The Land of Milk and Honey

The Land of Milk and Honey is a traveling multidisciplinary arts and culture program focused on the ideological concept of agriculture in the regions of California and Mexico.

Drawing inspiration from John Steinbeck’s portrayal of the region as a corrupted Eden, the biennial presents works that question ethical, cultural and regional practices related to foodways, and the venture from seed to table. The biblical reference of a “land of milk and honey” first became associated with California as a tool for promoting the state as a land of opportunity; a destination for those in search of a better way of life – a terra firma that would provide sustenance and abundance. This boosterism also served as an ethos that fueled “Manifest Destiny” and resulted in land grabs, labor exploitation, ecological destruction, and social injustices.

This inaugural exhibition explores artists’ views around multi-layered topics associated with agriculture including environmental impacts, cultural culinary traditions, identity and migration, regional histographies, and familial and mythical connections to food.

Header Image: Fernando Armenghol, Sol2Soul Art Collective (2016), La Cosecha Sagrada, digital photograph.

Participating Artists:
Boo Alejo Sorondo
Janeth Aparicio
David Bacon
Pablo Castañeda and Eduardo Kintero
Carlos Castro Arias
Emily C-D
Cat Chiu Phillips
Janet Diaz
Melora Garcia
Katie Herzog
Cynthia Hooper
Albert Lopez Jr
Juan Luna-Avin
Narsiso Martinez
Hillary Mushkin
Isidro Pérez García
Sol2Soul Arts Collective (Fernando Armenghol, Yari Montes, Tarisse Iriarte Medina, Andrea YaYA Porras, Viviana Rubi Cruz Lopez)
Devon Tsuno
Annabel Turrado
Jessica Wimbley and Chris Christion

Adjacent projects include TRANSBORDER by artist Daniel Ruanova and Ignacio Ornelas Rodriguez as part of the MAH's CommonGround festival from September 16-25, 2022.

The MexiCali Biennial is honored to be partnering with a NIH-SEPA grant housed at California State University, Monterey Bay along with Artists Ink (Salinas) in exhibiting youth artworks from agricultural communities that address the environment and human health through art.

The project is made possible with support from the Mellon Foundation and the California Humanities, a non-profit partner of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Additional support provided by a 2022 American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) Sustaining Public Engagement Grant, supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) as part of the American Rescue Plan Sustaining the Humanities through the American Rescue Plan (SHARP) initiative. Additional support is provided by The Humanities Institute at UC Santa Cruz.

The MexiCali Biennial is a non-profit contemporary visual arts organization that focuses on the area encompassing California and Mexico as a region of aesthetic production. The organization is migratory in nature and showcases exhibitions on both sides of the California/Mexico border. The MexiCali Biennial was originally started as a project critiquing the proliferation of international and regional art biennials and as a result, may be shown at any time and at any location. The MexiCali Biennial was conceived in 2006 by artists Ed Gomez and Luis G. Hernandez. The inaugural round of programming first took place at La Casa de la Tia Tina, an artist-run space on the border town of Mexicali, MX before traveling to Chavez Studios in East Los Angeles.

The Land of Milk and Honey is organized by Ed Gomez, Luis G. Hernandez, Enid Baxter-Ryce, Rosalia Romero, and April Lillard-Gomez.