Biennials & festivals

South by Southwest London aims to deliver ‘sensible optimism’ at a time of global uncertainty

The Shoreditch-based festival's chief executive looks forward to presenting the cross-disciplinary work of “good, clever people with open minds”, including the actor Idris Elba and the artist and film-maker Jenn Nkiru

Sculpture Projects Münster appoints Vincent Schier as curator

The former artistic director of Kunstverein Göttingen will work with three members of the Zagreb-based curating collective What, How & for Whom

Sharjah Biennial 16: sprawling emirate-wide exhibition regains its edge

This year's edition of the distinguished event features more than 650 works by nearly 200 artists that build upon its legacy of creating connections between non-Western communities

Luma Foundation’s burgeoning ‘biennial of the Alps’ is excellent—but who is it for?

The sixth edition of Elevation 1049 brings work addressing some of the great crises of the moment to a remote billionaire’s paradise

An entwining of the past and present: how history and modernity inform Islamic art in the 21st century

The organisers of the Islamic Arts Biennale have ceased trying to define Islamic art in favour of encouraging full expression of what it means to be a Muslim in the most diverse and inclusive way possible

Islamic Arts Biennale 2025: museum-quality show reflects on the changing face of Islam

The second edition of the Saudi Arabian event brings together religious masterworks—including objects from the Vatican in the countries' first-ever collaboration—and contemporary art

New Orleans triennial positions the city as a model for a precarious, adaptive future

The sixth edition of Prospect New Orleans, co-curated by Miranda Lash and Ebony G. Patterson, finds artists looking to the distant past, urgent present and possible futures for archetypes of resilience

The Year Ahead 2025: market predictions, the big shows and openings—podcast

From the reimagined Frick Collection to Emily Kam Kngwarray at Tate Modern

Bengal Biennale debuts sprawling inaugural edition

Set across 27 venues in two cities, the exhibition included more than 100 artists from past and present

Santa Fe, Bukhara and Liverpool: the most interesting biennials to visit in 2025

Plus, full listings of the biennials, triennials and festivals taking place throughout the year

Gaza Biennale seeks to provide support and relief for Palestinian artists

More than 50 Palestinian artists are participating in the worldwide event

Artist being electrocuted to show the sinister implications of AI among highlights of the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art 11

The work by Kawita Vatanajyankur and Pat Pataranutaporn was acquired by the Queensland Art Gallery, where the sprawling exhibition is being held

Ecological operas: the Gwangju Biennale 2024 moves away from the ideological

This year's edition of the leading South Korean exhibition takes its name from the traditional music form Pansori

After an embattled edition, the Kochi-Muziris Biennale announces next show

Nikhil Chopra and the collective HH Art Spaces will curate the next instalment of the prestigious Indian exhibition, scheduled to open in December 2025

Accra Cultural Week shines a light on Ghana’s burgeoning art scene

A host of globally recognised artists, a growing number of art world tourists and a domestic gallery boom are all contributing to the country’s reputation on the international stage

Biennial on Black Sea coast probes Turkey’s deep layers

This year's edition of Sinopale, one of Turkey's oldest biennials, looks at the ecological and social threats faced by the country

Isabel Nolan to represent Ireland at the 2026 Venice Biennale

Georgina Jackson, the director of The Douglas Hyde Gallery of Contemporary Art at Trinity College, Dublin, will be the pavilion's curator

Sameer Farooq’s library of flatbreads at the Toronto Biennial serves as a map of the city’s diasporic communities

The artist has been researching flatbreads and tandoors, the community ovens where they are often baked, in countries around the world since 2020

Christine Tohmé appointed curator of 18th Istanbul Biennial

The announcement follows a row over the initial appointment of Iwona Blazwick as the curator of the edition

Film review

Fourteen-hour film on Documenta 14 foreshadows the bureaucracy and culture wars that followed

At 840 minutes, “exergue - on documenta 14” exhaustively chronicles all that went right and wrong with Adam Szymczyk’s edition of Documenta in Kassel and Athens, though the actual art gets surprisingly little screen time

PST Art’s science-meets-art extravaganza in eight superlatives

From the Getty initiative’s most widely exhibited artist to its most calming installation

Art festival in Norway embraces the sounds of the Arctic Circle

At the Lofoten International Art Festival, music and sound art complement a majestic landscape of fjords and mountains

Two important private collections will take centre stage in Saudi Arabia's Islamic Arts Biennale next year

The second edition of the event will also include loans from the Louvre, the Bodleian Library, the Qatar National Library, and the Vatican—which does not have diplomatic relations with the kingdom

Toronto Biennial spotlights 36 artists—from international stars to emerging Canadian talents—at venues across the city

The biennial’s third edition, organised by co-curators Dominique Fontaine and Miguel A. López under the theme “Precarious Joys”, spans artist-run spaces, major museums and the airport

From pirate utopias to ‘auntie power’: Busan Biennale celebrates alternative narratives

This year's event marks beginning of a coordinated, cohesive art season for Korea that continues with Frieze Seoul, Kiaf and the Gwangju Biennale

Uzbekistan to get first major biennial in ancient city of Bukhara

Launching in September 2025, the first edition will feature international artists Antony Gormley and Slavs and Tatars as well as local participants

‘It's not about being disabled, it's about great art’: Unlimited festival returns to London's Southbank Centre

The UK's largest celebration of work by D/deaf and disabled artists opens on 4 September with a packed and varied programme

Whitney Museum selects two staff curators to lead 2026 biennial

The 82nd edition of the most closely-watched recurring exhibition in the United States will open in spring 2026

South by South West festival to integrate visual art at 2025 London debut

The curator Beth Greenacre has been appointed visual arts adviser to the festival

Italian art critic Eugenio Viola to curate 2025 Bienal de Arte Paiz

The largest contemporary art exhibition in Central America returns to Guatemala with a performance-art specialist at its helm