Sharjah Biennial

The Sharjah Biennial is a large-scale contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in the city of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. 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.
The 7th edition, titled Belonging, was curated by Jack Persekian, 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'.
Still Life: Art, Ecology, and the Politics of Change was curated by Mohammed Kazem, Jonathan Watkins, and Eva Scharrer. The exhibition was hosted between 4 April to 4 June 2007 at Sharjah Art Museum, Expo Centre Sharjah, Heritage Area, American University of Sharjah & several outdoor locations in Sharjah.
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, 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.
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 movement aspiring for political change that had been ongoing in various Arabic countries 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. The exhibition included 119 artists and participants from 36 countries across the globe.
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; Ravi Agarwal, Nevin Aladag, Francis Alÿs, Jananne Al-Ani, Alfredo & Isabel Aquilizan, and Elizabeth Peyton, 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, Gabriel Orozco, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Shiro Takatani, Pascale Marthine Tayou, and Fumito Urabe.
The past, the present, the possible, curated by Eungie Joo, took place at public spaces around the Sharjah Art Museum, the Sharjah Art Foundation offices and Al Mureijah heritage area. The 12th Biennial was held between 5 March — 5 June 2015.
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.
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.
The 15th Biennial, Thinking Historically in the Present was initially conceived by Okwui Enwezor 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:
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 run until 15 June 2025.