Preview: 2026 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art
Ahead of the 2026 Adelaide Biennial, the longest-standing survey of contemporary Australian art, Kaylee Watson spoke to curator Ellie Buttrose, fresh from her Venice Biennale Golden Lion triumph, about her vision for the exhibition.
Image credit: BRIAN FUATA, Errantucation (mist opportunities), 2021, Performance improvisations commissioned for The 10th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art QAGOMA, Meanjin/Brisbane, 2021. Photo: C Callistemon, QAGOMA, Meanjin/Brisbane © the artist. Courtesy of the artist and Sumer
Curating the upcoming 2026 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art is one of Australia’s preeminent contemporary curators, Ellie Buttrose. Her work with Archie Moore at the 2024 Venice Biennale resulted in Australia’s first-ever Golden Lion for Best National Participation. The central theme of Yield Strength refers to the architectural concept defined by the maximum stress at which materials may be permanently changed, and the upcoming survey of Australian art in Adelaide features new works by Robert Andrew, Nathan Beard, Lauren Burrow, Francis Carmody, Mark Maurangi Carrol, Milminyina Dhamarrandji, Matthew Teapot Djipurrtjun, George Egerton-Warburton, Prudence Flint, Brian Fuata, d harding, Matthew Harris, Helen Johnson, Kirtika Kain, Jennifer Mathews, Archie Moore, Josina Pumani, Julie Nangala Robertson, Erika Scott, Joel Sherwood Spring, Charlie Sofo, John Spiteri, Isadora Vaughan and Emmaline Zanelli.
With a strong line-up of artists, the exhibition promises to be an important milestone in the national arts calendar with a clear focus on materiality and site-specific installations. 2026 will be the 19th iteration of the Adelaide Biennial, which has been part of the Adelaide Festival since 1990. The 2026 Adelaide Biennial will run from February 27 to June 8 at multiple venues, including the Art Gallery of South Australia, the Adelaide Botanic Garden and the Samstag Museum of Art.
How did the theme Yield Strength come to fruition?
I proposed something that was more about the inheritance of art history, but also the inheritance of the world, and how
to make the most of the resources you have.
But when they called me to say that I got the gig, they said, “Go out and test the ideas and come back”. So, through that process, the project evolved as my projects always evolve.
This is a biennial, and I’m lucky enough to have a job where I can propose thematic exhibitions. But because it’s a bit of a survey, I wanted to be responsive to the work being made, so the theme came after the artists.
Have you worked with most of the
24 artists before?
There’s a mix of people. There are a few people I’ve worked with before whose work I really like, but who probably haven’t had as many opportunities to be in either a biennial or exhibit in Adelaide.
There are people I’ve been wanting to work with for ages, and I just love the new pieces they’re working on. And then there are a whole lot of people I’d never worked with before, some of whose practices I’d never encountered until I was able to do that research travel.
For me, it’s interesting to have all those different aspects in the same show.
Is the exhibition a reaction to the current arts landscape, or a forecast
of what is to come?
It’s a response to what people are making. It’s about the here and now, and maybe that will be articulated better at a later date. But it’s literally in the materials and in the way people are playing with them.
A lot of work gets seen on social media, and a lot of art is purchased via PDF. But these works look completely different in person; you notice different details, and there is a real physicality to each one. So, it is about what it means to come to a museum and see an artwork in person. And the way that you do that is by amplifying the materials or over-emphasising materials, or making a visceral viewing experience.
Image credit: MATTHEW TEAPOT DJIPURRTJUN, apakarra ga Bo uk, How the Lizard and Cockroach got their colour (Gama anga miny’tji), 2023, earth pigments on wood, 140 x 40 × 30 cm. Courtesy the artist and Milingimbi Art and Culture, Yurrwi, Northern Territory
Who are some of the emerging or new artists that you are really excited to spotlight in this exhibition?
All of these artists have been working on fantastic new projects.
I think more people should know about Matthew Teapot Djipurrtjun’s work. He has such a beautiful sinuous line, and even though he’s only 40, he is a very senior member of his community. He has a kind of lyricism in his work that’s so delightful and visually engaging.
Jen Mathews is a young artist who is going to make one of the biggest works of her career. She often makes these cattle gates, and she’s doing these big interventions into the space. We always talk about this control of the way animals live but, actually, museum institutions are very much about that, and her work will really play up that architecture in the gallery.
Erika Scott has been working away for a while, but probably doesn’t get as many institutional opportunities. But I think now that I’ve worked with her, and highlighted her work with other curators, that’s happening a little bit more. I think there will be an announcement next year about another project.
Francis Carmody has been a real pleasure to work with. He’s curious about the world, and that’s infectious. He is presenting an artwork, but he’s also making subtle interventions into the architecture that will amplify his work. It’s quite fascinating to see the way he thinks, how he seeks out and speaks with experts, and how he comes back and ties all that work together.
George Egerton-Warburton is probably better known in Melbourne. It’s sometimes hard when artists move overseas – where do you see their work as much? I think his installation is going to be really engaging, absurd, and delightful. I think he’s a really interesting thinker about the tropes that have been part of Australian myth and how that breaks down in the contemporary period; our relationship with the landscape and with a certain type of outback masculinity. But he also believes in contemporary art as a kind of religion, in a way, which I can identify with.
What do you hope people’s takeaways will be from the exhibition?
People often look at artist lists and see how many people they know, and I hope there are a few names that are new to them. Once artists are in the exhibition, audiences may come to understand why I’ve chosen them and some of these may go on to become people’s new favourites.
I think that’s the great opportunity of the Adelaide Biennial, you don’t know everyone’s names, but they will become the names of the future.
I’ve tried to layer it as an exhibition, so there are a few people whose works you’ll see multiple times over the exhibition, but in different configurations. So, you might read them through the idea of figuration, or you’ll read them through the view of the painterly application. So, it’s not just one reading of a work, and I hope that comes through in the exhibition itself.
What has your connection to the Adelaide Biennial been in the past?
I often visit because it is a key marker
in the Australian art calendar. It’s a great honour [to curate] because I think of the list of curators who have come before me, and that becomes part of the project’s DNA. People are thinking about the previous shows that they’ve seen, and
that informs what I’m doing.
The festival is also an amazing time to visit Adelaide. There is theatre, dance and music; you’re seeing it all as part of an arts festival.
What has it been like working on
this project?
It’s always great to work with a new institution. The Art Gallery of South Australia obviously has one of the most incredible collections in Australia.
Jason Smith [Director, AGSA] has been really supportive, and he really fundamentally believes that artists and curators are day dot of what an art museum can be. So that’s been a real joy. Also, it’s unusual to bring in a guest curator to do an Australian project in Australia. There are very few opportunities like this, so that’s been a real delight.
The 2026 Adelaide Biennial runs from February 27
to June 8, 2026 in Tarndanya/Adelaide
agsa.sa.gov.au
