The Sharjah Art Foundation has announced the title, curatorial framework, and artist list for the 17th Sharjah Biennial, set to run from January 21, through June 13, 2027.
Titled “What remains, sits restive,” the exhibition will bring together 109 artists across sites in the emirate, including Sharjah City, Al Dhaid, Khorfakkan, and the Kalba Ice Factory.
The edition is co-curated by Angela Harutyunyan and Paula Nascimento, who have structured the project around themes of unrealized social projects and the capacity of the past to animate the present. According to a statement from the foundation, the curators will present related but distinct perspectives.
Harutyunyan, a professor of contemporary art and theory at the Berlin University of the Arts and a founding editor of ARTMargins, will engage 55 participants in a conversation on “the various afterlives of socialist modernity,” particularly as they intersect with anti-colonial struggles and modernization, while the 54 artists selected by Nascimento—an architect based in Luanda and former associate curator of the Lubumbashi Biennial—will explore infrastructure as an intersection of memory, moment, and place.
This approach, the foundation said, aims to illustrate how “histories resurface and endure, not as pure recurrence but as residues and transformed processes that actively inform the present.” The assembled artists form a mix of historical and contemporary practices and hail from across Eastern Europe, Southwest Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America, and Southeast Asia. Notable confirmed participants include Hassan Khan, Ibrahim Mahama, Oscar Murillo, Kapwani Kiwanga, Iman Issa, and Grada Kilomba.
The full artist list follows, organized by curator.
Angela Harutyunyan
Alban Muja; Alexandra Sukhareva; Amanda Beech; Anri Sala; Arash Azadi; Arman Grigoryan; Armen Ter-Mkrtchyan; Armenak Grigoryan; Cristiana de Marchi; Cynthia Zaven; Daniele Genadry; David Schutter; Hamlet Hovsepyan; Hande Sever; Hassan Khan; Hiwa K; Igor Savchenko; Iman Issa; Jasmina Cibic; Jessica Ekomane; Jiří Žák; Josef Bolf; Josephine Pryde; Kapwani Kiwanga; Karen Ohanyan; Karine Matsakyan; Karlo Kacharava; Kasper Kovitz; Khaled Tanji; Kristina Benjocki; Lala Rukh; Lena Kocutar; Lousineh Navasartian; Marcos Grigoryan; Michael Martirosyan; Natasha Gasparian; Neda Saeedi; Octavian Esanu; Romana Schmalisch and Robert Schlicht; Sebastián Díaz Morales; Shady Elnoshokaty; Sherif El Azma; Stijn Verhoeff; Suat Öğüt; Tekla Aslanishvili and Solveig Qu Suess; Teni Vardanyan; Thea Djordjadze; Thea Gvetadze; Tsolak Topchyan; Vehanush Topchyan; Yaşam Şaşmazer; Yass; and Zbyněk Balandrán
Paula Nascimento
Agnes Essonti Luque; Ana Silva; Ângela Ferreira; António Ole; Belinda Kazeem-Kamiński; Carlos Noronha Feio; César Schofield Cardoso; Christian Salablanca Díaz; Cipriano; Dana Whabira; Edson Chagas; Euridice Zaituna Kala; Francisco Vidal; Gabriel Chaile; Gabrielle Goliath; Georges Senga; Gosette Lubondo; Grada Kilomba; Helena Uambembe; Hong-Kai Wang; Ibrahim Mahama; Ilídio Candja Candja; Januario Jano; Jean Katambayi Mukendi; Josèfa Ntjam; Kamala Ibrahim Ishag; Kapela Paulo; Kiluanji Kia Henda and Sumayya Vally with Flávio Cardoso, Lilianne Kiame, Raul Jorge Gourgel and Yazan Khalili; Limbo Museum founded by Dominique Petit-Frère; Lungiswa Gqunta; Mpho Matsipa; Myles Igwe; Nolan Oswald Dennis; Ntshepe Tsekere Bopape; Nú Barreto; Oscar Murillo; Pamela Cevallos; Rebeca Carapiá; Reinata Sadimba; René Tavares; Rui Magalhães; Sandra Poulson; Senzeni Marasela; Sonia Gomes; Tuli Mekondjo; Victor Gama; Wendy Morris; Ziad Naitaddi; and Zina Saro-Wiwa
