Liverpool Biennial Opens 13th Edition, 'BEDROCK'

Liverpool Biennial 2025 ‘BEDROCK’ runs until 14 September 2025

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The below press release was originally published by Liverpool Biennial.

  • ‘BEDROCK’, curated by Marie-Anne McQuay, is inspired by the physical
    and social foundations of Liverpool and features 30 artists and
    collectives across 18 locations
  • Exhibitions launched at leading arts venues across the city including
    Bluecoat, FACT Liverpool, Open Eye Gallery, Liverpool Cathedral,
    Liverpool Central Library, Tate Liverpool + RIBA North, The Black-E and
    Walker Art Gallery
  • Artworks unveiled at locations across the city including Liverpool ONE,
    Mann Island, Eurochemist, Pine Court, SEVENSTORE and 20 Jordan
    Street.
  • First part of free public programme takes place across the opening
    weekend, featuring artists Ana Navas, Antonio Jose Guzman & Iva
    Jankovic, Hadassa Ngamba, and Nandan Ghiya.
  • Liverpool Biennial 2025 ‘BEDROCK’ runs until 14 September 2025.

On Saturday 7 June, Liverpool Biennial opens its 13th edition ‘BEDROCK', unveiling 
a series of exhibitions and outdoor artworks across the city.
‘BEDROCK’, curated by Marie-Anne McQuay, draws on Liverpool’s distinctive 
geography and the beliefs which underpin the city. It is inspired by the sandstone 
which spans the city region and is found in its imposing architecture. ‘BEDROCK’ 
also acts as a metaphor for the unique social foundations of Liverpool, haunted by 
empire, and the people, places and values that ground us. 

The participating artists for Liverpool Biennial 2025 are: 
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); Karen Tam 譚嘉文(Canada); 
Katarzyna Perlak (Poland/UK); 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 (France/USA); Widline Cadet
(Haiti/USA).

Taking over historic buildings, unexpected spaces and art galleries, Liverpool 
Biennial - the UK’s largest free festival of contemporary visual art - has been 
transforming the city through art for over two decades. A dynamic programme of free 
exhibitions, performances, community and learning activities, and fringe events 
unfolds over 14 weeks, shining a light on the city’s vibrant cultural scene.

Marie-Anne McQuay, Curator, Liverpool Biennial 2025, said:

‘BEDROCK’ as a title for the festival extends from the physical sandstone 
foundations of the city to become a metaphor for its distinctive civic values, haunted
by its colonial past. While responding to these contexts, I asked the invited artists to 
present their own ‘bedrock’; to share the values, people and places that ground 
them, which includes family and chosen family, ancestral cultural heritage, and 
environments that nurture and restore them. All of these artworks and responses are 
now layered across the city and I'm so delighted to welcome everyone to experience 
Liverpool Biennial 2025 this summer.

Dr Samantha Lackey, Director, Liverpool Biennial, said:

‘BEDROCK’ will be an extraordinary moment which connects us deeply back to our 
foundations in the city, while continuing our collaborations with artists from across 
the globe. Marie-Anne is an exceptional curator who understands implicitly the local 
context we are working in, addressing some of the ways in which that has been 
formed over the past years. As always, we are delighted to be working with 
longstanding venue partners across the city and are excited to collaborate with 
organisations with whom we have initiated new partnerships. We are grateful for the 
continued support and engagement from our core funders Arts Council England and 
Liverpool City Council for enabling us to bring exceptional art and artists to the UK.

Works at Walker Art Gallery


The artists at Walker Art Gallery offer densely material works that interweave 
practices which explore personal and colonial legacies, within an ornate building and 
national collection founded on the merchant wealth of the city. 

Antonio Jose Guzman & Iva Jankovic present a new work as part of their 
‘Electronic Dub Station’ series, recently presented at the 60th Venice Biennale. Titled 
‘Concrete Roots’, the site-specific installation examines themes of resilience, 
migration, ecological consciousness and textile traditions through the duo’s 
renowned use of indigo textiles and dub music soundscapes.

Leasho Johnson presents a series of densely pigmented large-scale paintings in 
which he creates abstract characters that reference his own lived experience to 
disrupt historical, political, stereotypical and biological expectations of the Black 
queer body.

Through sculpture, photo-collage, drawing, and textiles, Nour Bishouty investigates 
the impulses of tourism and sightseeing, foregrounding questions around permission 
and the production of fantasy. Bishouty’s multimedia installation, which was 
developed as a way to read a painting of a fictional landscape by the artist's father, 
sits in conversation with works in the Walker Art Gallery collection, anchoring it in 
historical and cultural memory.

Jennifer Tee exhibits collages from her ongoing ‘Tampan Tulips’ series which draw 
inspiration from the colourful, geometric aesthetics of the traditional tampan textiles. 
Created using dried tulip petals, these works highlight the delicate and fleeting 
nature of life.

Further highlights include cast resin works of Dream Stones by Karen Tam 譚嘉文; a 
new, large-scale textile and embroidery work by Katarzyna Perlak; wall-based 
works by Cevdet Erek inspired by football stadia layouts; paintings and tapestries of 
fictional landscapes by Isabel Nolan; and a mosaic work by Petros Moris presented 
in the Sculpture Gallery.

 

A full list of all participating venues and artists can be found at Liverpool Biennial.