Where should we go after the last border?
Where should the birds fly
after the last sky?

Texas is constructed territory, therefore unstable borders and occupations shape communities and their participants. Systems and structures rise and fall. The collapse produces dust and dirt, yielding material histories written in detritus and debris. In its eighth iteration, the 2024 Texas Biennial, The Last Sky, looks to the still-lingering dust to ask: What happens after the last line in the sand is drawn?

Through a collaborative and non-hierarchical approach, Erika Mei Chua Holum, Ashley DeHoyos Sauder, and Coka Treviño co-organized the eighth iteration of the Texas Biennial through friendship, reciprocity, and mutual support. With trifold dreams and visions, the co-curators selected works and artist projects through the 2024 Texas Biennial Open Call. Presented across venues along the Texas Gulf Coast, The Last Sky activates amorphous and overlapping forms of cultural production–performance, cultural preservation, and visual art–shaped and cross-pollinated by collectives and community participation. Through this survey of contemporary art, we looked to artistic acts of continuance and survival.

The Last Sky–with its title borrowed from Mahmoud Darwish's poem “The Earth Is Closing In On Us,” and the 1986 book After the Last Sky by Edward Said–situates the clouds as a gathering spaces in response to the rising and falling structures that seed myth, signal warnings, or transpose matter across borderless terrain.

We look to the levitating clouds of dust, yet to settle, anticipating its potential for new routes back to the land. The process unveils artist-led practices for a different type of future in Texas, which reminds us that we already have what we need to shape the world and make change.

Artists were selected through the 2024 Texas Biennial Open Call. The selected artists presenting works, performances, and activations at the Blaffer Art Museum include Olaniyi Akindiya, Stacey Allen, Mashal Awais, Anahita Bradberry, Essentials Creative, Farima Fooladi, Ian Gerson, Jessica Carolina González, Guadalupe Hernandez, Antonio Lechuga Jr., Gabriel Martinez, R Eric McMaster, Open MFA, Gilberto Rocha, S Rodriguez, Lisa Saldivar, Bella Varela and Isabelle Vik.

The 2024 Texas Biennial is presented by Big Medium in partnership with Blaffer Art Museum and DiverseWorks. The Texas Biennial is a geographically-led, independent survey of contemporary art in Texas. The program was founded in 2005 by Austin nonprofit Big Medium to provide an exhibition opportunity open to all artists living and working in the state. The eighth edition of this program takes place in 2024, making the Texas Biennial the longest-running state biennial in the country. Since its inception, the program has brought the work of over 300 artists to new audiences, springboarding many artists’ careers and underscoring the diversity of contemporary practice in Texas. The 2024 Texas Biennial The Last Sky is co-curated by Erika Mei Chua Holum, Ashley DeHoyos (Curator, DiverseWorks), and Coka Treviño (Curator and Artistic Director at Big Medium and Founder and Curator of The Projecto).

Over eighty artists with significant connections to Texas are participating in the 2024 Texas Biennial: The Last Sky. To learn more, please visit: https://www.texasbiennial.org/

From October 17–19, 2024, the Blaffer Art Museum will host the 2024 Texas Biennial Performance and Music Nights, organized by Goodnews Nwankwo, Texas Biennial Curatorial Assistant.

2024 Texas Biennial Performance and Music Nights

Thursday, October 17, 2024, 6-9pm, Blaffer Art Museum
Performances from Isabella Vik, S Rodriguez, X'ene Sky, and Corey De’Juan Sherrard Jr. The performance evening also features a Violin Duo with Jasmine Lin and Mann-Wen Lo.

Friday, October 18, 2024, 6-9pm, Blaffer Art Museum
Performances from Mashal Awais, X'ene Sky, and Ryan Holloway with Open MFA Artist Collective

Saturday, October 19, 2024, 3-5pm, Blaffer Art Museum
Migration Stories Workshop with Stacey Allen