The Art Gallery of South Australia has announced Ellie Buttrose as curator of the 2026 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art.
Buttrose’s appointment follows the outstanding success at this year’s Venice Biennale. For the first time ever, under her curation Australia won the prestigious Golden Lion award for Best National Participation at the Venice Biennale.
The Australia Pavilion has been transformed into a dramatic installation, kith and kin by Kamilaroi and Bigambul artist Archie Moore is a sprawling hand-drawn family tree extending back 65,000 years and memorial to First Nations peoples who have died in police custody.
“As the country’s longest-running survey of contemporary Australian art, the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art has continuously expanded its audience, garnered national and international attention, and offered a dynamic platform for artists during its 30-year history,” said Art Gallery of South Australia Acting Director, Emma Fey.
“We are thrilled to announce Ellie Buttrose as the curator of the 2026 Adelaide Biennial. Her wealth of experience and nuanced curatorial practice promises to deliver a captivating exhibition and attract new audiences.”
With applications from across Australia vying for the coveted curatorial position, the judging panel was unanimous in their decision and support of Ellie Buttrose.
The Biennial’s 2026 selection panel, comprised AGSA Acting Director Emma Fey, outgoing AGSA Director Rhana Devenport and outgoing Assistant Director Lisa Slade along with Artistic Director Adelaide Festival Ruth Mackenzie CBE and Geelong Gallery Director and CEO Jason Smith.
The panel were enthusiastic in their support of Buttrose who invites risks and experimentation, “we feel a genuine sense of excitement with the curatorial vision for the Biennial proposed by Ellie Buttrose,” they said.
“The panel was impressed with Buttrose’s careful observation of and deep feeling for a diversity of artists’ nuanced and complex understandings of our contemporary world, and believe strongly that Buttrose’s brand of curatorial leadership and collaboration will bring before us an especially thought-provoking and relevant Biennial exhibition and range of integrally associated programs.”
Buttrose brings extensive curatorial experience in Australian art museums including her current role as Curator of Contemporary Australian Art at the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art,where she oversees collection development, realises ambitious commissions and delivers thought-provoking exhibitions and collection displays.
Buttrose is excited to be selected as Adelaide Biennial Curator for 2026. “I am honoured to be selected as the Curator of the 2026 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art,” she said.
“The Biennial is unique in the Australian arts calendar in term of its curatorial ambitions and I look forward to contributing to its rich history through my collaborations with artists, arts writers and historians, and the AGSA team.”
The Adelaide Biennial has historically been a vehicle through which AGSA grows its holdings of contemporary art. Seven works of art from the 2024 Adelaide Biennial: Inner Sanctum have been acquired for the AGSA collection including two works by Heather B. Swann, Kore, 2024 and Things there is no one to tell, 2024, Lillian O’Neil’s The place we dissolve, 2023, Clara Adolphs, Waterfall, 2024, Jacobus Capone’s Forewarning (Act 4: Demarcation), 2022, Peter Maloney’s, Gone tomorrow, 2002, and Jessica Loughlin in collaboration with the late designer Khai Liew’s site specific installation, Solari, 2024.
Since 1990, conceived as part of the Adelaide Festival, the Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art has created career-defining opportunities for close to 500 artists, and been experienced by more than 1.8 million visitors.
The 2026 Adelaide Biennial of Australian Art will be presented from 27 February – 7 June as part of the 2026 Adelaide Festival. For more information, visit: www.agsa.sa.gov.au for details.
Image: 2026 Adelaide Biennial Curator, Ellie Buttrose – photo by Joe Ruckli | QAGOMA