2026 Biennial: Interstates

April 16, 2026

–

August 9, 2026

The 2026 Sioux City Art Center Biennial is a guest-curated exhibition that brings artists and communities together. It will offer a snapshot of what people in the region are making and how local stories, places, and ideas shape this area.

For the 2026 Biennial: Interstates, we invite artists to create new work that reflects on movement, connection, and distance as they shape life here. Interstates control how we move through and understand Iowa and the Siouxland region. Interstate 29 follows a section of the Missouri River, carrying people and goods through Sioux City. I-80 runs east and west, connecting the Great Plains to the rest of the country. I-35 cuts through the middle of the state, an artery that includes Des Moines, the Twin Cities, and Kansas City. Together, these highways link local life to a much larger network, placing Iowa at a crossroads of movement and exchange.

While this part of the country is sometimes seen as unchanging, the interstates tell a different story. They remind us that this region has always been about movement: of rivers, people, products, and of history. Bridges now connect neighborhoods and even states, joining Morningside to downtown and Sioux City, Iowa to South Sioux City, Nebraska. Interstates are a metaphor for connection, for proximity and distance. Just as the highways cross boundaries and bring communities together, this exhibition highlights how art travels across multiple states while remaining rooted in local life.

GUEST CURATOR
Matthew Fluharty is the Founder and Executive Director of Art of the Rural. His work flows between the fields of art, curating, writing, and community development. His writing has been published widely on platforms such as the National Gallery of Art and the Walker Art Center. Matthew was the organizing curator for High Visibility: On Location in Rural America and Indian Country, a collaboration with the Plains Art Museum, and he is the recipient of a Curatorial Fellowship from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts. He lives and works in Winona, Minnesota, a town located in Dakota homelands, on the banks of the Mississippi River.