Courtesy SITE Santa Fe
SITE Santa Fe 12th International
Once Within a Time
June 27 2025 – January 12 2026
Curator: Cecilia Alemanni
SITE Santa Fe 12th International
The 12th edition of SITE SANTA FE International, opening June 27, 2025, in an exceptional move for its tradition will extend beyond the walls of SITE SANTA FE, activating over a dozen sites across the city, these include museums and sculpture gardens to hotels, public parks, and even a cannabis dispensary. Titled Once Within a Time and curated by Cecilia Alemani, this edition marks the 30th anniversary of the oldest running independent biennial in North America. The exhibition will bring together more than 300 artworks including many new commissions.
The central exhibition space will feature works by a diverse group of artists including Simone Leigh, Wael Shawky, Nora Turato, WangShui and Maryam Hoseini, Santiago de Paoli, Candice Lin, and Ximena Garrido-Lecca, alongside historical figures such as Willa Cather, Chester Nez, Agnes Pelton, D.H. Lawrence, and Pablita Velarde.
Several works will engage audiences in unexpected settings. At Santa Fe Railyard Park, Garrido-Lecca presents a Waffle Garden, while Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill transforms Las Palomas Hotel into a site of artistic intervention. The Best Daze cannabis dispensary will host works by Omari Douglin and Claude James.
Collaboration with major Santa Fe institutions adds further depth:
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At the New Mexico History Museum / Palace of the Governors, works by Charisse Pearlina Weston, Daisy Quezada Ureña, and a new piece on Estebanico, the African explorer of the Americas, reflect on legacy and erasure.
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The Museum of International Folk Art will showcase a Dragon and Lion Dance Figurine and a new work by ZHANG XU Zhan in the Lloyd’s Treasure Chest Gallery.
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Wael Shawky will exhibit at the Center for Contemporary Arts Santa Fe (CCA).
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The New Mexico Museum of Art’s St. Francis Auditorium will feature Maja Ruznic and Donald Beauregard, connecting historical and contemporary painting practices.
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At the Wheelwright Museum of the American Indian, artists including Nora Naranjo Morse, Sky Hopinka, and Emmi Whitehorse will reflect on Indigenous storytelling traditions.
The exhibition’s reach includes experimental formats and site-specific installations:
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At Finquita (formerly Shidoni Galleries and Sculpture Garden), a series of large-scale works by Korakrit Arunanondchai, Max Hooper Schneider, Saodat Ismailova, and Agnes Scherer will animate the historic grounds.
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Axle Contemporary, the mobile gallery, will host projects by Autumn Chacon, Guillermo Galindo, and David Horvitz.
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Diablo Canyon, a striking desert location, will become a stage for works engaging Indigenous and colonial histories, featuring Chacon and a reflection on La Malinche.
“Once Within a Time” investigates the narrative potential of contemporary art through the lives of over twenty “figures of interest”—both real and imagined—who have shaped the cultural identity of the region. The exhibition invites reflection on how myth, memory, and fiction shape place and public imagination. In Alemani’s words, it is an “exploration of storytelling as a living, generative force.”
The 12th SITE SANTA FE International runs from June 27, 2025 through January 12, 2026. For a full list of participating artists and venues, visit www.sitesantafe.org.
