Counterpublic’s 2026 triennial will return next week with Coyote Time — a citywide exhibition placing nearly 50 artists across St. Louis in projects shaped by the region’s neighborhoods, histories and civic realities. Running Sept. 12–Dec. 13, the triennial will introduce new commissions and reinterpretations that examine education, climate, technology and immigration, with major elements along the Mississippi Riverfront and in The Ville.
“At the end of the day, we want to commission art that responds specifically to St. Louis as well as the pressing issues facing the region to connect art and social change,” said James McAnally, Counterpublic’s Executive and Artistic Director.
Founded in 2019 through grassroots activations in barbershops, bakeries and parks, Counterpublic continues to build long-term impact across neighborhoods and institutions. Coyote Time extends that model by pairing artists with sites that reflect St. Louis’ most pressing questions — from immigration and climate to education and civic belonging.
A climate impact report will be released at the close of the exhibition, outlining greenhouse gas data and lessons from low-carbon production practices.
This year’s triennial leans heavily into a major new commission by internationally acclaimed artist Glenn Ligon along the Mississippi Riverfront, and a series of projects in The Ville that center rebuilding, memory and community collaboration following the neighborhood’s 2025 tornado.
Coyote Time unfolds across five sites, each chosen for its connection to St. Louis’ past and present. The title comes from Alice Bucknell’s triennial commission — a video game set inside City Museum — and refers to the brief moment in gameplay when a player must decide whether to leap forward or retreat. Curators Jordan Carter, Raphael Fonseca, Stefanie Hessler, Nora N. Khan and Wanda Nanibush frame that moment as a space for experimentation and possibility.
“Artists and collectives are drawn equally from the exhibition’s immediate neighborhoods and the Global South,” McAnally said. “Across nearly fifty commissions, Coyote Time takes a speculative and socially oriented approach to the moment.”
Glenn Ligon’s commission will serve as one of the triennial’s most visible landmarks. Ligon, whose work examines race, language and American history through text-based paintings, neon and installation, has longstanding ties to St. Louis. His 2017 exhibition at the Pulitzer Arts Foundation — Glenn Ligon: Blue Black, curated by Ligon himself — explored the cultural and emotional resonance of the colors blue and black through works by artists ranging from Kerry James Marshall to Louise Bourgeois. The show remains one of the Pulitzer’s most widely discussed exhibitions of the past decade and deepened Ligon’s relationship with the city’s arts community. His return for Counterpublic continues that dialogue, this time engaging the Mississippi Riverfront’s layered histories and its role in shaping movement, identity and belonging in St. Louis.
“I’m glad to be the one that makes that space for people to enjoy themselves in,” Ligon said. “But also makes a space for people to contemplate, to think about what St. Louis could be, what it is, and think about what their children, or their children’s children, will make of it.”
Stretching along the edge of downtown, the Riverfront will host more than a dozen site-responsive works. Ligon’s project will be joined by a commission from Rebecca Belmore and an activation of the former public aquarium by Max Hooper Schneider. Emerging technology will also be present through projects by LI Yi-Fan, Alice Bucknell, Cooper Jacoby and others.
In North St. Louis, The Ville will serve as a major site for Coyote Time. The triennial will center projects that respond to the neighborhood’s recovery and future following the 2025 tornado.
Sumner High School — whose alumni include Tina Turner, Arthur Ashe, Dick Gregory and Grace Bumbry — remains a focal point of The Ville. Counterpublic has continued working with students and educators to shape new commissions, including a series by Timmy Simonds that commemorates the school’s history as a teacher’s college.
Across nearby lots, churches and community centers, artists will propose approaches to history and resilient futures. St. Louis artists Dail Chambers and the People’s Art and Recreation Center (PARC) will introduce alternative infrastructures rooted in community needs. Public works by Tony Cokes, Margaret Honda and others will expand the conversation around civic space, memory and neighborhood agency.
Counterpublic will also partner with institutions including the Pulitzer Arts Foundation, Kemper Art Museum, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, Saint Louis Art Museum, Kranzberg Arts Foundation and The Luminary to present collaborative commissions and concurrent exhibitions.
Counterpublic’s 2026 triennial runs Sept. 12–Dec. 13 across five sites in St. Louis, including major activations along the Mississippi Riverfront and in The Ville. Visit counterpublic.org for full artist lists, site details, maps and program updates. Email info@counterpublic.org for additional exhibition information.