Join Kari Conte and Karin Laansoo, together with artists Matt Kenyon, Mary Mattingly, and Michael Wang, for a conversation about the inaugural Medina Triennial, moderated by Sarah Demeuse. Together, they will reflect on a season of contemporary art, ecology, and civic life along the Erie Canal in Western New York. Over the course of the 2026 Triennial, commissioned artists worked closely with Medina's histories and communities to create projects sited in historic buildings, on the water, and in the town's daily rhythms.

Conte and Laansoo will trace the Triennial from its earliest conception through its realization, reflecting on the contributions of 39 artists from five continents and sharing the artistic vision, collaborations, and unexpected turns that shaped it. At the center of the conversation will be the question posed by its title: what sustained us? The conversation will consider the care, labor, and trust—much of it unseen—that made an ambitious first edition possible.

The recap revisits major commissions such as Mary Mattingly's Floating Garden (2026), an industrial barge reimagined as a mobile sanctuary for humans and nonhumans alike, which will soon travel to New York City, and Michael Wang’s Future Sugarbush (2026), which explored how energy and local economies circulate through a community, transforming maple syrup into both a sculptural material and a shared social experience. The conversation will also consider Matt Kenyon’s The TELL (2026), a fragile tower of glass, Medina sandstone, and Roses of Jericho sustained by water drawn from gallery air, extending to Asad Raza’s contribution to the Medina Triennial, Reflection (2026), alongside his concurrent exhibition at times.

The evening offers an opportunity to look back on the making of a new international Triennial, the possibilities and complexities of producing contemporary art in a rural community, and the questions that continue to shape its future.

Image: Mary Mattingly during a community workday on Floating Garden on October 18, 2025. Photo by Dawson Andrews.