Biennials
Calendar
8 Aotearoa artists and 1 collective, Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry (SB16), co-curated by Megan Tamati-Quennell
06 February —
16 June 2025
Sharjah, United Arab Emirates
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.