By arts editor HELEN MUSA

The sixth Canberra Art Biennial is set to astonish the national capital with a program of new commissions, public artworks and international collaborations, it was announced at the Australian National Botanic Gardens on Thursday by ACT Arts Minister, Michael Pettersson.

This year’s event will feature newly commissioned works by Jacqueline Bradley and Anna-May Kirk in the Botanic Gardens, and will bring together local, national and international artists and curators in what looks like one of the biennial’s most ambitious programs to date.

Among the highlights will be ARI BANAL(E). Curated by Sydney artist-run initiative Sydenham International, a two-day event to take place at the Hyatt during the festival’s opening weekend, bringing together artists from six independent galleries in Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra.

One of the more striking works will be Sydney artist Harrison Witsey’s popular giant crab sculpture, now to be installed on the on the lower roof of Canberra House in Civic, which imagines the crab as a professor of architecture, entertaining passers-by with facts about the building on which it is perched.

Canberra Contemporary will be hosting the headline exhibition, Takeaway: Tales from the Flavour Superhighway, curated by Denise Thwaites and Mariam Ella Arcilla and featuring works by James Tylor, Gianna Hayes, Marley Dawson, Janhavi Salvi, Gillian Kayrooz, Zora Pang and Keg de Souza.

Artist Mia Boe will reveal a new commission, The Aboriginal Robot, extending her painting practice into glass for the first time.

Golden Lion winner Archie Moore returns to the Canberra Art Biennial for the first time since 2016 with a large-scale installation, Walk around like you own the place, across Reconciliation Place, while local curator Grace Blake presents In Service, a public art project in the city featuring works by Sam Tonkin, Jennifer Mathews and Minka Gillian.

Indonesian artist Tisna Sanjaya will hold an exhibition of prints, paintings and performance staged in the foyer of a city office building, while artist Bronte Cormican-Jones will install a glass sculpture in the foyer of Canberra Airport, using glass to reflect the movement of travellers through the terminal.

Canberra Art Biennial 2026, across multiple sites from September 11 to October 31.

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