Biennials & festivals

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

New York's Upstate Art Weekend returns for summer 2024

The ever expanding event has touched down for a four-day art extravaganza

School’s in: new UK biennial puts pupils front and centre

Organisers of the inaugural Camden Schools Art Biennale hope it will inspire broader action on arts education

Anglo-French actor brings Ukrainian art to London with new festival

Edward Akrout is launching Kyiv Art Sessions at the Old Sessions House this weekend

Next up for former Warhol Museum director Patrick Moore: South by Southwest London

Moore will advise on the forthcoming, arts-centric edition of the festival in his new role as culture lead of private equity firm Panarae

We must survive: Yokohama Triennale entwines stories of darkness and resistance

“Even though we are confronted with situations of hopelessness, resilience is our kind of hope,” say Chinese curators Carol Yinghua Lu and Liu Ding

Mardin Biennial finds a common ground

But event has been also been criticised for lack of “respect for local cultures and languages”

Queer art biennial launches in Detroit

Local non-profit Mighty Real/Queer Detroit has turned a citywide endeavour into a new queer art biennial

Photography festival fills Kyoto's stunning locations—from a kimono factory to a Tadao Ando building

Kyotographie is back for a 12th time, with shows that highlight the art of setting a scene