The 2026 Biennale of Sydney has received a lot of media attention, but only a fraction of it focused on the complexity of its theme or the works themselves.
Yet the exhibition, like all Biennales, is a provocation to look closely, to think deeply, and to respond. For the art critic, the Biennale proposes a distinct challenge. How to properly explain both the scale and diversity of the show as a whole, without obscuring the richness of individual works? What is the nature of the Biennale as an exhibition format—what is its history, and its future? What role can or should criticism play in mediating all this to a broader public?
This event will offer a parallax view onto the 2026 Biennale of Sydney, as critics share their different takes on the exhibition. The conversation will then broaden to consider how Australian art criticism might continue to generate such diversity, and what is lost if it does not.
Daniel Browning is Bundjalung and Kullilli writer, journalist and radio broadcaster, and Professor of Indigenous Cultural and Creative Industries at the University of Sydney. In a 30-year media career with Australia’s national broadcaster, Daniel read news for youth network triple j, presented and produced Awaye! and established Word Up, a shortform podcast on the revival of Indigenous languages. Daniel also hosted The Art Show from 2021 until 2025. His first book, Close to the Subject: Selected Works, which catalogues his freelance writing on the arts, as well as poetry, memoir and his first play, won the 2024 Prime Minister’s Literary Award for Non-Fiction. His writing on contemporary Indigenous art has been published widely both nationally and internationally.
Nick Croggon is an art historian, writer and editor. He teaches art history at the University of Sydney, and is the Events and Programs Officer at the Power Institute. He is one of the editors of Memo Review.
Dee Jefferson is an editor, journalist and critic with two decades experience covering culture, previously as national arts editor for the ABC and Time Out, and as a culture reporter for Guardian Australia.
Neha Kale is a widely-published writer of criticism, journalism, essay and nonfiction. Her first book, Foreign Return: On Art and Inhabitation is out in 2026 with NewSouth. Kale’s writing, which focuses on art, culture and society, has featured in many Australian and international publications including The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, The Sydney Morning Herald, SBS, ArtReview, Vogue, ABC and more. She was part of a team nominated for a midyear Walkley, has been recognised twice in the Ann Moyal Fellowship for Nonfiction and has won a Faber Scholarship. She is the former editor of VAULT and current editor-at-large at Art Guide.
Tai Mitsuji is an art historian, critic, and PhD candidate (ABD) in the History of Art and Architecture at Harvard University. His research traces visual representations of forced migration from the nineteenth century to the present, with a particular focus on how images shape—and sometimes unsettle—ideas of identity and displacement. He recently returned to Australia after a year of research in Paris, following a year at the Harvard Art Museums, where he worked on two major exhibitions: The Solomon Collection: Dürer to Degas and Beyond and Edvard Munch: Technically Speaking. His work has been recognised with the 2024 Bowdoin Prize and the 2024–25 Krupp Foundation Dissertation Research Fellowship, as well as the Marshall Field V. Fellowship and Frank Knox Fellowship. Alongside his academic work, he has written on contemporary art for publications including ArtReview, Artist Profile, The Guardian, The Saturday Paper, and The Sydney Morning Herald.
