Liverpool Biennial reveals 2025 theme and artists

Liverpool Biennial has announced the theme for next year’s festival.

Biennial bosses say BEDROCK is “inspired by the physical and social foundations of Liverpool and the people, places and values that ground us.”

The Biennial, the UK’s largest free festival of contemporary visual art, will see 30 national and international artists and collectives show work at locations across the city from June 7 to September 14.

BEDROCK curator Marie-Anne McQuay says: “The city's geological foundations and its psyche have provided the starting point for the conversations of Liverpool Biennial 2025, with the invited artists bringing us their own definition of ‘BEDROCK’. Definitions which include family and chosen family, cultural heritage carried across the generations, and the environments that nurture and restore them. Central to this understanding of BEDROCK is the sense of loss that comes from the ongoing legacies of colonialism and empire so formative to Liverpool’s foundations.

“In responding to the city, artists have taken inspiration from Liverpool’s archives and histories, from its communities and civic spirit, and from taking time to dwell in its green spaces which support plant, insect, and bird life in unexpected ways through planned and unplanned urban developments.”

Among the artists who are set to take part in the 13th Biennial are those from the UK, Australia, Sierra Leone, the Netherlands, Peru, the United States, Eritrea, Poland, Lebanon, India and Cyprus.

Above: Liverpool Central Library is a new Biennial location for 2025. Top: The 13th Biennial theme is BEDROCK.

New commissions and existing artworks will be hosted at venues including Bluecoat, FACT, Tate + Riba North, Open Eye Gallery and, new for 2025, the Walker, Liverpool Cathedral and Liverpool Central Library. More sites will be revealed early next year.

Biennial director Dr Samantha Lackey says: “We’re excited to have forged new relationships with local organisations including First Take and At The Library, alongside our work with longstanding partners at Tate Liverpool, National Museums Liverpool, FACT, Bluecoat and Open Eye Gallery, consolidating the city’s cultural connections between the local and the global and looking to its foundations to support growth and possibility for the future.

“We look forward to sharing BEDROCK with visitors from our city and wider region, as well as those visiting from across the UK and internationally.”

Above: Antonio Jose Guzman and Iva Jankovic, Transatlantic Stargate (2023), Haus der Kulturen der Welt. Photo by Peter Simons.

The full list of participating artists is:

Alice Rekab (Ireland/Sierra Leone); Amber Akaunu (UK/Nigeria); Amy Claire Mills (Australia); Ana Navas (Venezuela/Ecuador/Netherlands); Anna Gonzalez Noguchi (Spain/Japan/UK); Antonio Jose Guzman & Iva Jankovic (Netherlands/Panama/Serbia); Cevdet Erek (Turkey); ChihChung Chang 張致中(Taiwan/Netherlands); Christine Sun Kim (USA); DARCH (India/Somaliland/Wales); Dawit L Petros (Eritrea/Canada/USA); Elizabeth Price (UK); Fred Wilson (USA); Hadassa Ngamba (Democratic Republic of the Congo/Belgium); Imayna Caceres (Peru/Austria); Isabel Nolan (Ireland); Jennifer Tee (Netherlands); Kara Chin (UK/Singapore); Katarzyna Perlak (Poland/UK); Karen Tam 譚嘉文(Canada); Leasho Johnson (USA/Jamaica); Linda Lamignan (Nigeria/Norway);  Maria Loizidou (Cyprus); Mounira Al Solh (Lebanon); Nandan Ghiya (India); Nour Bishouty (Lebanon/Jordan/Palestine/Canada); Odur Ronald (Uganda); Petros Moris (Greece); Sheila Hicks (USA); Widline Cadet (Haiti/USA).

Liverpool Biennial takes place from June 7 to September 14 2025 at venues across the city.