3 Feb 2026

Biennale of Sydney announces further artists, artworks and public programming highlights for 2026 edition, Rememory

The Biennale of Sydney has today announced further artists, artworks and public programming highlights for its 25th edition, titled Rememory, being presented free to the public from 14 March to 14 June 2026.

With the program curated by internationally acclaimed Artistic Director Hoor Al Qasimi, the 25th Biennale of Sydney: Rememory, takes its title from celebrated author Toni Morrison, exploring the intersection of memory and history as a means of revisiting, reconstructing, and reclaiming histories. Through Rememory, artists from Australia and around the world reflect on their own roots while engaging with Sydney and its surrounding communities and histories, exploring global themes that connect us.

The edition will highlight marginalised narratives, share untold stories, and inspire audiences to rethink how memory shapes identity and belonging, amplifying stories from First Nations communities, and the divergent diasporas that shape Australia today. A dedicated program for children and young audiences will provide space and exploration for these stories to be passed on to the next generations.

A major international art festival and the largest contemporary art event of its kind in Australia, the 25th Biennale of Sydney expands its reach across five major exhibition sites: White Bay Power Station, Art Gallery of New South Wales, the Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney, Campbelltown Arts Centre, and Lewers: Penrith Regional Gallery. This expanded footprint reflects a deliberate focus on inclusivity and access, particularly across Western Sydney, and will be further amplified through public programs hosted at additional venues throughout the Inner City and Greater Sydney, including Blouza Hall, Centenary Square, Fairfield City

Museum & Gallery, Marrickville Town Hall, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, National Centre of Indigenous Excellence Redfern, Parramatta Artist Studios, Redfern Town Hall and Sydney Town Hall.

Announced today are an additional 33 artists and collectives for the 2026 edition, bringing the number of presenting artists, collaborations and collectives to 83. The artists come from 37 countries including Australia, New Zealand, Guatemala, India, USA, Argentina, Lebanon, France, Ireland, Ethiopia, Algeria and Taiwan.

Audiences will experience dynamic artworks, large-scale installations and site-specific projects by international artists such as Nikesha Breeze, Dread Scott, Nahom Teklehaimanot, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, Joe Namy and Sandra Monterroso, alongside Australian artists including Abdul Abdullah, Dennis Golding, Helen Grace, Wendy Hubert, Richard Bell and Merilyn Fairskye & Michiel Dolk.

As Visionary Partner, the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain has worked with the Biennale of Sydney to commission 15 First Nations artists from around the world to create new work for the edition. These artists include Ángel Poyón, Angélica Serech, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Carmen Glynn-Braun, Edgar Calel, Fernando Poyón, Frank Young & The Kulata Tjuta Project, Gabriel Chaile, Gunybi Ganambarr, John Harvey & Walter Waia, John Prince Siddon, Nancy Yukuwal McDinny, Rose B. Simpson, Tania Willard and Warraba Weatherall. They will work closely with the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain First Nations Curatorial Fellow Bruce Johnson McLean, from the Wierdi people of the Birri Gubba Nation, to realise their artworks. This is part of the ongoing partnership between the Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain and the Biennale of Sydney, which also includes a creative collaboration with the Sydney Opera House for the recently launched Badu Gili: Story Keepers.

Artistic Director Hoor Al Qasimi said: “Rememory is shaped by artists and cultural practitioners who understand memory as something living—where history informs the present and repeats itself in different forms. Through their practices, histories that have been fragmented, erased or suppressed are revisited and reassembled, not as linear accounts but as shared and evolving acts of remembering. Drawing on personal, familial and collective experiences, the artists in this edition reveal how the past remains present, inviting audiences to engage actively with memory as a space of responsibility, reflection and possibility.”

Barbara Moore, Chief Executive Officer, Biennale of Sydney said: “At its core, the Biennale of Sydney brings people together through art, offering cultural experiences that invite audiences to encounter different perspectives, listen deeply, and engage in meaningful connection. Rememory creates space to reflect on the ideas and histories that shape our world, while fostering dialogue across cultures, communities, and generations. Through free and inclusive access, this edition invites everyone to experience Sydney as a vibrant, global cultural city.”

John Graham, NSW Minister for the Arts, said: “The Biennale is a high point in our city’s cultural life. It will create unforgettable visual arts experiences for locals and visitors, and elevates Sydney’s contribution to the global contemporary art dialogue. It’s free and absolutely everyone is welcome, so I hope as many people as possible come and immerse themselves in this celebration of art.”

Steve Kamper, NSW Minister for Jobs and Tourism, said: “The Biennale of Sydney is the kind of cultural experience that sets our city apart—inviting visitors to go beyond iconic landmarks and discover the stories, artists and communities that make Sydney unique. Events like this play a vital role in bringing new audiences to Sydney and strengthening its position as a world-class cultural destination, supporting our ambition to grow the visitor economy for the benefit of the thousands of businesses and jobs that rely on it.”

ARTWORKS FOR REMEMORY ANNOUNCED TODAY:

The great Ngurrara Canvas II, by the Ngurrara artists of the Great Sandy Desert Western Australia, is to have its final presentation away from the artist’s country as there are no future plans for it to travel again. Presented at the Art Gallery of NSW, the 80 square meter floor canvas is one of the largest and most spectacular Aboriginal paintings, made by Western Desert artists. It was made in 1997, for presentation to the National Native Title Tribunal to demonstrate Ngurrara people’s connection to country for Native Title purposes. Traditional owners including two dance troupes will travel to Sydney for a special public performance.

Argentinian artist Gabriel Chaile draws on his Spanish, Afro-Arabic, and Indigenous Candelaria heritage to present a monumental adobe clay sculptural oven, hand-built and air-dried onsite at White Bay Power Station. Interested in the relationships around food and community activities, Chaile’s oven will be activated during the opening weekend and other key moments of the festival to feed registered visitors to the site in an intra-Latin American collaboration with Sydney's Andina Peruvian Cuisine.

Melbourne-based textile artist Ema Shin exhibits her largest work to date, a two-meter-tall 3D handwoven heart, at the Chau Chak Wing Museum. Inspired by a treasured family tree kept by her grandfather spanning 32 generations and including only the names of male family members and women who have given birth to sons, Shin's works are a meditation on the historic and cultural erasure of women, and a tribute to the women who are absent from her family history.

Canadian and French artist Kapwani Kiwanga presents a selection of floral arrangements from the Flowers of Africa series at the Art Gallery of NSW. Through extensive research into archives, Kiwanga locates images representing defining moments of independence throughout the African continent and recreates the floral arrangements featured. As they wilt, the work is transformed into a reminder of the fallibility and false-fixedness of the archive.

In a new sculptural sound installation at White Bay Power Station, Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Lakota artist Cannupa Hanska Luger literally and metaphorically gives voice to our animal kin. Using a series of ceramic whistles shaped into the likeness of the threatened native dingo, Luger's new work will howl throughout the space, acting as a vessel for First Nations voices.

Interdisciplinary Lebanese artist Mounira Al Solh presents two activations for the 25th Biennale of Sydney. At Blouza Hall in Granville on 15 March, Al Solh presents a community-based performance installation featuring the creation of a large vat of tabbouleh to feed attendees, exploring ideas of gathering, food rituals, musicality, rhythm, and tabbouleh as a site of resistance, alongside an iteration of her ongoing drawing series I strongly believe in our right to be frivolous, working with members of the Arab diaspora in Australia displayed at Campbelltown Arts Centre.

At Lewers: Penrith Regional Gallery, Guatemalan artist Fernando Poyón presents a new sculptural installation made up of 1,500 cedarwood pencils to resemble milpas (corn stalks). Focusing on the wellspring of Indigenous knowledge passed down, and nourished, by the artist’s grandmother, mother and the Earth itself, the work sprouts in representation of a culture constantly renewing and shifting with the cycles of the seasons as much as the changes of the contemporary world.

UK-born Norway-based artist Nora Adwan presents a new ceramic installation at Lewers: Penrith Regional Gallery where sound travels around the space through 40 speakers concealed in ceramic pomegranate sculptures, steered by humidity sensors responding to the outdoor climate, to create a unique meditative space.

Acclaimed Vietnamese American artist Tuan Andrew Nguyen's practice explores the power of memory and its potential to act as a form of political resistance. The artist ruminates on the post-traumatic reverberations of the

Vietnam War by presenting his film The Unburied Sounds of a Troubled Horizon at the Chau Chak Wing Museum.

American artist Dread Scott will present his photographic series Lockdown (2000, 2026) at Campbelltown Arts Centre. Over a series of black and white portraits and recorded conversations, made during brief meetings in US prisons, Lockdown tells the story of a society that imprisons over two million people from the viewpoint of those locked down.

FURTHER PUBLIC PROGRAMMING HIGHLIGHTS:

A dynamic public program will be presented alongside the artworks, kicking off with the opening night concert Lights On at White Bay Power Station on Friday 13 March 2026. Audiences will be able to explore the exhibition while enjoying vibrant performances including Brooklyn-based DJ Haram, playing their signature sound mixing club beats and percussion. Other performances throughout the evening include prolific local DJ and co-host of the weekly Latin American music show Mi Gente/My People on FBi radio Maz alongside Baile Funk collective INBRAZA Baile, groundbreaking inter-cultural First Nations fronted contemporary music ensemble Hand to Earth activating the resonant potential of the cavernous space of the Turbine Hall, American artist Niecy Blues, who merges soul, ambient and spoken word, and a preview performance of Joe Namy’s Automobile.

During the opening weekend from 14-15 March, free performances, talks and art activations will take place. A series of Spotlight Artist Talks, where artists present alongside their works, will include exhibiting artists Natalie Davey, Edgar Calel, Carmen Glynn-Braun, Ángel Póyon and more. Performances will activate the artworks of Nikesha Breeze and Marian Abboud, and a special musical performance by Indigenous artist Nancy McDinny with her son, daughter and sister, alongside her new series of paintings depicting the dramatic roll clouds of her Country for the exhibition. At Lewers: Penrith Regional Gallery, Wendy Hubert’s Indigenous plant garden installation will host talks and yarning circles.

On Sunday 15 March at Blouza Hall, ahead of Mounira Al Solh’s community-based performance, The Children’s Choir    will    give    their    public    debut    performance    of  نُغَنّي للحياة Songs for Life |  جوقة الأطفال تقدم أمسية غنائية كورالية A Choral Offering. The Choir is a singing, movement and music-making project that supports the wellbeing and participation of children from refugee backgrounds in cultural life.

A member of the Kamilaroi, Kooma, Jiman and Gurang Gurang communities, Richard Bell presents a large-scale social practice and participatory project called RESET. The project will consist of up to three events held in regional locations, culminating at a final event at Sydney Town Hall on Saturday 13 June, inviting public participants from
all walks of life to come together for discussion, seeking to develop a new constitutional model for the future.

In partnership with the Inner West Council, six new performance commissions will be presented under the title Working Memory from 11-12 April at White Bay Power Station. Artists include collective Body of Work (Charlotte Farrell, Emma Maye Gibson (Betty Grumble), Imbi, Natesha Somasundaram, and Megan Holloway), Lauren Brincat & Zoe Theodore, Jacqui O'Reilly & James Brown, Amrita Hepi, Redmond Reyes & Kit-Wu Bylett, and a roaming puppetry performance by artists Cynthia Florek, Lulu Barkell, Oliver Durbridge (Highly Strung Puppets), and Theodore Carroll.

To celebrate Africa Day, artists Rebecca Williams and Adechoon will curate a large-scale festival featuring market stalls and food from across the African continent, alongside live performances and music with a focus on Afro-artists based in Western Sydney on Saturday 23 May. The duo will also curate a special Art After Dark program on 22 May 2026.

Every Saturday and Sunday throughout the 25th Biennale of Sydney, White Bay Power Station will host the Memory Lane Food Markets that bring Rememory to life. The markets celebrate food as living memory, where

dishes are shaped by family, migration, land and identity — inviting visitors to experience the Biennale not just once, but week after week across the full season.

A range of additional programs will take place throughout the Biennale of Sydney, including curated Art After Dark programs at White Bay Power Station each Friday evening, general art tours, history tours of White Bay Power Station in partnership with Museums of History NSW, Family Days, Youth programs, education programs and access programs.
 

Key Dates

• Tuesday 10 March 2026: Media Preview Friday 13 March: Lights On opening night
• Wednesday 11 – Friday 13 March 2026: Vernissage (Professional Preview)
• Saturday 14 March – Sunday 14 June 2026: 25th Biennale of Sydney open to the public Admission is free.

For further information on the Biennale of Sydney, please visit biennaleofsydney.art.

IMAGES: Available to download here.

Ends