solo presentation by multimedia artist Connie Arismendi honors the lives of migrants who died while crossing the U.S.-Mexico border in search of better opportunities for themselves and their families. For decades, thousands of migrants–many of whom have never been identified–have perished from extreme heat, drowning, or violence at the hands of transnational criminal organizations that exploit their desperation.
Created more than two decades apart, Arismendi’s installations, Victoria and San Antonio, commemorate the victims who died after being abandoned inside tractor-trailers in 2003 and 2022, respectively. As news of these tragedies spread across the nation, media coverage often overlooked the names, identities, and lived experiences of those who lost their lives. Through these elegies, Arismendi creates space for reflection, where names of the victims resurface, not to be forgotten from public memory.
The El Paso Museum of Art invites members of the museum and the public to the opening of a new large-scale installation Dislocations by artist Julia Barello, in collaboration with Cully + Leslie Studio, in the Patricia and Jonathan Rogers Grand Lobby.
Dislocations is made from thousands of discarded, recycled, and dyed medical imaging films, handmade steel pins, and oil paintings by Craig Cully. Barello and Cully bring these elements together to reflect on a contemporary condition of fragility and impermanence. It treats lived experience as a layered text – momentarily coherent yet constantly shifting – giving form to forces that were once peripheral but now defined the center of human experience.
Julia Barello is professor emerita at New Mexico State University, in Las Cruces, where she lives and works. Her work has been exhibited widely, including at the Rubin Center for the Visual Arts at UTEP and the Museum of Arts and Design in New York.
Support for this installation is provided by the Mellon Foundation. Additional support is provided by the El Paso Museum of Art Foundation and the City of El Paso Museums and Cultural Affairs Department.
Explore ceramics in a welcoming, creative studio environment at the El Paso Museum of Art. Guided by local artist Fernando Armendáriz, these open studio classes are designed for all skill levels—from beginners discovering ceramics for the first time to established artists looking for dedicated studio space and kiln access. Participants can develop their skills, work independently, and connect with a community of fellow ceramic artists.
All materials and studio services, including kiln firings, are included in the cost of tuition.
Join local artist Angie Michelle Barraza for a six-session acrylic painting class at the El Paso Museum of Art. Open to artists of all experience levels, this class offers hands-on instruction in acrylic painting techniques while encouraging creativity and individual expression. All materials and services are included, so students can focus on learning, creating, and enjoying the process.
