Aaron Wilder, Invisible Self Portrait: On Shapeshifting and Privilege (detail), 2025, Digital Video with Sound

May 20-September 6, 2026
Opening Reception: Friday June 5, 2026, 5:00pm-7:00pm

 

Salina Art Center
242 South Santa Fe Avenue
Salina, KS 67401

The fifth iteration of the Salina Biennial continues to affirm the power of art-making in the Mountain Plains region. The Biennial was established in 2018 to highlight artists who are balancing the traditions and history of our region with a larger, global contemporary practice. The artists of the Mountain-Plains region are equally defined by their place while also defining it, and continuing to redefine it. The Biennial continues our tradition of exhibitions that pose important questions and encourage meaningful interactions.

2026 Mountain Plains Contemporary Art Biennial is a juried exhibition highlighting contemporary visual art from the Mountain-Plains region of the United States. As America approaches its 250th anniversary, this exhibition encourages artists to reflect on identity, place, belonging, and transformation through the lens of a region often considered the country’s heartland. All themes and media are welcome.

Work from Aaron Wilder's Invisible Self Portrait project is included in the exhibition. This video essay animates a single photograph of Wilder's reflection in an airplane seatback screen, gradually shifting from negative to positive space across the grayscale spectrum. Accompanied by a self-dialogue informed by the writings of Swiss psychologist Alice Miller, the work inhabits the threshold between visibility and disappearance. The image becomes a metaphorical edge where queer identity, memory, and privilege are continuously negotiated within the uncertain terrain of self-recognition.