Image: Bill Barrett, Lexicon VIII, 2007. Fabricated bronze and stainless steel, 46 x 57 x 36 in. Courtesy Melissa Morgan Fine Art, Palm Desert
Sculptor Bill Barrett has been named one of eight recipients of the 2026 Governor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts, an honor presented by New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham during what the announcement describes as her final year in office. The award recognizes artists and cultural figures whose long-term contributions have enriched New Mexico’s artistic legacy.
The recipients were announced on July 30 by New Mexico Arts, the state arts agency and a division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, together with the New Mexico Arts Commission. Melissa Morgan Fine Art, the Palm Desert, California, gallery that represents Barrett, relayed the news in its August 21 newsletter and described the Governor’s Awards as New Mexico’s highest artistic honor.
Barrett has worked for more than six decades in abstract sculpture, according to the gallery. His practice is characterized in the gallery’s newsletter as balancing strength and movement with elegance, and his work is said to be held in major museum collections and public spaces in the United States and internationally.
The awards will be presented at a ceremony on Thursday, October 15, 2026 at 5 p.m. in the St. Francis Auditorium of the New Mexico Museum of Art Plaza building in Santa Fe, followed by a public reception in the courtyard. An exhibition of work by this year’s recipients opens the same day in the Governor’s Gallery on the fourth floor of the Roundhouse capitol building, with an opening reception from 2 to 3:30 p.m.; no closing date for that display has been announced.
Barrett, who works from studios in New York City and Santa Fe, is honored alongside the visual artist Adrián Aguirre of Las Cruces, the Diné jazz trumpeter and composer Delbert Anderson of Kirtland, Albuquerque Museum director Andrew Connors, the author Anne Hillerman of Los Cerrillos, the Institute of American Indian Arts in Santa Fe, the painter Eli Levin of Dixon and the painter Sam Scott of Santa Fe. Established in 1974, the awards are presented by New Mexico Arts and the New Mexico Arts Commission in collaboration with the New Mexico Museum of Art.
Melissa Morgan Fine Art highlighted ‘Lexicon VIII’ (2007) in connection with the award. The sculpture is made from fabricated bronze and stainless steel and measures 46 by 57 by 36 inches. The gallery lists the work among Barrett’s available works and identifies it as part of its presentation of the artist.
Barrett’s sculptures are also represented in the gallery’s broader Palm Desert program, which includes a half-acre sculpture garden at 73785 El Paseo Drive. The garden is open daily from dawn until dusk, while the gallery at 73660 El Paseo Drive was listed as operating by appointment through August.
