Sharjah Biennial to Present 80 New Commissions in 2025

Spotlight Sharjah Biennial 15 Subverts and Contradicts, Generating Potent Reflections Stephanie Bailey

The Sharjah Art Foundation has announced details of the 16th Sharjah Biennial, which takes place across the Emirate of Sharjah—part of the United Arab Emirates—from 6 February to 15 June 2025.

A whopping 80 artists will present new commissions as part of the Biennial, including Michael Parekowhai, Zadie Xa, and Arthur Jafa.

The full list of participating artists can be viewed here.

The Biennial is being curated by Alia Swastika, Amal Khalaf, Megan Tamati-Quennell, Natasha Ginwala, and Zeynep Öz. Through the exhibition, they ask, ‘What does it entail to carry a home, ancestors, and political formations with you?’

‘This spirit of inquiry coalesces with artistic methods grounded in stories of change and movement, intergenerational kinship, lament and ritual, experimental pedagogies, knowledge of land and sea terrains,’ they said in a statement. ‘Attesting to the responsibility as both guest and host, we conjure possibilities of acting in the world and being together through tenderness, failure and rage as gestures of care, resource exchange and alliance building.’

The theme of the second Islamic Arts Biennale, which takes place in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia—across the borders from the UAE—has also been announced. And all that is in between takes its name from a verse in the Quran.

Open from 25 January until 25 May 2025, the event will feature new commissions by 20 artists including Nour Jaouda, Charwei Tsai, and Fatmah Abdulhadi. —[O]

Main image: Mary Sibande, A reversed retrogress, scene 1 (2013). Exhibition view: Sharjah Biennial 15, Al Hamriyah Studios (7 February–11 June 2023). Courtesy Sharjah Art Foundation. Photo: Danko Stjepanovic.