25th Biennale of Sydney: Rememory – Artists and Program

25th Biennale of Sydney exhibiting and programming artists. Photo: Daniel Boud.

25th Biennale of Sydney: Rememory

March 14 – June 14, 2026
Curator: Hoor Al Qasimi
www.biennaleofsydney.art

The Biennale of Sydney has announced additional artists and program highlights for its milestone 25th edition, Rememory, curated by Artistic Director Hoor Al Qasimi. Taking place from March 14 to June 14, 2026, the edition will be presented free to the public across various venues in Sydney.

Titled Rememory, the 25th edition draws from a concept developed by celebrated author Toni Morrison, exploring the intersection of memory and history as a means of revisiting, reconstructing, and reclaiming narratives. 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. Highlighting marginalised narratives and amplifying untold stories, the Biennale aims to inspire audiences to rethink how memory shapes identity and belonging. Particular attention will be given to stories from First Nations communities and the many diasporas that make up contemporary Australia. A dedicated program for children and young audiences will provide intergenerational space for these narratives to be shared and passed on.

An additional 33 artists and collectives were announced, bringing the total number of presenting artists, collaborations, and collectives to 83, from 37 countries including Australia, New Zealand, Guatemala, India, USA, Argentina, Lebanon, France, Ireland, Ethiopia, Algeria, and Taiwan. The full artist list is available here.

Artistic Director Hoor Al Qasimi commented:

“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.”

Among the significant works presented during Rememory, the Ngurrara Canvas II, created in 1997 by Ngurrara artists of the Great Sandy Desert, will be shown at the Art Gallery of New South Wales. At 80 square meters, it is one of the most spectacular Aboriginal paintings and was originally created for presentation to the National Native Title Tribunal as evidence of the Ngurrara people’s connection to their country. This will be its final presentation away from Country, and traditional owners—including two dance troupes—will travel to Sydney for a special public performance.

Argentinian artist Gabriel Chaile will construct a monumental adobe clay oven onsite at White Bay Power Station. Drawing on his Spanish, Afro-Arabic, and Indigenous Candelaria heritage, Chaile’s oven will be activated to serve food to visitors, in collaboration with Sydney’s Andina Peruvian Cuisine, fostering connections around community and nourishment.

Melbourne-based artist Ema Shin will exhibit her largest work to date, a two-meter-tall handwoven heart at Chau Chak Wing Museum. Inspired by her grandfather’s family tree, which spans 32 generations but includes only male names and women who bore sons, Shin’s work becomes a tribute to the erased women in her lineage.

Canadian-French artist Kapwani Kiwanga will present floral arrangements from her Flowers of Africa series at the Art Gallery of NSW. Reconstructing flowers from archival images documenting African independence moments, the arrangements gradually wilt, transforming into meditations on the impermanence of history and the fragility of the archive.

At White Bay Power Station, Mandan, Hidatsa, Arikara, Lakota artist Cannupa Hanska Luger will present a new sculptural sound installation made of ceramic whistles shaped like native dingoes. The whistles will howl through the space, serving as vessels for First Nations voices and non-human kin.

Lebanese artist Mounira Al Solh will activate two projects: a community-based performance installation at Blouza Hall in Granville on March 15, where a large vat of tabbouleh will be prepared and served, transforming the act of gathering and cooking into a ritual of resistance; and an iteration of her drawing series I strongly believe in our right to be frivolous, developed with members of the Arab diaspora in Australia and presented at Campbelltown Arts Centre.

At Lewers: Penrith Regional Gallery, Guatemalan artist Fernando Poyón will exhibit a new sculptural installation using 1,500 carved cedarwood pencils to resemble milpas, or corn stalks, symbolising Indigenous knowledge passed through matrilineal lines and rooted in the Earth.

Also at Lewers, UK-born, Norway-based artist Nora Adwan will present a sound installation in which humidity sensors steer audio through 40 ceramic pomegranates, creating a contemplative, meditative atmosphere responsive to the outdoor climate.

Vietnamese American artist Tuan Andrew Nguyen will show his film The Unburied Sounds of a Troubled Horizon at Chau Chak Wing Museum, exploring the reverberations of the Vietnam War through memory and trauma.

American artist Dread Scott will present his photographic series Lockdown (2000, 2026) at Campbelltown Arts Centre. The black-and-white portraits and recorded conversations—captured during meetings inside U.S. prisons—give voice to those incarcerated and reflect on a society that imprisons over two million people.

Australian artists participating in Rememory include Abdul Abdullah, Dennis Golding, Helen Grace, Wendy Hubert, Richard Bell, and Merilyn Fairskye & Michiel Dolk, among many others.

The 25th Biennale of Sydney continues to build on its 50-year legacy as one of the leading international biennials in the Asia-Pacific region. With Rememory, it offers audiences an opportunity to experience art as a deeply transformative act of collective reflection and cultural recovery.

For further details and the full list of participating artists, visit www.biennaleofsydney.art