Karma Barnes Exhibits At The 10th Beijing International Art Biennale

Beijing, China – 3 February 2026 - Interdisciplinary artist Karma Barnes has unveiled her major installation CO-Lapses (Beijing Iteration 2025) at the 10th Beijing International Art Biennale (BIAB), which opened on December 29, 2025 and runs until the extended date of February 28, 2026 at the Beijing Exhibition Hall. Barnes’ work holds a prominent position at the main entrance of the Biennale’s central exhibition hall, marking a significant moment in her international career.

Barnes was invited to participate by Sir Huang Yi, Chief Curator of the Shanghai Huacul Contemporary Art Museum and is the only New Zealand artist represented at this year’s Biennale. Her inclusion highlights the strength of Aotearoa’s contemporary art practice on the global stage, situating New Zealand voices within one of the world’s most influential cultural platforms.

The Biennale, themed “Coexistence”, presents nearly 600 works from around 120 countries, spanning painting, sculpture, installation, digital art, and video. Executive Vice Chairman of the China Artists Association, Qu Jian, emphasised that the exhibition fosters international dialogue on peaceful development, ecological civilisation, and technological ethics, while showcasing both traditional and contemporary innovation.

Barnes’ installation CO-Lapses is a durational work composed of suspended vessels that slowly release pigmented sands, forming evolving landscapes shaped by erosion, accretion, and material memory. Inspired by natural processes and ecological disruption, the work reflects cycles of adaptation and regeneration, situating local experiences of floods and fires within broader global and cosmological systems.

This presentation follows Barnes’ Grand Prix win at the Larnaca Biennale 2025 in Cyprus, where CO-Lapses was unanimously awarded for its “remarkable capacity to merge poetic sensitivity with conceptual and environmental depth.”

Over the past four months, the work has moved rapidly across major international platforms. Following Larnaca, CO-Lapses was selected from twenty years of finalists of the prestigious European Arte Laguna Prize for exhibition at the Arte Laguna Prize 20th Edition at EKA Tianwu, Shanghai, where a new iteration of the installation was developed and presented. This followed the work’s earlier presentation in Venice, further extending its international visibility.

Together, these presentations mark a significant acceleration in the work’s international trajectory, consolidating Barnes’ position at the forefront of contemporary ecological and materially driven art practice.

Based between New Zealand and the east Coast of Australia, Barnes’ practice spans installation, sculpture, painting, and participatory projects. Her work critically addresses the socio-ecological consequences of climate disruption and examines how communities negotiate adaptation, interdependence and response under accelerating environmental change.

Since its inception in 2002, the Beijing Biennale has become one of the most important platforms for cultural exchange, bringing together artists, theorists, and curators from around the world. Alongside the exhibition, the inaugural Beijing Biennale International Art Conference provides a forum for dialogue and mutual learning among global art communities.

© Scoop Media