Alien Excavations Closing & Pop-up
2026-03-07 12:00 - 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | MXCL BNL LAB, 6545 Greenleaf Ave, Whittier, CA, 90601
To mark the closing of Alien Excavations at the MXCL BNL LAB, Taller California will host a pop-up featuring the workshop’s past projects! Books and prints will be available from 12-5pm, including ALIEN, a three-part artist book produced by Taller California and the MexiCali Biennial. At 3pm, Taller’s founder and editor Lorena Mostajo will be in conversation with Armando Pulido to speak about this collaboration and the making of the exhibition. We hope you can join us for the final day of this project!
This exhibition marks the launch of ALIEN, collaborative book project between Taller California and the MexiCali Biennial. On the occasion of the PARA/normal Borders Lab, artists Ed Gómez, Luis G. Hernandez, Lorena Mostajo, Omar Pimienta, and Jessica Sevilla contend with the notion of the “alien” in relation to the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. Each created a series of images produced via digital offset prints (AL), glow-in-the-dark screen printing (I), and Risograph prints (EN) to produce three books that interlock to create ALIEN.
The artists collectively look to natural and built environments as sites of “alien” intervention that take many forms: traces of ancestral knowledge, Indigenous mythology, resource extraction, human migration, and extraterrestrial imagination. Alien
Excavations intends to expand on these presentations, showing visitors the texts, images, and visual culture that informed the final images produced by each artist.

Rooted Voices
2026-03-21 12:00 - 2026-04-11 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | MXCL BNL LAB, 6545 Greenleaf Ave, Whittier, CA, 90601
Featuring artists from Whittier and surrounding communities, Rooted Voices centers stories shaped by place, how neighborhoods, labor, migration, ritual, and everyday encounters leave traces that linger across generations. The exhibition highlights how stories emerge through shared conditions and relationships, through proximity, care, struggle, and collaboration.
Rooted Voices is a student-curated exhibition made possible by Whittier College’s Poet StoryLab: Narrative, Community, and the Transformative Possibilities of Brown Storytelling. Through a special topics class, students selected works that reflect the talents of local artists while connecting themes of PARA/normal Borders at the MXCL BNL LAB.
Participating Artists:
Brook A. Logan Arcega, Emilia García, Roman Luna, Santos Nuñez,
Ramón Ramírez, and Jacqueline Valenzuela
Closing Reception will be held on April 11, 2026
The closing reception will include spoken word by Whittier College student Ember Hall and music by DJ Blythe Bizzczar.
About Whittier College StoryLab
Whittier College is one of the most diverse liberal arts colleges in the nation and is designated as both a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) and Minority-Serving Institution (MSI). Located in Whittier, California, the College is committed to academic excellence, civic engagement, and inclusive, interdisciplinary scholarship.
The Whittier College StoryLab initiative, supported by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, advances innovative experiential pedagogy and research that amplifies stories reflecting the complexity and expansiveness of “brown” identity in the United States. Led by faculty in Art and History, the program centers storytelling, intersectionality, and public humanities as tools for cultural understanding and social engagement.
Student organizers:
Brook A Logan Arcega, Megan P Barayoga, Clark Paul Ehman, Yoselin Xiclaly Estrada, Hector Alberto Gastelum, Lilianna C Gorbea, Ember Hall, Mikayla I Hernandez, Ethan C Luevano, Cuauhtemoc Jude Luna, Skye Mendoza, Jessica Rios, Joaquin A Sanchez, Michelle G Sifuentes, Victor Soria Jr., Andrea Toledo

Brown Futurity: Artists and Their Archives
2026-03-21 15:00 - 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Whittier College, 13406 Philadelphia St, Whittier, CA, 90602, United States
Brown Futurity: Artists and Their Archives brings together artists and archivists for a timely and urgent conversation about preservation, authorship, and legacy. This public panel centers artists and explores archives as powerful tools for storytelling, self-determination, and cultural futurity.
The discussion features Xaviera Flores, Librarian and Archivist at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center, artist and cultural worker Sandra de la Loza, and mural and graffiti artist Man One. Together, they will examine how artists can build, protect, and activate their archives as living documents of creative practice.
Designed to give artists agency over the long-term impact of their work, the panel serves both as a practical guide and a conceptual exploration. Participants will learn about archival tools and resources available to artists—including record management strategies, documentation practices, and approaches to organizing a lifetime of work. The conversation will also address how artists engage archives as part of their artistic practice, reshaping memory and history through self-authored narratives.
As the first event in a two-part series, Brown Futurity invites participants to think expansively about legacy. Securing one’s archive becomes not only a logistical task, but an intentional act of history-making, futurity, and storytelling.
First Look at Rooted Voices Exhibition
Prior to the panel, guests are invited to a special first look at Rooted Voices, a student-led exhibition at the MXCL BNL LAB (6545 Greenleaf Ave., Whittier) beginning at 1:30 p.m. Organized by students from Whittier College, the exhibition features artists from Whittier and surrounding communities whose works center stories shaped by place, labor, migration, ritual, and shared experience. The MXCL BNL LAB also houses the MexiCali Biennial’s archive, with select items on display. Following the preview, attendees will walk together to Whittier College for the 3:00 p.m. Brown Futurity: Artists and Their Archives panel in Hoover 100. The walk is approximately 10 minutes in duration. The LAB will close at 2:30 p.m. for its staff to be able to attend Brown Futurity. Learn more about Rooted Voices HERE.

About Whittier College StoryLab
Whittier College is one of the most diverse liberal arts colleges in the nation and is designated as both a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) and Minority-Serving Institution (MSI). Located in Whittier, California, the College is committed to academic excellence, civic engagement, and inclusive, interdisciplinary scholarship.
The Whittier College StoryLab initiative, supported by a grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, advances innovative experiential pedagogy and research that amplifies stories reflecting the complexity and expansiveness of “brown” identity in the United States. Led by faculty in Art and History, the program centers storytelling, intersectionality, and public humanities as tools for cultural understanding and social engagement.
Xaviera Flores is the Librarian and Archivist at the UCLA Chicano Studies Research Center. The center is dedicated to the development of scholarly research on the Chicano-Latino population and Flores is integral to this mission. She oversees all library, archives, and museum services, including outreach, instruction, grant projects, and donor relations. She also works closely with students and partner organizations to build stronger ties between community and UCLA.
Sandra de la Loza’s research-based practice investigates the underlayers of our present landscape as a means to open portals and envision future worlds through the exercise of collective memory and political imagination. She is the founder of The Pochx Research Society of Erased and Invisible History, an on-going collaborative project that engages the subject of “History” through critical inquiry and artistic processes. For the last two decades her work has approached History as site and subject and has grown into archival, social and site-specific investigations and immersive installations. Her interest in the silences, exclusions and erasures of the past is in what it reveals of the present, and how these “ghosts” can make visible erased histories, unlock the imagination, and create counter memories for the future.
Man One is an artist, curator, multi-award winning illustrator, mentor and entrepreneur who believes in the transformational power of art and its power to save lives and make the world a better place. Man One believes art gives mankind an essential and irreplaceable cultural language in which to express and know itself. Man One believes art can transcend cultural and socio-economic barriers, fostering understanding, mutual respect and unity among disparate peoples. Man One believes these things are possible because he’s seen them happen through the power of his own art and the art of others. Growing up in Los Angeles, Man One developed his love for art, developing his skills as a graffiti artist on the streets of LA.

Salon & Networking Mixer
2026-03-27 18:00 - 20:00 UTC | MXCL BNL LAB, 6545 Greenleaf Ave, Whittier, CA, 90601
Please join us on Friday, March 27 from 6 – 8:00 p.m. at the MXCL BNL LAB for a salon aimed at bringing together artists, humanities experts, and community members in cross-cultural exchanges through casual conversations. This gathering invites stakeholders within the city of Whittier and surrounding areas who are interested in shaping the cultural future of the region.
During the evening, we will engage in an open discussion about the cultural climate of Whittier while connecting with fellow creatives, educators, and professionals who live and work in the area. As part of this dialogue, we will also begin imagining what a future Whittier Arts Center could look like — a shared space dedicated to exhibitions, public programs, artist studios and community storytelling that supports the creative life of the city.
The MXCL BNL LAB is located at 6545 Greenleaf Ave in Uptown Whittier and serves as a research arm of the MexiCali Biennial — a 501(c)(3) arts non-profit focused on cultural production within the borderlands of Mexico and California. The LAB operates as a space for experimentation, dialogue, and community-driven cultural programming.
Agenda
Refreshments served throughout the event

6:00 Doors Open
6:30 Opening Remarks and Ice Breaker
8:00 Doors Close. We encourage you to dine and drink at the small businesses throughout Uptown Whittier.
This event is supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Rooted Voices Closing Reception
2026-04-11 17:00 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | MXCL BNL LAB, 6545 Greenleaf Ave, Whittier, CA, 90601
Join us for the closing of Rooted Voices, a multimedia group exhibition featuring artists from Whittier and surrounding communities.
The closing reception will include spoken word by Ember Hall and music by DJ Blythe Bizzczar.
Participating Artists:
Brook A. Logan Arcega, Emilia García, Roman Luna, Santos Nuñez, Ramón Ramírez, and Jacqueline Valenzuela
Rooted Voices is a student-curated exhibition made possible by Whittier College’s Poet StoryLab: Narrative, Community, and the Transformative Possibilities of Brown Storytelling. Through a special topics class, students selected works that reflect the talents of local artists while connecting themes of PARA/normal Borders at the MXCL BNL LAB.

Planos planos: pinturas del folclor paranormal cachanilla
2026-04-18 15:00 - 20:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | Arista 1701, Colonia Nueva, Mexicali, Baja, Mexico
Presented at Arista 1701 in Mexicali, as part of Semana del Arte 101, the MexiCali Biennial presents Planos planos: pinturas del folclor paranormal cachanilla (Flat Planes: Paintings of Mexicali Paranormal Folklore), an exhibition bringing together artists from Mexicali whose work engages with the Biennial’s current theme: PARA/normal Borders.
Working primarily through painting, the exhibition examines local paranormal folklore through overlaps between everyday environments, personal imaginaries, philosophical inquiries, invisible presences, and border memories. The artists span different generations, enriching a collective perspective on the cachanilla imaginary—‘cachanilla’ being the term used for people from Mexicali and their local identity.
PARA/normal Borders is a nomadic series of exhibitions and programs that conceives the CaliBaja region as a liminal space where spirits, ancestors, and displaced identities move freely.
Participating artists: Pablo Castañeda, Annia Monroy, Heriberto Morales, André Pereda, Mahra Zamora

MB Viewing Room
Coinciding with Planos planos, an MB Viewing Room will be open on the second floor of Arista 1701. The space features a selection of MexiCali Biennial publications available for purchase, including MexiCali Biennial: Art, Actions, Exchanges Since 2006, the first comprehensive account of the Biennial’s twenty-year history; ALIEN, produced with Taller California and curator Armando Pulido, with contributions by artists Ed Gómez, Luis G. Hernandez, Lorena Gómez Mostajo, Omar Pimienta, and Jessica Sevilla; and Border Patches, an artist book by Biennial co-founder Luis G. Hernandez, produced in collaboration with i21.
Additionally, works by MexiCali Biennial artists Ed Gomez, Luis G. Hernandez, Fidel Hernandez, Bibiana Padilla, and Adrian Pereda will be on display.

BOOK LAUNCH & Opening Reception
2026-04-25 18:00 - 21:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | MXCL BNL LAB, 6545 Greenleaf Ave, Whittier, CA, 90601
Let’s celebrate as we launch MexiCali Biennial’s release of its landmark publication, MexiCali Biennial: Art, Actions, Exchanges Since 2006 and 20th anniversary exhibition Here & There, Then & Now.
The Book Launch and opening reception will take place at the MXCL BNL LAB, the organization’s research arm located in Uptown Whittier, CA. We’ll be joined by Tamales el primo and their infamous cart, with a DJ set and archive exhibition.
Here & There, Then & Now participating artists include:
Carlos Beltrán Aréchiga, Andrew Armstrong, Pablo Castañeda & Eduardo Kintero, Carmina Escobar, Ed Gómez, Fidel Hernandez, Luis G. Hernandez, Rebeca Hernandez, Albert Lopez Jr., Matt MacFarland, Ruben Ochoa, Nancy Popp, Mike Rogers, Paulina Sanchez, Jessica Sevilla, Sergio Teran, Diane Williams
MexiCali Biennial: Art, Actions, Exchanges Since 2006 is available for purchase at MXCL BNL LAB, The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art and Culture of the Riverside Art Museum (co-publisher) or wherever books are sold.
PURCHASE BOOK IN OUR ONLINE STORE

Here & There, Then & Now: MexiCali Biennial 20th Anniversary Exhibition & Book Launch
2026-04-25 18:00 - 2026-06-13 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | MXCL BNL LAB, 6545 Greenleaf Ave, Whittier, CA, 90601
The MexiCali Biennial celebrates twenty years of artistic experimentation, cross-border collaboration, and cultural exchange with the exhibition Here & There, Then & Now and the release of the landmark publication MexiCali Biennial: Art, Actions, Exchanges Since 2006.
Presented at the MXCL BNL LAB in Whittier, the exhibition reflects on two decades of binational programming that has shaped conversations around art, identity, migration, and cultural production across the California–Mexico borderlands.
LAB HoursSaturdays, 12:00 PM – 5:00 PMor by appointment

Here & There, Then & Now brings together selected works, archival documentation, and reconstructed projects from past MexiCali Biennial programs. The exhibition offers visitors a rare opportunity to encounter the evolving history of the Biennial through artworks, installations, photographs, and materials that trace the organization’s collaborative and experimental spirit.
Over the past twenty years, the MexiCali Biennial has worked with more than 150 artists across a wide range of media including installation, video, sculpture, performance, and socially engaged practices. Projects have unfolded in museums, galleries, public spaces, private homes, swap meets, and community sites across the Californias, emphasizing accessibility, dialogue, and the fluid exchange of ideas across borders.
Participating artists include:
Carlos Beltrán Aréchiga, Andrew Armstrong, Pablo Castañeda & Eduardo Kintero, Carmina Escobar, Ed Gómez, Fidel Hernandez, Luis G. Hernandez, Rebeca Hernandez, Albert Lopez Jr., Matt MacFarland, Ruben Ochoa, Nancy Popp, Mike Rogers, Paulina Sanchez, Jessica Sevilla, Sergio Teran, Diane Williams

Book Launch
Coinciding with the exhibition is the release of the bilingual publication: MexiCali Biennial: Art, Actions, Exchanges Since 2006
Produced in collaboration with The Cheech Marin Center for Chicano Art & Culture of the Riverside Art Museum (The Cheech), this publication provides the first comprehensive account of the MexiCali Biennial’s twenty-year history. Featuring scholarly essays, artist–curator dialogues, and extensive image galleries, the book documents the evolving themes and artistic contributions that have defined the Biennial since its founding.
More than a catalogue, the book serves as an archive of a transborder art movement and a record of the artists and communities who have shaped it.
Contributors include Amy Sara Carroll, Amy Pederson Converse, JV Decemirale, Guillermo Estrada, Alejandro Espinoza Galindo, Maria Esther Fernandez, Ed Gomez, Luis G. Hernandez, April Lillard-Gomez, Emmanuel Ortega, Rubén Ortiz Torres, Rosalía Romero, Sam Romo-White, Joaquin Segura, and Pilar Tompkins Rivas.
The publication will be available for purchase online, at the MXCL BNL LAB and at The Cheech.
