Amanda Williams

The organizers of the upcoming edition of Prospect.6 triennial in New Orleans have named the 49 artists that will take part in the exhibition, opening in November.

Taking the title “the future is present, the harbinger is home,” the exhibition is organized by artist Ebony G. Patterson and Miranda Lash, senior curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver. Among the artists included are several closely watched and influential artists like rafa esparza, Joan Jonas, Mel Chin, Brian Jungen, and Clarissa Tossin. Artists whose stars have recently been on the rise are also included, such as Teresa Baker, Cathy Lu, Amanda Williams, Bethany Collins, and Joiri Minaya.

The exhibition’s artist list features three artists—Tossin, Eddie Rodolfo Aparicio, Karyn Olivier—who will also feature in this year’s Whitney Biennial, which also announced its artist list on Thursday; several artists in Prospect.6 are also veterans of past Whitney Biennials, including esparza, Brendan Fernandes, Raúl de Nieves, Maia Ruth Lee, and Tuan Andrew Nguyen.

The triennial will also feature nine artists who are currently based in New Orleans: Hannah Chalew, Thomas Deaton, Christian Ðinh, Abdi Farah, L. Kasimu Harris, Blas Isasi, Ruth Owens, Brooke Pickett, and Ashley Teamer. Similarly, 11 artists were born in the Caribbean, with a significant portion of them also based there, including Olivier, Myrlande Constant, Christopher Cozier, and Didier William.

In a statement, Ebony said Prospect.6 “presents a challenge to our perceptions of ‘home’ — it asks us to consider that what we hold dear about the places where we live may, in fact, share commonalities with places we’ve never considered. This triennial is about decentering our understanding and viewing New Orleans through a lens that transcends North American narratives and anchors the city in a global discourse. New Orleans is a global place and reflects the fact that most of the world is occupied by people of colour. What does it mean to think about places like New Orleans, as currently living in the future, rather than a future to come? And that places outside of this are actually behind.”

The work of these artists, many of which will be new commissions, will be shown across 20 venues and unconventional spaces, “an emphasis on large-scale and ambitious installations in both galleries and public spaces,” according to a press release. Among those venues are some of the city’s most important museums, including the Newcomb Art Museum, the Ogden Museum, the Historic New Orleans Collection, and the Contemporary Arts Center. Another site is Harmony Circle, which was renamed from Lee Circle in 2022 after a city council vote.

In a statement, Lash said, “This triennial offers a critique and discussion of how people, communities, and regions like Louisiana have been and continue to be regarded as sites of extraction for resources and labor. At the same time, New Orleans offers profound insight into how culture, neighborhoods, and deep histories tether us to people and places, even in the face of mounting challenges. We see this tension between attachments to home—however one defines it—and the shifting climate as one of the defining issues of our foreseeable future.”