The Olympic Games, the life cycle of the carrot, booting that senator out of office and the Arizona Biennial: Good things come to those who wait two years.  

Fortunately for Arizonans, the wait is over for the Arizona Biennial 2026, the acclaimed exhibition at the Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block. The show, which is the longest running juried exhibition in Arizona, is open until Sept. 27, and will be accompanied by related public programs and opportunities to engage with participating artists.

Launched in 1948, the Biennial is a survey of contemporary art in a medley of media, platforming artists whose work showcases the state’s cultural and artistic diversity and incomparable Southwestern atmosphere. This year, the exhibition was juried by Julie Rodrigues Windholm, executive director of the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive. 

“Serving as a juror for the Arizona Biennial was a genuinely exciting opportunity to take in the creative breadth across the state and deepen my sense of what’s happening in the Southwest,” Rodrigues Widholm said. “The selection process itself was unexpectedly liberating by curating an exhibition based solely on images and artist statements in a space unfamiliar to me.”

The exhibition features the work of 31 Arizona artists, hand-picked by Rodrigues Windholm out of hundreds of submissions.  

“I feel very proud and very honored to be involved,” said BrassTuna, a South Phoenix born and based artist whose photograph “Sometimes While Growing Up, You Find Yourself” can be seen in the exhibition.

The piece captures Phoenix’s rich culture of Charrería, the centuries-old equestrian traditions of Mexico. In the photo, escaramuza rider Gabriela Lugo sits atop her horse, Tejano, sporting her black and white Adelita dress. In the background, downtown’s high-rises stand no taller than the crown of Lugo’s sombrero. 

“Sometimes While Growing Up, You Find Yourself” is part of BrassTuna’s larger photo documentary exhibition of the same name. The artist spent around eight months with several charros and charras, developing genuine relationships and immersing himself into the Charrería scene.

“I got to play off all the things that they showed me over those eight months, and then I got to kind of reimagine them in my own lens,” said the photographer, whose work lives at the intersection of his cultural identity and his queer identity, and often involves crafting masks and interpreting the world around through femininity and folklore. 

Though he treads new artistic grounds in his work with the Charrería, BrassTuna grew up around the sport. His grandparents own South Phoenix’s Corona Ranch, just a stone’s throw from the artist’s childhood and current home. Charrería certainly informed his upbringing, but outside forces — school, friends and the various communities that a young person finds themself in — eventually took over his interests. His recent deep dive was less of a renaissance than a return, proof that you can take the boy out of the Charrería, but never the reverse. 

“I was ingrained in the history and the tradition of the sport, and it was something that I could never let go of, even if I tried,” BrassTuna explained. 

“Sometimes While Growing Up, You Find Yourself” was one of three works that BrassTuna submitted for consideration in the Biennial, and upon hearing that the photo of Lugo was chosen, he was unsurprised. At his exhibition in November, the piece attracted a lot of intrigue. 

“I think it’s the strikingness of seeing a woman look so powerful on a horse,” BrassTuna said. “Especially because you’re able to see that this woman looks very young and she looks very powerful and she’s in the center of this field, above the skyline.”

“I also think that it’s the colors and the traditional nature of the dress. It’s not something that’s commonly seen. If you’re involved in the sport, you see this kind of Adelita dress all the time, but if you don’t know much about the sport, that dress just looks so beautiful and its look is definitely synonymous with Mexico.” 

This Biennial is also spotlighting Tucson fiber artist Adia Jamille, who was featured first in 2023, was selected again this year for her piece “I am the Seed.” 

The concept of “I am the Seed” began from Jamille’s realization that, as a black American, her ancestors would have hoped for later generations to carry the torch of their cultural traditions. 

The piece tells a chronological story in three parts. On the left side, the ancestors sow the seeds of tradition, the music, religion, food, stories: things that would eventually be “stolen, hidden or lost,” according to the artist. The mid-section depicts those like Jamille, who have taken up the mantle of those traditions. The right side is a vision of the future, of those down the road who will be inspired to learn the history and “come back to roots.”

The seeds metaphor takes on a more literal meaning for Jamille, who is a farmer, and who specializes in growing native plants and plants specific to the African American community. Jamille and her husband began ten years ago as backyard gardeners, and their efforts gradually grew into Oro House, a nonprofit four-acre farm that focuses on preserving seeds and feeding her community. 

It’s just about helping people reconnect with their own heritage,” Jamille said. “Like, what are the plants that you should be consuming? Why do we have the plants that we have here living in the desert? How can people begin to just explore a little bit further outside of their comfort zone, to rebuild their health and rebuild their community?”

As a fiber artist, Jamille uses her own plant materials in her craft. She does this to keep her work sustainable, but also to honor her heritage. Growing up with little knowledge of her background, cultivating her own art materials has allowed Jamille to connect with various time periods of ancestors.

“When we start to reexamine how we’re connected to these things, it kind of heals those traumas and heals those wounds in an unexpected way,” the artist said.  

For “I am the Seed,” Jamille worked with silk organza, linen, and rayon dyed with cotton, sequoia, turmeric, and indigo, and adorned with naturally dyed yarns, homegrown seeds, raw cotton, and brass beads that she sourced from West Africa. The entire work was hand dyed, pieced and embroidered by the artist.

“If you go back far enough in any culture, before everything got industrialized, everything was being done with plants,” Jamille said. 

Arizona Biennial 2026
WHEN: May 22 – Sept. 27
WHERE: Tucson Museum of Art and Historic Block (TMA), 140 North Main Avenue,Tucson
COST: $15 general admission, $12 seniors and educators, $10 students
INFO: tucsonmuseumofart.org/exhibition/az-biennial-2026/