Nicholas Galanin. ©CARLOS CRUZ
Biennale of Sydney Releases Artist List for 2020 Edition With Focus on Indigenous Artists
By Alex Greenberger
September 12, 2019
The Biennale of Sydney in Australia has revealed the full artist list for its 2020 edition. Some 98 artists and collectives are lined up to participate in the exhibition, which is due to run next year from March 14 to June 8.
The focus of the show curated by Brook Andrew, a member of the Wiradjuri people, is the “unresolved past anxieties and hidden layers of the supernatural,” according to a statement. Its title is “NIRIN,” after the Wiradjuri word for “edge.”
Andrew has previously stated that the title is meant to reference a de-centering that he hopes to achieve with a Biennial, which focuses in large part on indigenous artists and members of various diasporas.
Among the indigenous artists lined up for the event are various members of First Nations hailing from areas near Sydney—Noŋgirrŋa Marawili (Darrpirra/Yirrkala) and S.J Norman (Wiradjuri) among them. There are also Native Americans included in the show, such as Nicholas Galanin (a citizen of the Sitka Tribe in Alaska who recently wrote for ARTnews about his decision to pull out of the Whitney Biennial in July) and Demian DinéYazhi ́ (Navajo), who is participating alongside the activist initiative that he founded, R.I.S.E. Other artists include Arthur Jafa, who has said he will consider blackness in relation to Australia with his new work.