The Sharjah Biennial is a large-scale contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in the city of

Sharjah Sharjah (; ', Gulf Arabic: ''aš-Šārja'') is the List of cities in the United Arab Emirates, third-most populous city in the United Arab Emirates, after Dubai and Abu Dhabi. It is the capital of the Emirate of Sharjah and forms part of the D ...

United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern end of the Arabian Peninsula. It is a Federal monarchy, federal elective monarchy made up of Emirates of the United Arab E ...

. The first Sharjah Biennial took place in 1993, and was organized by the Sharjah Department of Culture and Information until it is reorientation in 2003 by Hoor bint Sultan Al Qasimi.

History

2005 – Sharjah Biennial 7

The 7th edition, titled ''Belonging'', was curated by

Jack Persekian Jack Persekian (born 1962) is a Palestinian artist and curator from Jerusalem. He is of Armenian descent and a United States citizen. Biography Born to an Armenian family in East Jerusalem, Persekian started his career in the arts world as a musi ...

, Ken Lum and Tirdad Zolghadr. and took place between 6 April to 6 June 2005. The exhibition centred on the issues of 'belonging, identity and cultural location'.

2007 – Sharjah Biennial 8

''Still Life: Art, Ecology, and the Politics of Change'' was curated by

Mohammed Kazem Mohammed Kazem (born 1969) is a contemporary Emirati artist working in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. He works primarily with video, sound art, photography, found objects and performance art. Kazem is one of the five conceptual Emirati artists who ...

, Jonathan Watkins, and Eva Scharrer. The exhibition was hosted between 4 April to 4 June 2007 at

Sharjah Art Museum The Sharjah Art Museum is an art museum in the city of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.Sharjah Art Museum

, Expo Centre Sharjah, Heritage Area,

American University of Sharjah The American University of Sharjah (AUS; Arabic: الجامعة الأميركية في الشارقة) is a private university in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. It was founded in 1997 by Sultan bin Muhammad Al-Qasimi, Supreme Council Member a ...

& several outdoor locations in Sharjah.

2009 - Sharjah Biennial 9

The 9th Sharjah Biennial's exhibition programme ''Provisions For The Future'' was curated by Isabel Carlos, and the performance and film programme ''Past Of The Coming Days'' was curated by Tarek Abou El Fetouh. The exhibition was hosted between 19 March to 16 May 2009. Participating artists at SB9 included Hamra Abbas, Diana Al-Hadid, Firoz Mahmud, Halil Altindere, Juan Araújo, Tarek Atoui, Lili Dujourie, Hala Elkoussy, Ayse Erkmen, Amir H. Fallah, Lara Favaretto, Lamya Gargash, Mariam Ghani, Simryn Gill,

Sheela Gowda Sheela Gowda (born 1957 in Bhadravati, India) is a contemporary artist living and working in Bangalore. Gowda studied painting at Ken School of Art, Bangalore, India (1979) pursued a postgraduate diploma at Visva-Bharati University, Santiniket ...

, Laurent Grasso, NS Harsha, Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige, Doug Henders, Lamia Joreige, Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Hayv Kahraman, Nadia Kaabi Linke, Maider López, Liliana Porter, Karin Sander, Liu Wei, Lawrence Weiner, Yonamine, Nika Oblak & Primõz Novak, Basma Al-Sharif, Nida Sinnokrot, David Spriggs, and Lawrence Weiner among others.

2011 – Sharjah Biennial 10

''Plot for a Biennial'', the 10th edition of the biennial, was curated by Suzanne Cotter and Rasha Salti, alongside Haig Aivazian, and was hosted from 16 March through to 16 May 2011. SB10 covered the so-called

Arab Spring The Arab Spring () was a series of Nonviolent resistance, anti-government protests, Rebellion, uprisings, and Insurgency, armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began Tunisian revolution, in Tunisia ...

, the movement aspiring for political change that had been ongoing in various

Arabic countries The Arab world ( '), formally the Arab homeland ( '), also known as the Arab nation ( '), the Arabsphere, or the Arab states, comprises a large group of countries, mainly located in West Asia and North Africa. While the majority of people in ...

for several months around that period. The biennial was hosted across several venues in the heart of Sharjah, including landmarks of Emirati architecture and Sharjah’s historic

Cricket Stadium One hundred and twenty-three grounds have hosted men's Test cricket since the first officially recognised Test match between Australia and England in Melbourne in March 1877. The grounds are listed in the order in which they were first used as ...

. The exhibition included 119 artists and participants from 36 countries across the globe.

2013 – Sharjah Biennial 11

The 11th edition of the biennial, ''Re:emerge: Towards a New Cultural Cartography'', was hosted between 13 March to 13 May 2013 and was curated by Yuko Hasegawa, chief curator of the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo. Participating artists included: Australian artists Khaled Sabsabi and

Matthew Barney Matthew Barney (born March 25, 1967) is an American contemporary artist and film director who works in the fields of sculpture, film, photography and drawing. His works explore connections among geography, biology, geology and mythology as well ...

; Ravi Agarwal, Nevin Aladag, Francis Alÿs, Jananne Al-Ani, Alfredo & Isabel Aquilizan, and

Elizabeth Peyton Elizabeth Joy Peyton (born 1965) is an American contemporary artist working primarily in painting, drawing, and printmaking. Best known for figures from her own life and those beyond it, including close friends, historical personae, and icons of c ...

, Luz Maria Bedoya, David Claerbout, Olafur Eliasson, Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian, Shilpa Gupta, Yu-ichi Inoue, Lamia Joreige, Jesper Just, Amar Kanwar, Kan Xuan, Pablo Lobato, Basir Mahmood, Cinthia Marcelle, Taus Makhacheva, Angelica Mesiti,

Otobong Nkanga Otobong Nkanga (born 1974) is a Nigerian-born visual artist, tapestry maker and performance artist, based in Antwerp, Belgium. In 2015, she won the Yanghyun Prize. In her work she explores the social and topographical changes of her environmen ...

, Gabriel Orozco,

Ryuichi Sakamoto was a Music of Japan, Japanese musician, composer, keyboardist, record producer, singer and actor. He pursued a diverse range of styles as a solo artist and as a member of the Synthesizer, synth-based band Yellow Magic Orchestra (YMO). With his ...

, Shiro Takatani, Pascale Marthine Tayou, and Fumito Urabe.

2015 – Sharjah Biennial 12

''The past, the present, the possible'', curated by Eungie Joo, took place at public spaces around the

Sharjah Art Museum The Sharjah Art Museum is an art museum in the city of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates.Sharjah Art Museum

, the

Sharjah Art Foundation The Sharjah Art Foundation () is a contemporary art and cultural foundation based in Sharjah, the United Arab Emirates The United Arab Emirates (UAE), or simply the Emirates, is a country in West Asia, in the Middle East, at the eastern ...

offices and Al Mureijah heritage area. The 12th Biennial was held between 5 March — 5 June 2015.

2017 – Sharjah Biennial 13

The 13th Biennial, titled ''Tamawuj'', was curated by Christine Tohmé and opened on 10 March 2017 with exhibitions in Sharjah and Beirut, alongside projects in Dakar, Ramallah, and Istanbul from October 2017 through January 2018.

2019 – Sharjah Biennial 14

The 14th Biennial, ''Leaving the Echo Chamber'', was curated by Zoe Butt, Omar Kholeif and Claire Tancons. The exhibition opened at Sharjah Art Foundation premises on 7 March 2019, and ran until 10 June 2019.

2023 – Sharjah Biennial 15

The 15th Biennial, '' Thinking Historically in the Present '' was initially conceived by

Okwui Enwezor Okwui Enwezor (23 October 1963 – 15 March 2019) was a Nigerian curator, art critic, writer, poet, and educator, specializing in art history. Enwezor served as artistic director of several major exhibitions, including Documenta11 (2002) and th ...

prior to his death in 2019, and curated by Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, Director of Sharjah Art Foundation. The exhibition opened at Sharjah Art Foundation premises, including the Kalba Ice Factory, inaugurated to house Biennial 15 exhibits, on 7 February 2023. The 15th Sharjah Biennial featured the following artists: * Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme *Maitha Abdalla *Fathi Afifi * Hoda Afshar *

John Akomfrah Sir John Akomfrah (born 4 May 1957) is a Ghanaian-born British artist, writer, film director, screenwriter, theorist and curator of Ghanaian descent, whose "commitment to a radicalism both of politics and of cinematic form finds expression in ...

* Hangama Amiri *

Brook Andrew Brook Andrew (born 1970 in Sydney, Australia) is an Australian contemporary artist. Work Andrew has exhibited internationally since 1996. His work focuses on Western narratives, especially relating to colonialism in the Australian context, and ...

* Malala Andrialavidrazana *Rushdi Anwar *

Kader Attia Kader Attia (born 30 December 1970) is an Algerian-French artist. Early life Attia was born in Dugny, France to Algerian parents and was raised in Paris and Algeria. He studied at the '' l'école Duperré de Paris, l'école des arts appliqués ...

*Au Sow Yee * Dana Awartani * Omar Badsha * Natalie Ball * Sammy Baloji *Mirna Bamieh *

Pablo Bartholomew Pablo Bartholomew (born 1955) is an Indian photojournalist and an independent photographer based in New Delhi, India. He is noted for his photography, as an educator running photography workshops, and as manager of MediaWeb, a software compan ...

Richard Bartholomew Richard Lawrence Bartholomew (29 November 1926 – 11 January 1985) was an Indian art critic, photographer, painter, poet, and writer. Early life Richard Bartholomew fled from Tavoy (Dawei), Burma (Myanmar), where he was born, during the Seco ...

*Shiraz Bayjoo *Bahar Behbahani *Asma Belhamar *

Rebecca Belmore Rebecca Belmore (born March 22, 1960) is a Canadian interdisciplinary Anishinaabekwe artist who is notable for politically conscious and socially aware performance and installation work. She is Ojibwe and a member of Obishikokaang (Lac Seul Fi ...

*Black Grace * Diedrick Brackens * Maria Magdalena Campos-Pons *

Cao Fei Cao Fei ( zh, 曹斐, ; born 1978) is a Chinese multimedia artist born in Guangzhou. Her work, which includes video, performance, and digital media, examines the daily life of Chinese citizens born after the Cultural Revolution. Her work explores ...

* Carolina Caycedo *

Ali Cherri Ali Cherri is a Lebanese artist working in video and installation. His varied practice focuses on documenting and presenting heritage and environment in Lebanon and other Middle Eastern countries. Early life and education Ali Cherri was born i ...

*Wook-kyung Choi *Iftikhar Dadi and Elizabeth Dadi * Solmaz Daryani *

Annalee Davis Annalee Davis (born 1963) is a visual artist from Barbados whose occupation consists of drawing, painting, object making, art installation and video production. She works a hybrid practice of jobs as a visual artist, instigator, cultural produce ...

* Destiny Deacon * Manthia Diawara *Imane Djamil * Anju Dodiya * Kimathi Donkor * Heri Dono *Rehab Eldalil * Ali Eyal *Marianne Fahmy *Brenda Fajardo * Raheleh Filsoofi *Nina Fischer & Maroan el Sani *

Coco Fusco Coco Fusco (born Juliana Emilia Fusco Miyares; June 18, 1960) is a Cuban-American interdisciplinary artist, writer, and curator whose work has been widely exhibited and published internationally. Fusco's work explores gender, identity, race, and ...

*Flavia Gandolfo *

Theaster Gates Theaster Gates (born August 28, 1973) is an American social practice installation artist and a professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Chicago. He was born in Chicago, Illinois, where he still lives and works. Gates' work ...

* Gabriela Golder *Gabrielle Goliath *Yulia Grigoryants * Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige * Hassan Hajjaj *

David Hammons David Hammons (born July 24, 1943) is an American artist, best known for his works in and around New York City and Los Angeles during the 1970s and 1980s. Early life David Hammons was born in 1943 in Springfield, Illinois, the youngest of ten ...

*Archana Hande * Fathi Hassan *

Mona Hatoum Mona Hatoum (; born 1952) is a Palestinians, British-Palestinian multimedia and installation artist who lives in London. Biography Mona Hatoum was born in 1952 in Beirut, Lebanon, to State of Palestine, Palestinian parents. Although born in Leba ...

*Rachid Hedli * Lubaina Himid * Laura Huertas Millán * Saodat Ismailova *

Isaac Julien Sir Isaac Julien (born 21 February 1960Annette Kuhn"Julien, Isaac (1960–)" BFI Screen Online.) is a British installation artist, filmmaker, and Distinguished Professor of the Arts at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Early life Juli ...

*Saddam Jumaily *Patricia Kaersenhout * Robyn Kahukuiwa *

Reena Saini Kallat Reena Saini Kallat (born 1973) is an Indian visual artist. She currently lives and works in Mumbai."B ...

*Hanni Kamaly * Amar Kanwar *Adam Khalil and Bayley Sweitzer with Oba * Bouchra Khalili *Naiza Khan * Tania El Khoury *Kiluanji Kia Henda *Ayoung Kim *

Emily Kame Kngwarreye Emily Kam Kngwarray (c.1914-1996) was born in her Ancestral lands, Alhalker located in the Sandover region of the Northern Territory, Australia. One of the world’s most significant contemporary painters to emerge in the twentieth century Kngw ...

Hiroji Kubota is a Japanese photographer, a member of Magnum Photos who has specialized in photographing the far east. Born in Kanda (Tokyo), Kubota studied politics at Waseda University, graduating in 1962.Yoshiko Suzuki (, ''Suzuki Yoshiko''), "Kubota Hiroj ...

*Nusra Latif Qureshi *Lee Kai Chung * Faustin Linyekula * Ibrahim Mahama *Nabil El Makhloufi *Jawad Al Malhi *Waheeda Malullah *Maharani Mancanagara *mandla *Lavanya Mani *

Kerry James Marshall Kerry James Marshall (born October 17, 1955) is an American artist and professor, known for his paintings of Black figures. He previously taught painting at the School of Art and Design at the University of Illinois at Chicago. In 2017, Marshall ...

*Moza Almatrooshi * Queenie McKenzie *

Steve McQueen Terrence Stephen McQueen (March 24, 1930November 7, 1980) was an American actor. His antihero persona, emphasized during the height of counterculture of the 1960s, 1960s counterculture, made him a top box office draw for his films of the late ...

*Marisol Mendez * Almagul Menlibayeva *Helina Metaferia *Kimowan Metchewais *Meleanna Meyer * Joiri Minaya *Tahila Mintz *Roméo Mivekannin * Tracey Moffat *Aline Motta *Marwah AlMugait *

Wangechi Mutu Wangechi Mutu (born 1972) is a Kenyan American visual artist, known primarily for her painting, sculpture, film, and performance work.

* Eubena Nampitjin *Dala Nasser *New Red Order * Pipo Nguyen-Duy *Mame-Diarra Niang * Shelley Niro * Thenjiwe Niki Nkosi *Elia Nurvista * Okwui Okpokwasili * Kambui Olujimi * Zohra Opoku *Erkan Özgen *Pak Khawateen Painting Club *Pushpakanthan Pakkiyarajah *Hyesoo Park *

Philippe Parreno Philippe Parreno (born 1964 in Grenoble, France) is a French contemporary artist, living and working in Paris. His works include films, Installation art, installations, performances, drawings, and text. Parreno's work centers around both expand ...

*Angela Ponce * Prajakta Potnis *Anita Pouchard Serra *Jasbir Puar & Dima Srouji *

Monira Al Qadiri Monira Al Qadiri (born in Dakar, Senegal, 1983) is a Senegalese-born Kuwaiti visual artist, who is currently based in Berlin. Her work employs various media, including video, sculptures, installation art and performances. She's had several solo e ...

* Farah Al Qasimi * Michael Rakowitz * Umar Rashid * Wendy Red Star * Veronica Ryan *

Doris Salcedo Doris Salcedo (born 1958) is a Colombian-born visual artist and sculpture, sculptor."Doris Salcedo"
Art 21 ...

*Abdulrahim Salem *Sangeeta Sandrasegar *Varunika Saraf *

Khadija Saye Khadija Mohammadou Saye (30 July 1992 – 14 June 2017), also known as Ya-Haddy Sisi Saye, was a Gambian-British photographer. Her photography explored her Gambian-British identity and was exhibited in the Diaspora Pavilion at the Venice Bien ...

* Berni Searle * Mithu Sen * Nelly Sethna *Aziza Shadenova *Smita Sharma *

Nilima Sheikh Nilima Sheikh (born 18 November 1945) is a visual artist based in Baroda, India. Since the mid-80s, Sheikh has done extensive research about traditional art forms in India, advocated for the sustainability of the practice of traditional painte ...

Yinka Shonibare Yinka Shonibare (born 9 August 1962), is a British artist living in the United Kingdom. His work explores cultural identity, colonialism and post-colonialism within the contemporary context of globalisation. A hallmark of his art is the bright ...

*Felix Shumba *Semsar Siahaan * Mary Sibande *Kahurangiariki Smith * Mounira Al Solh *Inuuteq Storch *

Vivan Sundaram Vivan Sundaram (28 May 1943 – 29 March 2023) was an Indian contemporary artist. He worked in many different media, including painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, installation, and video art, and his work was politically conscious an ...

* Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum *Obaid Suroor * Hank Willis Thomas *Akeim Toussaint Buck * Hajra Waheed * Barbara Walker * Wang Jianwei * Nari Ward *

Carrie Mae Weems Carrie Mae Weems (born April 20, 1953) is an American artist working in text, fabric, audio, digital images and Video installation, installation video, and is best known for her photography. She achieved prominence through her early 1990s photog ...

* Nil Yalter

2025 – Sharjah Biennial 16

The 16th Biennial, ''to carry'', curated by Alia Swastika, Amal Khalaf, Megan Tamati-Quennell, Natasha Ginwala, and Zeynep Öz, featured 200 artists in 17 venues and more than 650 works. It was inaugurated on 6 February 2025 and runs until 15 June 2025.

References

{{reflist 1993 establishments in the United Arab Emirates Arab art scene Art biennials Art festivals in the United Arab Emirates Contemporary art exhibitions Events in the United Arab Emirates Recurring events established in 1993 Sharjah (city) Spring (season) in the United Arab Emirates