The 25th Biennale of Sydney takes place 14 March to 14 June 2026, with an ambition rarely seen in major Australian art institutions: to be genuinely dispersed. Rather than concentrating in a single precinct, the exhibition sprawls across five major exhibition sites including White Bay Power Station, Art Gallery of NSW, Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney, Campbelltown Arts Centre, and Penrith Regional Gallery. That geographic spread matters because it shapes who can access the work and what the Biennale means to different parts of Sydney.
The exhibition follows the theme of "rememory," featuring artists who inquire about, probe and question our shared history. The term, coined by acclaimed African American author Toni Morrison, describes the act of recovering and confronting untold stories in the present by engaging with fragmented and forgotten parts of history. Curated by Hoor Al Qasimi, the artistic director of the 25th Biennale, Rememory explores themes of migration, exile and belonging, giving particular attention to First Nations stories and the voices of diasporic communities that shape Australia today.
At the Art Gallery of NSW, the great Ngurrara Canvas II, an 80-square-metre floor painting created in 1997 to demonstrate Native Title connection to Country, will be presented for what's described as its final showing away from Country, with Traditional owners including dance troupes travelling to Sydney for special performances. At White Bay Power Station, Argentinian artist Gabriel Chaile will construct a monumental adobe clay oven onsite, activated during the festival to feed visitors.
The curatorial choice to emphasise First Nations voices reflects a shift in how major Australian cultural institutions now position themselves in relation to Country and Indigenous sovereignty. Yet the reach beyond Sydney's east also signals something about access and equity. Public programs will be hosted at additional venues throughout the inner city and greater Sydney, including Blouza Hall, Centenary Square, Fairfield City Museum and Gallery, Marrickville Town Hall, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, National Centre of Indigenous Excellence Redfern, Parramatta Artist Studios, Redfern Town Hall and Sydney Town Hall. That list reads like an attempt to claim legitimacy beyond the CBD and the institutions that typically define what counts as serious art.
With free entry across all sites, the 2026 Biennale invites visitors to move between neighbourhoods, institutions and communities, experiencing Sydney itself as part of the exhibition. Expect practices spanning sculpture, sound, film, social practice, installation, textiles and large-scale collaborative works, many created specifically in response to Sydney and its communities. Every Saturday and Sunday throughout the Biennale, White Bay Power Station will host the Memory Lane Food Markets that bring Rememory to life, celebrating food as living memory where dishes are shaped by family, migration, land and identity.
For visitors, planning requires thought. For a city day, combine the Art Gallery of NSW with nearby venues in the CBD, while for industrial-scale installations head to White Bay Power Station in Rozelle via Inner West bus routes, with Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney in Camperdown accessed via short bus ride from Central or Redfern, and Campbelltown Arts Centre and Penrith Regional Gallery accessible via direct train lines from Central. The fact that serious art planning now requires transit maps is perhaps more honest than pretending the whole city is one walkable precinct.
Since its inception in 1973, the Biennale of Sydney has provided a platform for art and ideas, showcasing the work of over 2000 artists from more than 100 countries. That track record grounds what otherwise might feel like an ambitious curatorial experiment. The question for the next three months will be whether distributing the work across geography and institutional boundaries genuinely expands access or simply makes the Biennale harder to experience coherently. The answer probably depends on where you live.