Biennials

Calendar

Nikau Hindin, 35th Bienal de São Paulo – choreographies of the impossible

06 September —
10 December 2023

Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion, São Paulo, Brazil

Writing

soft and weak like water

By Amy Weng

13.06.2023

Reporting from a visit to South Korea, curator Amy Weng writes about how works by Yuki Kihara and Mataaho Collective connect the ambitious themes and ideas of the 14th Gwangju Biennale to specific histories from their homes in Aotearoa New Zealand and Moana-nui-a-Kiwa. 

Writing

Thinking Historically in the Present

By Megan Tamati-Quennell

17.04.2023

Having attended the opening week of Sharjah Biennial 15, Megan Tamati-Quennell writes about the work of Aotearoa artists Robyn Kahukiwa and Kahurangiariki Smith, included in this large-scale exhibition in the United Arab Emirates, and how Hoor Al Qasimi has carried the curatorial mantle from Okwui Enwezor to create an exhibition that both celebrates the late curator’s legacy and the diversity, solidarity and strength of non-Western art.

Calendar

Wanda Gillespie, Tel Aviv Biennale of Crafts and Design 2023

31 March —
11 November 2023

MUZA, Eretz Israel Museum, Israel

Calendar

Nina Tonga, March Meeting 2023: The Postcolonial Constellation: Art, Culture, Politics after 1960

09 March —
12 March 2023

Sharjah Institute of Theatrical Arts, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Calendar

Robyn Kahukiwa, Kahurangiariki Smith in Sharjah Biennial 15: Thinking Historically in the Present

07 February —
11 June 2023

19 venues across 5 cities in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Calendar

Dr Kirsten Lyttle, TarraWarra Biennial 2023: ua usiusi faʻavaʻasavili

01 April —
16 July 2023

TarraWarra Museum of Art, Wurundjeri Country, Healesville, Australia

Calendar

Wesley John Fourie, New Paradigms of Happiness, 28th Slavonian Biennale

15 December 2022 —
28 February 2023

Museum of Fine Arts, Osijek, Croatia

Calendar

Brian Fuata at Singapore Biennale 2022

16 October 2022 —
19 March 2023

Tanjong Pagar Distripark and various locations, Singapore

Calendar

Edith Amituanai at We, On the Rising Wave: Busan Biennale 2022

03 September —
06 November 2022

Museum of Contemporary Art Busan, Yeongdo, South Korea

Project

HUM stands for NZ at Venice

Special feature

In light of the review of Aotearoa New Zealand’s ‘official’ presence at the Venice Biennale, HUM invited New Zealanders on- and off-shore who have visited or been involved in ‘New Zealand at Venice’ projects—as artists, pavilion attendants, exhibition installers or designers—to reflect on how involvement in (or experience of) our previous national pavilions have influenced their own careers, and the international profile of contemporary art from Aotearoa.

Writing

On Wet Ontologies, Fluid Hierarchies and Hope-Soaked Propositions at the 23rd Biennale of Sydney

By Emma O'Neill

26.08.2022

This year’s Biennale of Sydney, titled rīvus, included the work of Aotearoa-based artists Sopolemalama Filipe Tohi and Mata Aho Collective. Emma O’Neill, a writer working on Gadigal Land, responds to the exhibition and some of the work presented by the 89 participants invited to interact with different forms and bodies of water.

Writing

documenta fifteen or lumbung one?

By Bruce E. Phillips

12.08.2022

For documenta fifteen, the arts collective FAFSWAG were invited to participate as members of the lumbung process established by this year’s curatorial collective ruangrupa. In the absence of the trophy artist phenomenon so entrenched within mega-exhibitions, Bruce E. Phillips responds to the work of different participating collectives exhibiting in Kassel and discusses how introducing a non-European exhibition-making concept into the heart of arguably Europe’s most revered art event was bound to confound those unwilling to consider a differing perspective.

Calendar

Sriwhana Spong, 17th Istanbul Biennial

17 September —
20 November 2022

Pera Museum, Istanbul, Turkey

Calendar

Nikau Hindin and Yuki Kihara, STILL ALIVE, Aichi Triennale 2022

30 July —
10 October 2022

Various venues across Aichi, Japan

Writing

An interview with Yuki Kihara

By Contemporary HUM

24.05.2022

In the opening week of the 2022 Biennale di Venezia, HUM sat down with the artist representing Aotearoa, Yuki Kihara, to discuss her exhibition Paradise Camp, and what it means to bring a Pasifika, Fa'afafine voice to the international audience of this major event.

Writing

An interview with the curators of 'Paradise Camp'

By Contemporary HUM, Ioana Gordon-Smith, Natalie King

24.05.2022

In the opening week of the 2022 Biennale di Venezia, HUM sat down with the Aotearoa New Zealand pavilion’s Curator, Natalie King, and Assistant Pasifika Curator Ioana-Gordon Smith, to talk about bringing Yuki Kihara’s Paradise Camp to Venice.

Calendar

Anh Trần, 8th Biennial of Painting: The ‘t’ is Silent

26 June —
02 October 2022

Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Deurle, Belgium

Calendar

Sarah Rose, Brent Biennial 2022

08 July —
11 September 2022

Various venues across Brent, London, United Kingdom

Calendar

Le Moana Arts, 'Shel We' by Tupua Tigafua

17 May —
22 May 2022

BIBU Biennial, Helsingborg, Sweden

Writing

HUM live from the 2022 Venice Biennale

By Contemporary HUM

24.04.2022

From 20 - 24 April 2022, HUM brings you live coverage, exclusive images and videos from the opening week of The Milk of Dreams, The 59th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, including Yuki Kihara's Paradise Camp for the New Zealand Pavilion. Stay tuned!

Writing

Reimagined Futures

By Johanna Bear

23.03.2022

Featuring work from Aotearoa artists Edith Amituanai, Brian Fuata, Christina Pataialii, Shannon Novak and Shannon Te Ao as well as collaborators from Aotearoa in the project Kā Paroro o Haumumu: Coastal Flows / Coastal Incursions, this piece from writer and curator Johanna Bear considers the 10th Asia Pacific Triennial’s celebration of Indigenous futures, collaborative and community-based practices, and new ways of understanding the world around us. 

Writing

Naahdohbii: To Draw Water & What It Means To Come Together

By Franchesca Hebert-Spence

10.03.2022

Featuring Aotearoa artists Israel Birch, Nikau Hindin, Jeremy Leatinu’u, Nova Paul, Rachel Rakena and Keri Whaitiri, the inaugural Indigenous Triennial at the Winnipeg Art Gallery/Qaumajuq (WAG/Q) in Winnipeg, Naadohbii: To Draw Water, presents a collaborative curatorial approach to Indigenous artists’ work—Franchesca Hebert-Spence visits the exhibition and talks to the curators about the curatorial process, the opportunities offered through cross-cultural exchange, and the adherence to the specificities of place and history fostered through the exhibition.

Calendar

Pacific Sisters and Ahilapalapa Rands in the Hawaii Triennial 2022

18 February —
08 May 2022

Hawai'i Contemporary, Honolulu, Hawai'i

Calendar

Mata Aho Collective at the Toronto Biennial of Art

26 March —
05 June 2022

Arsenal Contemporary Art Toronto, Canada

Writing

A painter’s painter

By Clare Gemima

07.02.2022

Aotearoa artist Christina Pataialii features in the fifth New Museum Triennial, one of the world’s leading exhibitions for emerging artists. New York-based writer Clare Gemima visits the exhibition and reflects on Pataialii’s rule-breaking approach to painting technique, and the artist’s search for a language for her family history, identity and the cultural “in-between”.

Writing

Vivian Lynn / Liliane Lijn

By Laura Castagnini

07.10.2021

Following her death in 2018, pioneering feminist artist Vivian Lynn is receiving unprecedented international attention, after a lifetime of exhibiting widely in Aotearoa, but never outside of New Zealand. Following her recent inclusion in the 13th Gwangju Biennale and a solo exhibition at Southard Reid, London, Laura Castagnini reflects on the long-overdue revival of feminist art practices from the 1980s, and considers the striking parallels between Lynn’s work and her London-based counterpart, Liliane Lijn. 

Writing

The Near Side

By Jon Bywater

13.05.2020

The 22nd Biennale of Sydney opened on 14 March 2020 and unfortunately had to close its doors only nine days later due to Covid-19. Prior to its closing, writer Jon Bywater managed to visit NIRIN, looking in particular at participating artists from Aotearoa including Emily Karaka, Elisapeta Heta & John Miller, Lisa Reihana, Kulimoe’anga ‘Stone’ Maka, and FAFSWAG.