Under Pressure: The Line-Up for the 2026 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art Is Here

You only have to turn on the news to see that global pressures seem to be mounting exponentially. There are perpetual cost-of-living increases, a housing crisis, deep political fragmentation, and no shortage of human suffering.

In that context, that the Art Gallery of South Australia (AGSA)’s theme and title for the 2026 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art seems especially apt: Yield Strength. In this exhibition, 24 artists will explore how materials, society and individuals respond to – and are transformed by – pressure.

The exhibition will be curated by Ellie Buttrose, who is currently the curator of contemporary Australian art at Brisbane’s QAGOMA. Buttrose has also been a part of the curatorial team for the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art in 2018, 2021 and 2024.

“The 2026 Adelaide Biennial foregrounds how bodily experience and intellectual wonder are intimately entwined in the experience of art,” said Buttrose in a statement. “ Yield Strength reflects the diversity of artistic practice across the continent, from finely layered paintings to delicately stratified sculptures and entangled relations compiled in videos.”

Exhibiting at the biennial will be Kamilaroi and Bigambul artist Archie Moore. Moore became the first Australian to win the Golden Lion for Best National Participation at the 2024 Venice Biennale for his work kith and kin, a hand-drawn chart illustrating his 65,000-year-old family tree, while also making a poignant statement about Indigenous deaths in custody.

Other notable featured artists include Rirratjiŋu and Djambarrpuyŋu woman Milminyina Dhamarrandji, who specialises in intricate bark paintings; Sydney-based, Aotearoa-born improvisational performance artist Brian Fuata; and Robert Andrew, a Yarawu man whose work often centres around Indigenous languages.

Pieces by Prudence Flint will also be on display. Flint is known for works depicting the daily rituals of her lone female subjects in an Edward Hopper-esque style.

The works of these artists – and the 20 others participating – depict everything “from [the] intimate bonds between family to human-animal connections, and more complex, dynamic relations between people and the world they inhabit, to propose new ways of being,” said Buttrose.

AGSA director Jason Smith said in a statement, “As the country’s longest-running survey of contemporary Australian art, the Adelaide Biennial has continuously expanded its audience, garnered national and international attention, and offered a dynamic platform for artists during its 30-year history. The 2026 Adelaide Biennial will feature compelling new works that engage visitors with the materiality of artmaking, offering a captivating and thought-provoking biennial that underscores the wonder of the ‘real’ in an increasingly virtual world.”

The full line-up of participating artists is below:
• 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
• Emmaline Zanelli

The 2026 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art: Yield Strength runs from February 27, 2026 to June 8, 2026, at the Art Gallery of South Australia, Samstag Museum of Art and the Adelaide Botanic Garden.

agsa.sa.gov.au
@agsa.adelaide