BANKSTOWN BIENNALE Comes to Bankstown Arts Centre

Bankstown Arts Centre will present its latest major exhibition, the 3rd Bankstown Biennale: Same Same/Different. Launching on Saturday 23rd November 2024, and running through to Saturday 1st February 2025, the exhibition brings together powerful new and recent works from 17 prominent First Nations and CaLD (Culturally and Linguistically Diverse) artists, offering a space for dialogue and shared understanding.

This year’s featured artists include Claudia Nicholson, Edwina Green, Gary Lee, Gillian Kayrooz, Jason Wing, James Tylor Jamie Eastwood, Jazz Money, Joan Ross, Karla Dickens, Kien Situ, Maddison Gibbs, Morgan Hogg, Ruth Ju-Shih Li, Salllvage, Wen Dung-Chuan, and Wona Bae & Charlie Lawler.

Led by a curatorium of esteemed First Nations and CaLD curators – Coby Edgar, Jason Wing, and Rachael Kiang – this year’s Biennale proposes an exploration of equitable multiculturalism. Same Same/Different draws inspiration from a common phrase used in Australia’s Top End, where Asian and First Nations communities describe their experiences as “same same, but different”. This concept encapsulates the exhibition’s focus on the potential for shared understanding without erasing individual cultural identities. By emphasising respectful coexistence, Same Same/Different highlights First Nations’ perspectives on interconnectedness as an alternative to rigid, divisive worldviews.

The exhibition extends its reach within one of Australia’s most vibrant arts festivals, when it becomes  part of Sydney Festival’s 2025 program,  inviting audiences across the region to engage with these vital conversations on identity, culture, and coexistence.

On this year’s Biennale, Bankstown Arts Centre Arts Director Rachael Kiang said, “It is about finding common ground in the everyday and recognising we live in a diverse world of many histories and experiences. It also marks the next phase of our social impact creative programming that looks beyond multiculturalism to embrace new forms and methods of intercultural artistic expressions.”

First Nations co-curator Coby Edgar added, “Now more than ever we need to remember how we connect, not how we are different and it is in diverse communities like Bankstown where we can see that in action. It has been a privilege to work with Bankstown Arts Centre for this program.”

Exhibition highlights include the opening event on Saturday 23rd November, as well as a rich program of artist panels, weaving workshops, and intergenerational dialogues throughout December and January. Special events presented in partnership with Sydney Festival include a curated music and performance segment by Salllvage on 23rd January and an artist market on 18th January.

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