Gwangju Biennial Announces 2026 Artists as Ho Tzu Nyen Sets a Theme of Transformation
The 16th Gwangju Biennial will open in South Korea on September 5, 2026, and run through November 15, 2026, with a roster of 40-some artists and groups now made public. The list was first published by e-flux, offering the first full look at the exhibition under curator Ho Tzu Nyen.
Ho, a Singaporean artist and filmmaker, was announced as curator in April 2025. He represented Singapore at the 2011 Venice Biennale and organized the Asian Art Biennial in 2019. For Gwangju, he has chosen the title “You Must Change Your Life,” drawn from the final line of Rainer Maria Rilke’s sonnet “Archaic Torso of Apollo.” The exhibition is centered on the continuous practice of change and transformation.
The curatorial team also includes Che Kyongfa, Park Gahee, Brian Kuan Wood, Lee Yein, and Koyuri Sato. The artist list spans generations and geographies, bringing together figures such as Matthew Barney, Jean Barth, James Benning, Mona Benyamin, Rossella Biscotti, Nina Canell, Lygia Clark, Tehching Hsieh, Saodat Ismailova, Lu Yang, Christian Nyampeta, Bhenji Ra, Wang Tuo, and Maya Watanabe. It also includes collaborative and collective presentations, among them CAMP, Goldin+Senneby, Kiri Dalena & Ben Brix, Kwon Byungjun and Park Chan-kyong, and Ullimsanbang.
Several entries point to the biennial’s interest in place and local knowledge, including Heo Baekryeon (Gwangju Agricultural Technical High School), Volcanoes of Jeju (Jeju Stone Park), and Rim Dong Sik and Nature Artist Woo Pyongnam (Jongsun). That mix of established names, intergenerational practices, and site-linked projects suggests a show attentive to how artistic change is lived, inherited, and staged.
Founded in 1995, the Gwangju Biennial has become one of Asia’s most closely watched exhibition platforms. Previous curators have included Okwui Enwezor, Hou Hanru, and Harald Szeemann. With Ho at the helm, the 16th edition appears poised to treat transformation not as a theme to illustrate, but as a condition to examine.
