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November 6–7, 2026
7:30pm

Motherhood is the fifth in a series of works by Suzanne Bocanegra that transforms the mundane artist lecture format into an unexpected theatrical experience that combines elements of personal memoir with cultural and historic analysis, touching on everything from foundling homes to feminism, party planning, and nuns. Performed with actor Judah Lang, Motherhood is a rich and moving examination of how society values, or undervalues, the work of raising children and our understanding of this elemental human experience.

World premiere, commissioned in part by Texas Performing Arts

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May 21–22, 2027

“Suzanne Bocanegra’s art is an antidote to the history-free, prepackaged world that threatens every day to overwhelm us. Her work is also beautiful.” —The New Yorker 

In her new Walker commission, Suzanne Bocanegra examines motherhood as a political state of being. Deeply researched and delightfully labyrinthine, Motherhood sheds light on topics often deemed taboo: the history of infanticide, the creation of orphanages, the politics of infertility. In keeping with Bocanegra’s slide lecture style, the work features the young actor Judah Lang as the artist’s stand-in. With sharp humor and sharper insight, the piece exposes the cultural and institutional forces that act on one of the most central yet undervalued cornerstones of human life. 

Walker Commission. Part of Suzanne Bocanegra: Intersections.

Tickets here

April 3–August 22, 2027

Judy Garland rocketed to international acclaim as Dorothy in the musical film Wizard of Oz (1939), and she continues to be remembered as an iconic Hollywood star. But years in the limelight took their toll on Garland and by the time she was cast in the film Valley of the Dolls (1967), she was navigating physical and mental health challenges. She would be dismissed from the project in its earliest stages, with the wardrobe tests serving as the only surviving evidence that she was ever part of the film. That footage captures rare, vulnerable human moments of Garland as she performs in front of the camera.

In the eight-channel installation Valley, artist Suzanne Bocanegra reimagines Garland’s wardrobe tests by inviting eight women to replicate Garland’s unease and self-conscious actions, melding their own personas with that of the actor. Featured in the work are poet Anne Carson; writer, performer, and activist Tanya Selvaratnam; actor Kate Valk; vocalist Alicia Hall Moran; choreographer and dancer Deborah Hay; artist Joan Jonas; ballet dancer Wendy Whelan; and artist Carrie Mae Weems—many of whom have performed or exhibited at the Walker.

The large-scale installation offers a poignant and meditative experience, as each performer’s likeness is overlaid with Garland’s, creating a sense of connection and intimacy across time.

Part of Suzanne Bocanegra: Intersections.

March 18–19, 2027
8 PM

Motherhood is the fifth in a series of pieces that transform the artist lecture into a personal, deeply researched, theatrical event. Combining personal memoir and cultural history with art historical analysis, Motherhood explores the ways society values – or undervalues – the creation, nurturing and education of children, and the way social and political institutions shape our ideas about the value of motherhood. Presented as a slide lecture with actor Judah Lang performing as the artist, Motherhood touches on a wide range of topics including foundling homes, feminism, mother and child paintings, party planning through the ages, Susan B. Anthony, and nuns. And in the words of Bocanegra, “It will also be funny.”

Tickets here

January 13 – 31, 2027

How do we determine what’s honorable, and what’s not? In ​2022, the Metropolitan Museum of Art invited performance artist Suzanne Bocanegra to create a work about the largest tapestry in their collection: a 16th-century Dutch masterpiece titled  Honor. The result, directed by Geoff Sobelle, is a slyly witty hour-long performance impossible to categorize. 

Performing in tandem with acclaimed actress Lili Taylor, Bocanegra weaves concepts of ownership, authenticity, cruelty, and feminism together with personal and collective histories. With droll humor and startling imagery, Honor poses profound questions about this double-edged virtue. 

Presented in partnership with Under the Radar Festival

January 7–9, 2027

“An illuminating theatrical portrait of the mind of an artist at work.” —New York Times

Farmhouse Whorehouse begins on a small farm across the street from a brothel. The farm belongs to Suzanne Bocanegra’s grandparents, and the brothel is the Chicken Ranch, better known as The Best Little Whorehouse in Texas (of the eponymous musical and film). The performance plays out in Bocanegra’s signature “artist lecture” style. Sitting stage right, she feeds scripted lines via earpiece to an onstage orator—in this instance, actor Lili Taylor (Mystic Pizza, Six Feet Under). Equipped with historical footage, a PowerPoint, and wit, the pair delivers a theatrical essay examining American notions of rural utopia and urban imagination. 

The Walker exhibition Suzanne Bocanegra: Valley, a poignant and meditative large-scale video installation featuring eight actors, opens April 2027.

Part of Out There 2027 and Suzanne Bocanegra: Intersections.

Tickets here

November 19–21, 2026
Nov. 19, 20 - 8pm
Nov. 21 - 6pm

Dans un esprit joueur et curieux, la plasticienne Suzanne Bocanegra, s’amuse à tirer les fils du thème de l’honneur. En s’appuyant sur l’imagerie et les évocations de l’une des plus anciennes et imposantes tapisseries conservées au Metropolitan Museum de New York, l’actrice Lili Taylor (Arizona Dream, Six feet under…) attire notre attention, images à l’appui, sur d’infinis détails et détours.

Tickets here

Monday, June 22, 2026, 8:30pm

Internationaal Theater Amsterdam - Grote zaal

Suzanne Bocanegra weaves her personal story together with her interpretation of this sixteenth-century tapestry, revealing a rich tapestry of characters and narratives. The work comes alive in a dynamic mix of Bocanegra’s sharp cultural observations, personal reflections, colorful imagery projected on a large screen, and a compelling performance by actress, writer, and activist Tanya Selvaratnam.

From Renaissance weaving to Bauhaus textiles, from the Spanish Inquisition to girl scout badges and Hansel and Gretel, art history, childhood memories, and feminist commentary, flow together seamlessly. Honor is witty, humourous, and unexpectedly moving, a performance about status, labor, and the question: "Who decides what honor really means?"

The performance Honor is one of the works personally selected by composer Hildur Guðnadóttir, associate artist of Holland Festival 2026.

Tickets here

Presented by Make Hauser & Wirth, ‘CRADLED’ opens 20 November at the gallery’s Downtown Los Angeles location. Conceived and curated by artist Suzanne Bocanegra and actor/producer Frances McDormand in collaboration with Shaker Museum (Chatham, NY), the exhibition expands on its 2024 staging in upstate New York. The Los Angeles presentation of ‘CRADLED’ explores—through objects, sound, and activations—the Shakers’ embrace of caregiving and community from cradle to grave.

‘CRADLED’ will be on view Saturdays and Sundays, 22 November 2025 through 4 January 2026.

RSVP to the opening activation on November 20, 6-9pm.

Thursday, September 18, 2025, 6:30 pm

Part of Hancher’s Infinite Dream Festival

Suzanne Bocanegra recounts threads of her family’s life on a Texas farm. Her tale unfolds as aural and visual memoir, weaving elements of art, design, and monologue into a startling, humorous performance. The narration comes from Bocanegra, but it is actress Lili Taylor (Mystic Pizza, Six Feet Under) who mimes the emotions and breakthroughs to the audience. It’s a disquieting American story delivered at a remove that is—surprisingly—an unusual kind of intimacy. 

Tickets here

Sept 3–6 at 7 pm
Sept 7 at 2 pm
Sept 9-13 at 7 pm
Sept 14 at 2 pm

“Peak lecture-performance in the age of the internet: hundreds of images and deftly intertwined stories that romp through time, inserting the personal into a broader cultural history with precision and wit.” – Claire Bishop, ARTFORUM

Tickets here

Jan 31, 2025 7:30 PM

Feb 1, 2025 7:30 PM

Performed by celebrated film actor Lili Taylor and centered on one of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s greatest tapestries, Honor is a brilliant weave of musical and theatrical elements that emerge in surprising and delightful ways.

Tickets here

Exhibition open to the public September 15 - December 1, 2025, at the Kinderhook Knitting Mill in Kinderhook, NY.

Artists Frances McDormand and Suzanne Bocanegra have joined forces with Shaker Museum to present Cradled, a thought-provoking exhibition that explores the transcendent impact of the Shakers’ communal embrace from cradle to grave through objects, values, and inspired modern-day artistic expression. Through the curation of objects, soundscapes, lighting, ephemera, and experience, Cradled invites visitors to feel the communal embrace and take part in the literal and figurative mending and communal care that were central to Shaker values.

Press release here.

Hauser & Wirth

3pm & 7:30pm

FILM SCREENING: ‘FARMHOUSE/WHOREHOUSE AN ARTIST LECTURE BY SUZANNE BOCANEGRA STARRING LILI TAYLOR’
by Suzanne Bocanegra
starring Lili Taylor
1 hr 30 min

Register here

Honor, starring Lili Taylor and directed by Geoff Sobelle, is based on a 16th-century tapestry at the Metropolitan Museum of Art titled “Honor,” which depicts 69 historical and allegorical figures who offer personal stories as moral lessons in honor and in dishonor.  Bocanegra’s very close reading of the tapestry leads her to weave together such diverse topics as Carole King’s Tapestry album, tableau vivant, the founding of the Girl Scouts of America, Anni Albers, the Monkees, and the history of theater.

Tickets here

February 22–24, 2024

“Of the many lecture-performances I’ve seen over the past twenty years, few have been as exhilarating. … The finale was breathtaking and euphoric.” —Claire Bishop, Artforum (Best of 2022)

ASL interpretation is planned for Friday, February 23. 

Part of Out There 2024.

Tickets here

The third lecture in a four-part series taking the stage at NYU Skirball this season, Bodycast is inspired by the two teenage years Bocanegra spent in a body cast due to scoliosis. Bodycast mines specific details of Bocanegra’s life to create a more general meditation on art-making and shifting ideals of feminine beauty.

Starring Ruth Negga (Oscar, Golden Globe, and Tony nominee) and directed by Paul Lazar.

Tickets here

The second lecture in a four-part series taking the stage at NYU Skirball this season, When a Priest Marries a Witch tells a spellbinding tale set in the 1960s about a priest, an artist, and a young girl in Pasadena, Texas.

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Oct 30: Farmhouse/Whorehouse
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Nov 27: When A Priest Marries a Witch
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Jan 29: Bodycast
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Apr 8: Honor
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