Boston Public Art Triennial Announces First New Commissions for Inaugural Edition: “The Exchange”
May 22 – October 31, 2025
(Boston, MA) - The inaugural Boston Public Art Triennial, running for six months across the city from May 22 to October 31, 2025, is proud to announce first details of its site-specific commissions from selected artists. Located across East Boston, Roxbury, Dorchester, Mattapan, Downtown Boston and Charlestown, the Triennial artists will produce sculptures and interactive installations alongside performance-based and community-led activities, accessible to all.
Under the title “The Exchange” and curated by Artistic Director Pedro Alonzo and Curator Tess Lukey, the Triennial is an artist-driven platform that fosters cross-disciplinary collaborations between artists and city experts, working closely with its local communities. Each commissioned artwork reflects Boston’s leadership in addressing four key themes: climate and biodiversity, indigeneity, shared humanity, addiction and wellness.
Mayor Michelle Wu expresses, “To have our city serve as the backdrop for such innovative and thought-provoking public art is an incredible honor. This project serves as a significant step toward reaching our city’s goal of advancing each neighborhood’s accessibility to creative, vibrant, and inspiring public art.”
The new commissions, divided by a common theme, are as follows. More details on further commissions will follow in early 2025:
Indigeneity
New Mexico based artist Cannupa Hanska Luger (b. 1979) continues his exploration into the visual language of the bison, through a participatory artwork titled “Transmutation.” Partnering with local Boston Indigenous community members, the UMass Boston Native + Indigenous Studies Program and NAICOB (North American Indian Center of Boston), the piece explores the loss of America’s buffalo population, while also celebrating indigenous resilience.
Sam Toabe, Director of Arts on the Point, UMass Boston comments “It is a great honor for Cannupa Hanksa Luger to invite our students into the process of co-creating his newest commission. His artwork, Transmutation, will bring together members of our Native American and Indigenous Studies program, Art & Art History students, and the local community, to help share and uphold histories, current realities, and potential futures of contemporary indigeneity. We are also very excited to collaborate with the Boston Public Art Triennial, who are bringing public art programs across the city more regional and national recognition.”
New York City-based collective and public secret society New Red Order (Adam Khalil, b. 1988; Zack Khalil, b. 1991; Jackson Polys, b. 1976) builds on Philip Deloria’s concept of 'Playing Indian' (non-Native American’s using a simplified and often inaccurate representation of Native culture to fulfill their own social or political needs), to explore foundational nation-state origin myths embedded in representations of indigeneity. Working with local Indigenous community members, NAICOB, and Boston’s historical Revolutionary Spaces, the project offers a site for inverted re-enactments, as well as acts of atonement.
Alaska based Lingít and Unangax artist Nicholas Galanin (b. 1979) presents a public installation “I Think a Monument Goes Like This” that reflects on the destruction of Indigenous knowledge and technology due to colonization. This installation highlights the exploitation of Indigenous cultures and land for colonial enrichment, while underscoring the importance of Indigenous self-determination. Additionally, the MassArt Art Museum (MAAM), will feature a second, new work by Galanin.
“Nicholas challenges us to confront inherited narratives and compels us to engage with and redress the misappropriation of Indigenous visual culture," said Lisa Tung, Executive Director of MAAM. "We are honored to showcase his thought-provoking installation.”
Climate + Biodiversity
Los Angeles based, Salvadoran artist Beatriz Cortez (b. 1970) considers simultaneity, temporalities and different versions of modernity - particularly in the aftermath of war and migration - within her work. For the Triennial, she creates a large-scale sculpture exploring migration, alongside Boston’s waterfront, part of an important history of whaling in the 19th and 20th centuries. Her research is conducted in partnership with The New England Aquarium.
Partnering with climate scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Berlin-based artist Julian Charrière (b. 1987) will build a bridge between the rich biodiversity of a primordial rainforest in South America and the city of Boston, opening a window into an urgently threatened ecosystem. The artwork consists of a 24-hour video feed live streamed from a jungle, alongside equipment allowing visitors to both listen and project their voices into the woodland, creating emotional connections across vast distances.
Brooklyn and Boston-based artist Ekene Ijeoma (b. 1984) continues to acknowledge the disproportionate mortality rates faced by Black communities and honors stories of Black lives lost during COVID to create space for reflection and community gathering, he will plant at least 40 trees, including fruit trees, and will install custom-designed tree grilles with seats, throughout Roxbury and Dorchester, partnering with Speak for the Trees and Urban Farming Institute.
Chicago-based artist Lan Tuazon (b. 1976) presents a maximalist sculpture designed to be entered, occupied, and put into service as a test-site for social and ecological habits. Working with the Mattapan Food and Fitness Coalition and Urban Farming Institute, the interiors blend art and sustainability, showcasing material innovations that transform waste into surplus, serving as a flexible community space to trade in cultural currency, viewing surplus as supply and fostering zero waste redistribution of material wealth.
Brazilian artist Laura Lima (b. 1971) presents habitable sculptures for the wild and recovering animals at the Massachusetts Audubon Society. Together with the Nature Center’s staff members and scientists - and drawing on her experience with Instituto Vida Livre in Brazil - Lima’s project emphasizes the idea of environmental enrichment as an educational tool for visitors.
Interdisciplinary artist-scholar based in Rhode Island and Mexico City; Adela Goldbard’s (b. 1979) work will culminate in burning effigies made with reeds. The public pyrotechnic performance sees the artist engage Indigenous weavers and musicians, local builders and Mexican pyrotechnic master artisans, contrasting with traditional American patriotic firework displays, in a decolonial gesture. Expert partners include The Harvard Arboretum of Harvard University, and local Native artists.
Health + Recovery
Brooklyn-based artist and filmmaker Swoon (b. 1977), Caledonia Curry addresses trauma and addiction through art, workshops, and storytelling as a way to change perspectives on recovery and healing. Partnering with local trauma experts, as well as recovery organization The Phoenix, the project will offer a space for gathering and community engagement.
Shared Humanity
Patrick Martinez (b. 1980) creates his signature neon sign pieces with phrases gathered through conversations with homeless youth and local service providers such as the non-profit, Breaktime. The signs will be placed in the city’s Downtown Crossing shopping district, in partnership with the Downtown Boston Business Improvement District (BID).
Connor Schoen, Co-Founder and Executive Director of Breaktime says "Breaktime is honored to be partnering with the Boston Public Art Triennial to leverage the power of art and community to raise awareness about young adult homelessness. It's a form of homelessness that's often hidden from public view but deserves to be acknowledged. The Triennial's 'Exchange' provides young adults experiencing homelessness with the opportunity to be seen and to be heard, not just by an incredible artist like Patrick Martinez, but by the entire Boston community thanks to Patrick's inspiring work."
Stephen Hamilton (b. 1987), in collaboration with local Black craftspeople and the Royall House and Slave Quarters, celebrates African textile arts through weaving, natural dyeing, painting, sculpture, and performance. The project highlights the cultural significance of cloth in African societies as a sacred element of life and features multimedia painting, functional looms and live weaving performances.
Cuban-American artist, educator, curator, and linguist Gabriel Sosa (b. 1985) emphasizes the transient nature of public space through Ñ Press, a community print studio that utilizes zines, posters, pamphlets, and artist books to create a dynamic platform for connection, activism, and education. Partnering with Boston’s Spanish-speaking community and Maverick Landing Community Services, Ñ Press aims to decentralize public art, making it accessible and closely tied to the community.
Triennial Accelerator Artist
As part of the ongoing Public Art Accelerator skill-building and grant-funding program, designed to support early-to-mid-career Boston-based artists in creating temporary public art projects in Boston neighborhoods, locally based artists Alison Croney Moses, Evelyn Rydz and Andy Li will also develop site-specific public art projects in a special exhibition with the opening of the Inaugural Boston Public Art Triennial; guided by The Triennial’s Assistant Curator Jasper Sanchez as curatorial support.
Notes to the Editors
The Triennial 2025 commissions are supported by the City of Boston and a coalition of cultural institutions and community organizations including a co-curated project by the MassArt Art Museum (MAAM) that will feature a second, new work of Galanin.
On view from May 22, 2025, until October 31, 2025, the city-wide exhibition will encompass temporary and permanent public art projects during the run of the Triennial, presented by Boston area museums and institutions, including Chiharu Shiota at the Watershed, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston’s seasonal project space; Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum presenting Yu-Wen Wu on its public art façade; Julian Charrière's Everything Was Forever Until It Was No More at Massachusetts Institute of Technology / List Visual Arts Center; and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, presenting "The Huntington Avenue Entrance Commission: The Knowledge Keepers" by Alan Michelson.
Boston Public Art Triennial is for Boston and fueled by Bostonians. Creating compelling public art experiences that are 100% free and open up our city is only possible with the generosity of our supporters.
The Triennial 2025 is realized with Founding Donor Alnoba / Lewis Family Foundation and additional funders Joyce Linde and Linde Family Foundation, and Barbara and Amos Hostetter, as well as City of Boston Mayor's Office of Arts and Culture, Margaret and Tomas Bergstrand, Lisa Tung and Spencer Glendon, the Wagner Foundation, Richard K. Lubin Family Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Faith and Glenn Parker, The Boston Foundation, New England Foundation for the Arts' Public Art Program with funding from Barr Foundation, Rowland Foundation, Kathy and Gary Sharpless, Natalie Williams, Karen and Rob Hale, Alexi and Steve Conine, The Andreé LeBeouf Foundation, Natalie and Jake Lemle, and Jesse and Ronni Baerkahn.
The Barr Foundation, James and Audrey Foster, the Barr-Klarman Massachusetts Arts Initiative, Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture and the City of Boston with support from the Mellon Foundation, Massachusetts Cultural Council, National Endowment for the Arts, and Eastern Bank Foundation generously support Boston Public Art Triennial’s annual programs or general operations.
About Boston Public Art Triennial
Boston Public Art Triennial is the city’s first and only public art organization dedicated to supporting artists and communities in bold, contemporary, public art. The Triennial’s mission is to foster relationships between artists and the public to create bold public art experiences that open minds, conversations, and spaces across Boston, resulting in a more open, equitable, and vibrant city.
