Liverpool Biennial

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Liverpool Biennial

Liverpool Biennial presents the largest festival of contemporary visual art in the UK every two years. Next edition: 2027.

Liverpool Biennial presents the largest festival of contemporary visual art in the UK. It takes place every two years across the city in public spaces, unused buildings, galleries, museums and online. The Biennial is underpinned by a programme of research, education, residencies and commissions. Founded in 1998, Liverpool Biennial has commissioned over 300 new artworks and presented work by over 450 artists from around the world.

15/04/2026

Meet the Liverpool Biennial x SEVENSTORE bursary artists!📢⁠
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⁠We've joined forces with SEVENSTORE to offer three bursaries to locally-based artists and creative practitioners, whose practice is informed by the experiences of children and young people⁠
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Meet the artists! 👇️⁠
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⭐️Chelsea Humado
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Wobble Studio is the visual identity of multidisciplinary artist Chelsea Humado. Wobble Studio explores Humado’s culture and heritage as a Black woman, as well as her complex experiences with mental health conditions, seeing the “wobbly” way of life as multi-faceted: liberating, raw and tender. She invites viewers to process their own emotions through humorous illustrations and evocative portraiture⁠
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⭐️Leon Barnard⁠⁠
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Leon Barnard explores the possibility of technology to create multisensory artworks that engage with ideas of childhood memory, loss and the sea. Underpinning their practice is an intention to speak to the present absences in their life through the absent presence of sound⁠. In recent works they have created kinetic sound-sculptures that playfully animate objects, to create haptically-engaging and interactive spaces.⁠
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⭐️Linny Venables⁠⁠
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Linny Venables is a disabled visual artist, working in sculpture, installation, curation and facilitation. Her practice is process-led, with outcomes emerging through socially engaged activity, collaboration, shared experiences and responsive making. ⁠Venables works primarily with kiln-formed glass, exploring the sensory and therapeutic qualities of the making process.⁠
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Find out more about the artists, click the link below👇️
https://www.biennial.com/meet-the-liverpool-biennial-x-sevenstore-bursary-artists
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[Alt-text:⁠ Portraits of the artists followed by their artworks. The artwork by Chelsea on slide 3 is a red, blue and yellow digital collage with layered hands, and text reading 'I am craving tenderness hbu?'. The artwork by Leon on slide 5 is a snippet of a film showing a brown board shaking, with bells and shells on top, creating sound. The artwork by Linny on slide 7 is a glass artwork, the glass has green and purple blobs and string-like shapes melted within it.]

23/03/2026

BOOK NOW: Roy Claire Potter 'COMMS FAIL' 🎟️⁠
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⁠Join artist Roy Claire Potter on Saturday 2 May for a new live performance titled 'COMMS FAIL', reflecting on solar weather, radio waves, communications failure and remote connection, and help to produce a live radio broadcast for listeners elsewhere.⁠
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Roy has worked with a team of fellow artists, radio astronomers, amateur radio operators, musicians and creative consultants to research and develop COMMS FAIL, a multicomponent artwork that will unfold throughout 2026.⁠
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Several iterations including, a performance, a live radio broadcast, an album with booklet, and a sculptural installation explore the grammar of communicative resilience and remote connection by amplifying autistic perspectives.⁠
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A staged performance written for three voices will invite a live audience to help produce a radio broadcast for a remote audience. There will be gentle interaction with ushers and performers to pick your preferred spot to enjoy the action, and to contribute by making sounds or being quiet, moving props, or being a witness.⁠
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COMMS FAIL is mixed live for broadcast on Resonance FM online and 104.4 FM in Central London⁠
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📅 Saturday 2 May 2026, 1-2pm⁠
📍 Bluecoat⁠
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⭐️Access⁠
- This event will be audio described and BSL interpreted. Captions will be provided on a monitor on stage. ⁠
- A touch tour will be available 30 mins prior to the performance start - no need to book. ⁠
- Easy Read programme notes will be available a week in advance upon request. ⁠
- The performance will be broadcast on Resonance FM for audiences who cannot make it to the venue.⁠
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To book your free tickets to the performance, or to sign up to receive the link to listen to the live broadcast, head to the link below👇️
https://www.biennial.com/event/roy-claire-potter-comms-fail/
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[Alt-text: ⁠A GIF of various script exerts and felt-tip drawings⁠.]⁠
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📷️Images by Jamie Gawronski, Elodie Horsewell, Andrew Li, Roy Claire Potter, Rima Salem and Anya Taylor⁠
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🎵Music by Carmel Smickersgill

18/03/2026

WE'RE HIRING!📢⁠
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The Deputy Director role provides strategic and operational oversight across the whole organisation including finance, IT, HR and governance.

For this new role, we are also looking for experience or expertise in at least one of the following areas: development and fundraising, commercial partnerships within an arts organisation context, or marketing and communications. ⁠
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⌛️Deadline to apply: 3 May 2026, 11.59pm⁠
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For details on how to apply, click the link below👇️
https://www.biennial.com/job/deputy-director/

11/03/2026

WE'RE HIRING!📢⁠
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We are currently recruiting for two Assistant Curator roles - one with a focus on Production and the other with a focus on Public Programme.⁠
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The Production role will focus on the planning and organisation of the technical aspects of projects and exhibition. ⁠
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The Public Programme role will focus on the planning and delivery of live events and audience participation, as well as contributing to the delivery of two non-festival projects in the public realm.⁠
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The Assistant Curators support the Liverpool Biennial Programme Team in all aspects of the research, preparation, delivery, production, installation, maintenance and de-installation of the Biennial exhibitions and year-round programme of projects, talks, events, publishing and research. ⁠
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⌛️Deadline to apply: 19 April 2026, 11.59pm⁠
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For details on how to apply, head to the link below👇️
https://www.biennial.com/job/assistant-curators

04/03/2026

Liverpool Biennial 2027: Curators and Dates Announced
📅 5 June – 12 September 2027
🌍 Liverpool, United Kingdom

Liverpool Biennial has announced Lucía Sanromán and Aimee Harrison as Co-Curators of the 14th edition of the festival, taking place 5 June – 12 September 2027 across the city.

As the UK’s largest free festival of contemporary visual art, Liverpool Biennial has been transforming the city through art for over two decades, activating historic buildings, public spaces, galleries, and unexpected sites across Liverpool.

Lucía Sanromán, currently Chief Curator at Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), Mexico City, will collaborate with Aimee Harrison, Liverpool Biennial’s Curator of Learning since 2019, whose work has long centred on artistic projects developed with communities across the city.

Lucía Sanromán said:

“Few global art biennials have so consistently contributed to place-based and socially engaged art practice… It is a privilege to continue to expand and grow this legacy with my Co-Curator Aimee Harrison.”

Aimee Harrison added:
“I feel privileged to co-curate the 14th edition of Liverpool Biennial… Having worked with communities in Liverpool for over 17 years, it means a lot to realise this Biennial in my home city.”

Further details and participating artists will be announced later this year.

📷 Left - Aimee Harrison. Photography by Fiona Finchett; Right - Lucía Sanromán. Photography by Yvonne Venegas.

Liverpool Biennial .sanroman.1

24/02/2026

LB2027 NEWS📣 ⁠
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We're excited to announce that Aimee Harrison and Lucía Sanromán have been appointed as Co-Curators for the 14th edition of Liverpool Biennial, taking place 5 June – 12 September 2027.⁠
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Lucía Sanromán, Chief Curator at Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, MUAC, in Mexico City, is a respected international curator with extensive experience delivering socially engaged and civic-led art projects. ⁠
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Aimee Harrison has worked for Liverpool Biennial since 2019 as Curator of Learning and throughout her career has produced artist projects with children and young people, older adults, migrant communities, people within the criminal justice system and those in addiction recovery. Harrison is being supported by The Ampersand Foundation to be seconded to the Co-Curator role for the 2027 festival.⁠
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Liverpool Biennial 2027 will be informed by perspectives and experiences of childhood and youth in Liverpool and across the world. Further details about the festival, including participating artists, will be announced later this year.⁠
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Find out more at the link below👇️
https://www.biennial.com/curators-and-dates-announced-for-liverpool-biennial-2027/

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📸: Yvonne Venegas/Fiona Finchett.

27/01/2026

COMING SOON: 'COMMS FAIL' by Roy Claire Potter🛰️⁠
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"What if satellite connectivity failed? A massive burst of energy erupts from our sun and telecommunications, navigation systems, the power grid - all knocked out. Imagine that. And then imagine you still need to be heard, find your people, make things work."⁠
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'COMMS FAIL' by Roy Claire Potter explores the very fabric of communication through a multicomponent artwork that will unfold throughout 2026. Several iterations and translations, ranging from a performance to a sculptural installation, will examine the grammar of communicative resilience and remote connection by amplifying autistic perspectives.⁠
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On Saturday 2 May, a staged performance at will invite a live audience to help produce a radio broadcast for a remote audience. There will be gentle interaction with ushers and performers to pick your preferred spot to enjoy the action, and to contribute by making sounds or being quiet, moving props, or being a witness.⁠
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Further details, including how to book tickets for the performance, will be announced in March. In the meantime you can learn more about the project at the link below👇️
https://www.biennial.com/coming-soon-comms-fail-by-roy-claire-potter
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'COMMS FAIL' is an Unlimited UK Partner Award 2025 commission with Liverpool Biennial, made possible thanks to funding from Arts Council England. ⁠
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[Alt-text: Digital collage. Hazy pink sky either dawn or dusk. Whispy pale clouds at the top of the picture with either darker heavy clouds or the surface of the sea beneath. A radio satellite floats mid-image, pointing upward. Tree leaves can be seen in the gaps of the dish's frame, a clue to the original image the dish was cut from. Mating Asian Hornets are curled around each other on the left foot of the dish. On the right foot, an Asian Hornet guards a small pile of red berries.]
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🖼️ 'COMMS FAIL' by Roy Claire Potter.

20/01/2026

WE'RE HIRING!📢⁠
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We're looking for a Senior Marketing and Communications Manager who will play a vital role in upholding the reputation of Liverpool Biennial, supporting the Director and wider team in communicating with a wide range of audiences and stakeholders in Liverpool, across the UK and internationally. ⁠
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⌛️Deadline to apply: 22 February 2026, 11.59pm⁠
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For details on how to apply, head to the link below👇️
https://www.biennial.com/job/senior-marketing-and-communications-manager/

15/01/2026

Are you an artist or creative based in Liverpool or the wider Merseyside area?⁠ ✨⁠
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As part of a continued and shared commitment to supporting local artists across Merseyside, we're joining forces with SEVENSTORE to offer three bursaries of £3,000 each for artists and creative practitioners between April – July 2026. ⁠
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These bursaries are open to artists and creatives whose practice is informed by the experiences of children and young people. This may mean, but is not limited to, artists or creatives reflecting on their own lived experiences as young people (in the past or present); artists or creatives interested in exploring the civic rights of children and young people; artists or creatives who are parents, carers, or guardians; and artists or creatives interested in exploring wider, global understandings of family and community.⁠
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Interested in applying? Head to the link below 👇️
https://www.biennial.com/job/liverpool-biennial-x-sevenstore-artist-bursaries/

Deadline: Sunday 15 February 2026
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📸 Mark McNulty/Adam Edwards

02/01/2026

Happy New Year⭐️⁠
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There are lots of exciting announcements on the horizon for 2026 👀⁠
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Don't forget you can sign up to our newsletter at the link below to stay up to date with the latest Liverpool Biennial news👇️
https://www.biennial.com/sign-up-to-our-newsletter/
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[Alt-text: A beach scape with a life-size cast-iron mould of the artists own body.]⁠
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📸Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial

23/12/2025

2025 we've loved you!🫶⁠
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Thank you to everyone who attended events, supported us, worked with us or otherwise engaged with us this year 🧡⁠
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We look forward to seeing you in 2026 🙌⁠
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[Alt-text: A video compilation of the events, artworks, tours, speeches, rehearsals, and performances that were part of Liverpool Biennial 2025]

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