Curated by Brook Andrew

Artist Brook Andrew called the 2017 midcareer survey of his work “The Right to Offend Is Sacred,” its title an in-your-face sentiment likely to echo across his edition of the Biennale of Sydney titled “NIRIN,” meaning edge in the Wiradjuri language of his mother’s people. The work of First Nations and activist artists is at the heart of this exhibition, from Stone Kulimoe’anga Maka’s smoke-on-canvas pieces to Kunmanara Williams’s sprawling, showstopping paintings scrawled across mailbags and suspended from traditional spears. This exhibition will also focus on artist collectives, including the Mulka Project, a production house and digital archive based in Yirrkala, at the top edge of Australia, which has been producing stupendous multimedia projects. While recent Biennales of Sydney have languished, remaining in the so-so, ho-hum department, this installment, with the ferociously driven Andrew at the helm, promises to catch fire—and to be the best in decades.

— Charles Green