Biennales in North America

North America’s biennales are mostly museum-led. The Carnegie International in Pittsburgh, founded in 1896 by Andrew Carnegie, is the oldest exhibition of its kind on the continent. The Whitney Biennial has surveyed American art since 1932 and has been biennial since 1973, while the New Museum Triennial, founded in 2009, looks at emerging artists with an international frame. Outside the museum, Desert X places free, site-specific work across the Coachella Valley, Performa stages performance across New York, and Prospect New Orleans was founded in 2008 in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

Three editions are open as of October 1, 2026. The 59th Carnegie International, If the word we, runs to January 3, 2027. The 4th Toronto Biennial of Art, Things Fall Apart, curated by Allison Glenn, runs to December 20. The 82nd Whitney Biennial, curated by Marcela Guerrero and Drew Sawyer, keeps its last section, on Floor 6, open through October 12. The 7th AURORA Biennial in Dallas, States of Becoming, runs November 4 to 21.

The 6th New Museum Triennial, The Outside Expands, opens in January 2027 in the museum’s expanded building on the Bowery. Desert X returns from October 30, 2027 to May 7, 2028, moving to a fall-to-spring schedule. Prospect New Orleans has said it will not mount an edition in 2027 and will publish a book on its first 20 years instead, and FRONT International in Cleveland announced in 2024 that it would wind down. Design and architecture have their own series in the Chicago Architecture Biennial, and photography in Houston’s FotoFest.