The upcoming iteration of Counterpublic, a triennial staged in St. Louis, Missouri, has announced the exhibition’s title and a number of its main venues around the Gateway City. The 2026 show will run September 12 to December 12.
For their version of Counterpublic, the five-person curatorial team—consisting of Jordan Carter, Raphael Fonseca, Stefanie Hessler, Nora N. Khan, and Wanda Nanibush—chose “Coyote Time” as the title and theme. They have commissioned 50 artists to make new work for the exhibition; the full artist list will be announced at a later date.
A commission by Los Angeles–based artist Alice Bucknell lends its name to the exhibition, which itself takes its name from “the moment in a video game when a character leaps off a cliff and is suspended in midair, unsure of what comes next,” according to a press release. That concept in video games is itself a reference to the long sequences of Wile E. Coyote in Looney Tunes when he falls from a cliff. “This moment of anticipation guides the exhibition, positing uncertainty as a space for experimentation and possibility.”
The forthcoming third edition of Counterpublic will center around some of today’s most pressing issues of “climate, education, and immigration,” per the release. To organize this iteration, the curators spoke with over 1,400 individuals and collated more than 700 pieces of community feedback.
In a statement, the five curators said, “Counterpublic invites us to take a leap, to reimagine what public art can do, to build while in motion. We aim to contribute to building material and cultural infrastructures for lasting change, while fostering critical conversations and furthering investment in supporting ambitious and experimental artists.”
The logo for Counterpublic 2026.
Courtesy Counterpublic
Additionally, Counterpublic also announced several of its main sites that the triennial will activate during its four-month run. A main focus of the exhibition will be on the Ville, a historically Black neighborhood in St. Louis that was once home to the likes of Tina Turner and Arthur Ashe. In the Ville, artists will present work in a high school, community center, public park, and church grounds.
The Mississippi Riverfront near the city’s iconic Gateway Arch will host a mix of permanent commissions and temporary works. (A planned venue for the triennial was the Crunden-Martin complex, which was located near the Gateway Arch but burned down in December.)
Counterpublic will also present work at some of St. Louis’s main arts venues, including the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, the Kemper Art Museum, and the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, as well as the Kranzberg Arts Foundation and the Luminary.
Two more partnerships have emerged out of this edition of Counterpublic. The first is with the National Building Arts Center, which is housed in a former steel foundry and holds the largest collection of built-environment artifacts in the US. The venue will host climate-focused projects as part of Counterpublic.
A second partnership comes via the International Institute of St. Louis, which was founded over a century ago and has helped tens of thousands of immigrants to the United States via its refugee resettlement program. Last February, the nonprofit furloughed 60 percent of its staff and was seeking to raise $500,000 to fill a shortfall in its budget caused by Trump administration’s defunding of the organization, according to the St. Louis Business Journal. For Counterpublic, the Institute’s campus will be reimagined with various artists, as well as see the introduction of a full-time fellowship.
In a statement, Counterpublic executive and artistic director James McAnally said, “Coyote Time embodies the current moment of apprehension but attempts to envision a shared near future with both boldness and hope. Each of our key sites for Counterpublic 2026 has endured a series of crises, including fires, storms, and governmental pressures. The works by these fifty incredible artists converse with the urgencies of the moment and propose new ways of thinking.”
