5 Standout Artists at the Sharjah Biennial 2025

In the middle of the desert in the Emirate of Sharjah, a few dozen wooden desk chairs have appeared, with the limbs of trees growing out of their arms and backs. Under the U.A.E.’s glaring sun, the mutant furniture sits in a “ghost village” where buildings have been flooded by steep mounds of sand. This work, a sculptural installation by the artist Hugh Hayden, is intended as a statement on American school education, and, in particular, its neglect of uncomfortable historical truths. However, here in Sharjah’s empty-seeming desert, its suggestion of growth in overlooked environments also evokes the continued rise of artists and institutions far from Western art centers.

As the 2025 Sharjah Biennial kicked off, the disparity between East and West seemed more pertinent than ever. The day before the opening, President Trump had announced his plan to “take over” Gaza, a suggestion that stunned the region. Though the proposal appears to have been sidelined in recent weeks, the shock of this announcement, and the changed global order it suggested, set the tone for the art event.

The current war and history of Gaza was also referenced in several works featured in the biennial. This included an installation of historical photos from Gaza’s first-ever photo studio, Photo Kegham, which was founded by Kegham Djeghalian Sr.; Djeghalian’s grandson, an artist who is named after him, organized the presentation. Nearby, a portrait in muted tones by iconic Syrian painter Marwan Kassab-Bachi, Three Palestinian Boys (1970), depicts young men from the region staring down at the viewer.

Running through June 15th, this year’s Sharjah Biennial was curated by five curators from across the Global South: Alia Swastika, Amal Khalaf, Megan Tamati-Quennell, Natasha Ginwala, and Zeynep Öz. Its title is “to carry,” suggesting the privilege and burden of holding on, both to objects and ideas across time.

Ultimately, this broad theme felt less meaningful than the works themselves. The curators produced an exhibition of art that shone on its own terms, an impressive feat given the scale: more than 300 artworks across 17 venues. Over 200 new artworks were commissioned for the event by its organizer, the Sharjah Art Foundation, which is run by Sheikha Hoor Al Qasimi, the influential curator who ranked first on last year’s ArtReview Power 100 list and helped place the Sharjah Biennial on the global stage.

In the context of a shifting world order, the biennial’s 16th edition gave a glimpse of how artists are imagining new realities built on independent, existing connections away from the West. Here are five artists who stood out at the Sharjah Biennial 2025.

B. 1982, Queensland, Australia. Lives and works in Sydney.

Throughout his practice, Indigenous Australian artist Daniel Boyd has worked with dots. With tiny, overlapping circles of paint—which the artist calls “lenses” or “oculi”—Boyd creates mesmerizing paintings questioning the dominance of Western cultural systems in Australia and beyond. Dots make up a monochrome portrait of Boyd’s mother and himself, which hangs along several other works by the artist in the labyrinthine white spaces of Al Mureijah Square in Sharjah. The points of color make the image hard to decipher up close, suggesting the destabilizing effects of colonialism on personal and familial histories.

In the top floor of the art space Flying Saucer, the artist’s work gets its fullest expression in the biennial. A black vinyl cover with circular cutouts wraps the entire glass dome of the exhibition space, alluding to the artist’s signature painting style while creating shafts of light that fill the venue. The installation is enhanced by a sound piece made by Māori artist Mara TK, titled Ngā Mata ō Hina, which references the traditional Māori lunar calendar. Boyd’s paintings that reference the moon line the walls nearby, building on the lunar theme.

B. 1973, Seoul. Lives and works in Seoul.

Many of the works included in the biennial evoke surprising fertility in inhospitable conditions—none more than South Korean artist Sangdon Kim’s Forest (2024). In this new commission for the biennial, a collection of colorful, wooden, totem-like sculptures references extinct flowers. Bright zigzags and flourishing floral decorations turn these tall, painted panels into mythological icons, referencing Korean folk traditions. Topped with bright pink circles, the sculptures are simultaneously futuristic, bringing to mind alien antennae. Perhaps they are seeking signals from another era.

Nearby is Bulgwang-dong Totem (2010), a set of three photographic prints, each of which portrays a fulsome, bright flower arrangement exploding out of a white plastic chair. With these subjects isolated against a dark background, the photographs imagine a fantastical shrine of contemporary culture. Ubiquitous, mass-produced seating is envisioned as a place of lush nature.

Kim also conjoins mundane modern life with the history of Korean spirituality in his series of paintings “Egg that has spent the night” (2022–23). Using traditional Korean paint and road paint, the artist portrays the cross sections of bright, ovoid forms. The distinct aesthetic feeds a transcendent vision informed by both tradition and contemporary life.

B. 1980, Toronto. Lives and works in Berlin.

With their alluring shimmer, connotations of wealth and commerce, and hard-won harvest, pearls have always fascinated artists. Berlin-based video artist Stephanie Comilang takes up the subject in her two-channel video work Search for life II (2025), which is projected onto a curtain-style screen made of long strings of shimmering pearl beads. The sequel to a film previously shown at the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, it looks at the cross-cultural trade of these precious gems, featuring communities of pearl divers from the Philippines who have lived on the water for centuries.

Interspersed is the personal story of an unnamed Filipino Emirati dancer, who performs slick K-pop choreography with her bandmates for the camera and narrates her personal experience of cultural exclusion while navigating between the two sides of her heritage. Nearby, a large wooden pier is set up facing the pearl curtain, reinforcing the realities of a real-world maritime environment. The wide-ranging piece is typical of Comilang’s style, employing a form she calls “science fiction documentary.” Here, she creates empathy with marginalized groups who undertake dangerous work and uses pearls as a shorthand for global networks of exchange.

B. 1940, Kadavoor, India. Lives and works in Paris.

There are several mini-exhibitions within the biennial, and the standout is a small survey of work by the Indian painter Viswanadhan. Though he trained under famed Indian modernist K. C. S. Paniker, and co-founded the Cholamandal Artists’ Village in Chennai, India, Viswanadhan has been based in Paris since 1968. Born in 1940, the artist focuses on geometric abstraction inspired by the sacred configurations of yantras and mandalas, taught to him by his father.

In this one-room show, an impressive range of works from across Viswanadhan’s five-decade practice are on view. Earthy reddish-pink triangles flood large, textural canvases. Elsewhere, broad horizontal brushstrokes create rhythmic abstractions in orange and teal. Viswanadhan often focuses on the diagonal—whether in thick brushwork where off-kilter horizontal bands create irregular slants across the canvas, or oil-and-watercolor works where triangles float in an ethereal spiritual space. This formal interest is echoed in the exhibition design: The mini-exhibition’s main space houses a triangular room containing a video that explores the artist’s practice.

B. 1988, Auckland. Lives and works in London and Auckland.