Biennials

Calendar

Raukura Turei and Ruth Ige, Sāo Paulo Biennial

06 September 2025 —
11 January 2026

Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion, Sāo Paulo, Brazil

Writing

Luke Willis Thompson in Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry

07.05.2025

In February 2025, Contemporary HUM spoke with Luke Willis Thompson from Sharjah Biennial 16 about his commissioned work Whakamoeamoeā. Set on Waitangi Day in 2040 as a public broadcast, the film imagines constitutional transformation in Aotearoa New Zealand, giving form to an Indigenous-focused dream of the future.

Writing

Te Matahiapo Collective in Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry

07.05.2025

On the occasion of Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry, Contemporary HUM speaks with Kura Puke, Inahaa Te Urutahi Waikerepuru, Stuart Foster and Mike Bridgman of the research initiative Te Matahiapo Collective. They discuss their multi-media installation work, Ā Ē Ī Ō Ū - Ī Ō Ē Ā Ū: Ko Pari Haruru (2025), and its various resonances in the Biennial and Sharjah at large as an embodied exploration of mātauranga Māori (Māori knowledge systems).

Writing

Fiona Pardington in Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry

23.04.2025

Aotearoa artist and representative for Aotearoa New Zealand at the upcoming 61st Venice Biennale (2026) Fiona Pardington talks to Contemporary HUM about her presentation of works from “Āhua: A beautiful hesitation” (2010) at Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry. In the conversation, she discusses the power of ancestral imagery beyond their capture by colonial pseudoscience, while also offering some early insights into her project for Venice.

Writing

Ana Iti in Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry

23.04.2025

In conversation with Contemporary HUM, Ana Iti reflects on her participation in Sharjah Biennial 16, following her win of the Walters Prize in Aotearoa New Zealand in 2024. She discusses what it’s been like taking the winning artwork to Sharjah and presenting it alongside earlier works, as well as the significance of taking part in her first major international presentation.

Writing

Kate Newby in Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry

09.04.2025

Contemporary HUM speaks to Aotearoa-born, Texas-based artist Kate Newby about Cold Water (2025), her new commission for Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry. Newby discusses her process of responding to the sea-side site in Sharjah, and the influence of its elemental characteristics—light and space; sun, water and desert—on the work.

Writing

Albert L. Refiti in Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry

09.04.2025

Architectural theorist and academic Albert L. Refiti speaks to Contemporary HUM from Sharjah Biennial 16, where he presents a selection of his drawn “cosmograms.” He discusses the rich theoretical framework behind his work, including his research into the Sāmoan concept of vā, and the generative complexities of exhibiting in Sharjah.

Project

Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry

In February 2025, Contemporary HUM was on the ground during the opening week of Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry, co-curated by Aotearoa curator Megan Tamati-Quennell with Alia Swastika, Amal Khalaf, Natasha Ginwala and Zeynep Öz.

Sharjah Biennial 16 convenes under the title “to carry”, a multivocal and open-ended proposition that connects stories and traditions across generations and cultures. The five co-curators of Sharjah Biennial 16 present their projects both individually and collectively, gathering under the rubric of a single proposition: What does it entail to carry a home, ancestors and political formations with you?

Megan Tamati-Quennell’s project assembles a significant number of artists and practitioners from Aotearoa New Zealand: Albert L. Refiti, Ana Iti, Fiona Pardington, Kate Newby, Mara TK, Saffronn Te Ratana, Luke Willis Thompson, Michael Parekōwhai and Te Matahiapo Collective, whose projects collectively speak to themes of place, space and whakapapa (genealogy).

Writing

And I dance into the future with the past, as a bird

By Haruko Kumakura

27.12.2024

Writing on Aotearoa New Zealand’s presentation at the 15th Gwangju Biennale, Shannon Te Ao’s Ia rā, ia rā (rere runga, rere raro) - Everyday (I fly high, I fly low) (2021), Haruko Kumakura argues that the work brings into focus what the thematic exhibition of the Biennale misses: a weaving together of the voices of the past, present and future appropriate both to the political context of its exhibition and the social and ecological urgencies of our time.

Calendar

Lisa Reihana and Jasmine Togo-Brisby, Bangkok Art Biennale 2024: Nurture Gaia

24 October 2024 —
25 February 2025

various venues across Bangkok, Thailand

Calendar

Shannon Te Ao, 15th Gwangju Biennale Pavilion

07 September —
01 December 2024

Suha Gallery, Gwangju, South Korea

Calendar

Busan Biennale 2024: Seeing in the Dark

17 August —
20 October 2024

various locations in Busan, South Korea

Calendar

Jasmine Togo-Brisby in Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Inner Sanctum

01 March —
02 June 2024

Art Gallery of South Australia, Kaurna land Adelaide, Australia

Calendar

Takiwā Hou: Imagining New Spaces film screening

7.30PM — 9.00PM
03 April 2024

Spazju Kreattiv, Valletta, Malta

Calendar

Elisapeta Hinemona Heta, Re-Stor(y)ing Oceania

23 March —
13 October 2024

Ocean Space, Venice, Italy

Calendar

24th Biennale of Sydney: Ten Thousand Suns

09 March —
10 June 2024

six venues across Sydney, Australia

Calendar

Nikau Hindin, Time Honoured Technologies panel discussion

12.45PM — 1.30PM
10 March 2024

White Bay Power Station, Sydney, Australia

Writing

Mataaho Collective at the Dhaka Art Summit

By Pauline Autet

21.04.2020

We finish our first series focusing on the Asia region with Contemporary HUM Editor Pauline Autet interviewing Mataaho Collective on their participation in the Dhaka Art Summit, Bangladesh in February 2020, where they partook in panel discussions and practised a type of waiata (song) called a pātere.

Calendar

Wesley John Fourie, Home Away from Home: 2023 Larnaca Biennale

11 October —
24 November 2023

Larnaca Municipal Art Gallery, Cyprus

Calendar

Bruce Barber and Tāhū Collective, 2023 XIV Edition Florence Biennale

14 October —
22 October 2023

Fortezza da Basso, Florence, Italy

Calendar

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

06 September —
10 December 2023

Ciccillo Matarazzo Pavilion, São Paulo, Brazil

Calendar

Judy Millar in 5th Kyiv Biennial: Against the Logic of War

17 October —
17 December 2023

Ukraine, Austria, Poland, Belgium and Germany

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