TMA Stories

After a COVID-19 related three-month delay and a whirlwind installation, Arizona Biennial 2020 is finally open! As much as we wanted to open this exciting exhibition with a huge party on Free First Thursday (remember how much fun we had at the last Biennial opening in 2018?), that will have to wait. Instead of a huge public shin-dig we offer you the opposite: an intimate behind-the-scenes look at artists and TMA staff installing a selected of the 91 works in the Biennial exhibition. In these short videos you will be able to watch the installation of artworks and listen to some background information on the Biennial as well as on the artists featured.

Arizona Biennial is the oldest running state-wide juried exhibition featuring exclusively Arizona artists. The recurring exhibition began in a different form in 1948. The current Biennial format was adopted by TMA in 1980 as a way to amplify the artistic diversity of the state. The cultural, social and political landscape is different each time Arizona Biennial is held, and the works on view always examine some of the most important issues of that moment.

“At this time of a global pandemic, as the very fabric of the American dream unravels, the artist’s voice sounds the alarm for what may be a very different world,” said Arizona Biennial 2020 guest juror Joe Baker. “Many of the participating artists address the challenges we face as a nation, including cultural inequities, domestic violence, gender politics and environmental threats.”