Mexicali Biennial

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.

Brown Futurity: How to Create an Archive
2026-05-16 13:00 - 15:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | MXCL BNL LAB, 6545 Greenleaf Ave, Whittier, CA, 90601
Brown Futurity: How to Create an Archive is a hands-on workshop designed to address persistent gaps in knowledge around artist-led and community-based archives. While institutions have historically shaped what is preserved and remembered, many artists and communities continue to face barriers in documenting and sustaining their own histories. This workshop responds to that gap by offering practical tools and critical frameworks for building archives from the ground up.
Presented as part of Whittier College Poet StoryLab, and led by archivist Xaviera Flores, the session brings together practical expertise and community-centered approaches to archiving.
Participants will be guided through foundational questions that shape archival practice: How can we begin to preserve and document our own materials? What are the first steps in organizing an artist archive? How do we determine what to keep, and what to let go? What does it mean to collect responsibly, and for whom is the archive being built?
Designed for artists, cultural workers, and community members, this session provides a practical toolkit to begin building sustainable archives, while encouraging participants to think critically about authorship, access, and long-term stewardship.

Dille’ xhon: Inheriting our Mothers’ Language
2026-05-30 13:00 - 15:00 (America/Denver) | MXCL BNL LAB, 6545 Greenleaf Ave, Whittier, CA, 90601
Join us for a Zapotec language panel.
Acompáñanos a un panel sobre la lengua zapoteca.

Dille’ xhon: Inheriting our Mothers’ Language (English)
Dille’ xhon: Da’ busuiku’an xna’llo (Zapotec)
Dille’ xhon: Herencia de nuestras madres (Español)
This panel features a community-engaged research project, Dille’ xhon: Un programa Extraescolar Zoochileño (Dille’ xhon: A Zoochileño Afterschool Program), rooted in the teaching of Dille’ xhon (Zapotec/o). Created in 2025, the project includes materials and pedagogical approaches from Santiago Zoochila, located in Oaxaca, Mexico, used to design an introductory course for its descendants living in Los Angeles with the goal of preserving their maternal language. The panel will feature students and facilitators from the project. This event will be multilingual, with translation provided to ensure accessibility for all participants.
Este panel presenta un proyecto de investigación con enfoque comunitario, Dille’ xhon: Un programa extraescolar zoochileño (Dille’ xhon: A Zoochileño Afterschool Program), centrado en la enseñanza del Dille’ xhon (zapoteco). Creado en 2025, el proyecto incorpora materiales y enfoques pedagógicos provenientes de Santiago Zoochila, ubicado en Oaxaca, México, que se utilizan para diseñar un curso introductorio dirigido a sus descendientes que viven en Los Ángeles, con el objetivo de preservar su lengua materna. El panel contará con la participación de estudiantes y facilitadores del proyecto. Este evento será multilingüe y contará con traducción para garantizar la accesibilidad de todas las personas participantes.
About/Sobre Whittier College StoryLab:
The Poet 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.
La iniciativa Poet StoryLab, apoyada por una subvención de la Fundación Andrew W. Mellon, impulsa una pedagogía experimental innovadora y proyectos de investigación que amplifican narrativas que reflejan la complejidad y amplitud de la identidad “brown” en los Estados Unidos. Dirigido por profesorado de las áreas de Arte e Historia, el programa se centra en la narración, la interseccionalidad y las humanidades públicas como herramientas para el entendimiento cultural y la participación social.

RE+actions: Performing the Archive
2026-06-06 15:00 - 17:30 (America/Los_Angeles) | MXCL BNL LAB, 6545 Greenleaf Ave, Whittier, CA, 90601
Join us for an afternoon of performances that revisit key moments from past MexiCali Biennial programs. RE+actions brings together three Biennial alumni to re-engage a previous performance as part of the current exhibition, HERE & THERE, THEN & NOW. This exhibition brings together archival materials alongside select artworks, re-presented in a chronological showcase.
RE+actions invited artists include Carmina Escobar, Rebeca Hernandez, and Annabel Turrado.
Schedule of events:
3:00 p.m. Rebeca Hernandez performs Façade, originally part of Cannibalism in the New World (2013) at Vincent Price Art Museum.
3:30 p.m. Carmina Escobar revisits Rituals of Propagation previously performed across the border fence between Mexicali and Calexico for Calafia: Manifesting the Terrestrial Paradise (2020).
4:00 Annabel Turrado reactivates Raspado (Abolish ICE), a durational performance previously performed at Parque Héroes de Chapultepec in Mexicali as part of Land of Milk & Honey (2023).

MexiCali Biennial: Then, Now, Next Mini-Symposium and LAB Closing event
2026-06-13 15:00 - 17:00 (America/Los_Angeles) | MXCL BNL LAB, 6545 Greenleaf Ave, Whittier, CA, 90601
The MexiCali Biennial presents a miniature symposium dedicated to highlighting scholars’, curators’, and artists’ contributions to the retrospective catalog, MexiCali Biennial: Art, Actions, Exchanges Since 2006. This symposium consists of two panels: the first explores the past, present, and future of the MexiCali Biennial and border art as a discipline; the second is a discussion on collaborations between border artists and curators within and outside of museums.
Each panel will address broader issues and key themes defining contemporary art in both Californias over the last few decades and into the future, including portability, site-specificity, local–global and center–periphery dichotomies, archives, surveillance, border activations, writing border art histories, and curatorial strategies for navigating the border. These conversations will examine the MexiCali Biennial’s indelible impact on U.S.–Mexico borderlands art, as well as the curatorial challenges posed by exhibiting within the distinct contexts of the museum and the physical border itself.
This event is organized in conjunction with the anniversary exhibition Here & There, Then & Now that is currently on view at the MXCL BNL LAB. This program is made possible in part through the generous support of the Mellon Foundation and California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. This is final scheduled event at the MXCL BNL LAB (MexiCali Biennial Lab).
PROGRAM SCHEDULE
3:00pm OPENING REMARKS
Ed Gomez (MexiCali Biennial and CSU San Bernardino)
Panel 1:
3:15pm BORDER (RE)HISTORICIZATIONS
Moderator:
Armando Pulido (Huntington Library)
Panelists:
Rosalía Romero (Pomona College)
Alejandro Espinoza (Universidad de Baja California, Mexicali)
Amy Sara Carroll (University of California, San Diego)
Luis G. Hernandez (MexiCali Biennial and SDSU Imperial Valley)
4:15pm COFFEE BREAK
Panel 2:
4:30pm ARTIST-CURATOR RELATIONALITY IN/OUT OF MUSEUMS
Moderator:
Sam Romo-White (MexiCali Biennial)
Panelists:
Ed Gomez (MexiCali Biennial and CSU San Bernardino)
Pilar Tompkins-Rivas (Altamed Art Collection)
Emmanuel Ortega (University of Illinois, Chicago)
Isidro Perez-Garcia (Artist)
Attendees are encouraged to walk to Poets Gardens/Nixon Plaza (13002 Philadelphia St, Whittier) for a no-host dinner and drinks.
