Connecticut’s Aldrich Museum Plans a Recurring Survey of Local Artists

The Aldrich Museum of Contemporary Art in Ridgefield, Connecticut, will launch a new periodic survey called the Aldrich Decennial, which, as the name suggests, takes place every ten years.

According to a press release, the Aldrich Museum, “the state’s only institution dedicated exclusively to contemporary art,” decided to focus its once-a-decade focus on artists living and working in Connecticut. In addition, the selected artists will not have exhibited in Connecticut before, and the works on display will have been completed within the past ten years.

The first of the decade, which will take place between 27 June 2026 and 10 January 2027 under the theme ‘I am what surrounds me’, is organized by Chief Curator Amy Smith-Stewart and Publishing Manager Caitlin Monachino, who conducted more than 100 studio visits as part of the research.

Curators scaled it down to an international group of 40 artists, including such luminaries as Dominic Chambers, Tammy Nguyen, Em Rooney, Aki Sasamoto and Julia Wachtel. The oldest artist in the exhibition is Lucy Salik, born in 1937, while the youngest artist in the exhibition is Remy Souza, born in 1995, nearly six years younger than Salik.

The first decade of exhibitions will span the entire Aldridge campus, from the 8,000-square-foot gallery to the recently renovated three-acre site, which includes a sculpture garden. The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalog and aims to “explore the diverse artistic expressions of generations of artists who have chosen to live and work outside major art centers,” according to a press release.

“While the Aldrich Museum’s mission is broad, focusing on the work of living artists from across the United States and around the world, the museum has also had an abiding interest in artists who have lived and worked in Connecticut over the past 60 years,” executive director Cybele Maylone said in a statement. “With the premiere of this first-ever series, we are extremely proud to highlight the tremendous talent in our small but mighty state.”

The pace of the Aldrich Decade is unusual in the art world. The only other major exhibition to follow this pattern is Germany’s Sculpture Project Münster, which will hold its sixth edition in 2027. Most regular exhibitions take place every two years (biennales) or every three years (triennales). The Carnegie International Festival of the Arts is now held every four years, and the Getty Foundation’s PST ART recently moved to every five years. Documenta in Kassel, Germany has been held every five years since the interval between the fifth and sixth editions in the 1970s.

“Connecticut has always been a home for visionary artists and bold ideas,” Smith-Stewart said in a statement, which noted that artists such as Anni and Josef Albers, Kay Saatchi and Yves Tanguy, Louise Bourgeois, Alexander Calder, Jasper Jones, Buckley Hendrix and Sol LeWitt have all called the state home. “This survey spotlights the artists who call this place home and whose work is deeply rooted in the museum community but reaches far beyond it. It is an honor to share their powerful voices with the world through this new exhibition series.”

The full artist list for the 2026 edition is below.

Faustin Adeniran (b. 1988)

Alan Alterfest (b. 1970)

Scott Carrillo Azevedo (b. 1983)

Jen Bervin (b. 1972)

Carlos Bautista Biernnay (born 1969)

Lula Mae Brockton (b. 1947)

Gary Burnley (b. 1950)

Dominic Chambers (b. 1993)

Carl D’Alvia (b. 1965)

Chris Domenick (b. 1982)

Anindita Dutta (b. 1973)

Azar El Siddique (b. 1984)

Anoka Faruqee (b. 1972) and David Driscoll (b. 1964)

Enrique Figueiredo (b. 1980)

Lizzie Gill(b. 1989)

Renee Gladman (b. 1971)

Dan Gunn (born 1980)

Edward Henderson (b. 1951)

Huê Thi Hoffmaster (b. 1982)

Christie Hughes (b. 1987)

Gillian Jones (b. 1959)

Arghavan Khosravi (b. 1984)

Sonia Langford (b. 1994)

Emily Larned (b. 1977)

Lee Ji-hyun(b. 1979)

Baker Lowry (b. 1980)

Danica Lundy (b. 1991)

Tammy Nguyen (b. 1984)

Grace O’Connor (b. 1974)

Em Rooney (born 1983)

Lucy Salik (b. 1937)

Kern Samuel (b. 1990)

Aki Sasamoto (b. 1980)

John Shen (born 1990)

Remy Souza (b. 1995)

Philip Taaffe (b. 1955)

Ferrandos Thames (b. 1974)

Amanda Rachel Wallace (b. 1986)

Julia Wachtel (b. 1956)