Sculpture Takes Over

Melbourne Sculpture Biennale will return to Naarm/Melbourne this October, taking over the house and gardens of Billilla Mansion in Brighton for three weeks of site-responsive sculpture and installation. Melbourne Sculpture Biennale 2026: Soft Systems opens on 8 October and runs until 25 October, with free entry across the run.

It is the second edition of a biennale that arrived with unusual momentum. The inaugural 2024 outing drew more than 3,000 visitors across just five days, and the program has been rebuilt at a larger scale for its new setting — a longer season, a wider public program and twenty artists working directly with the peculiarities of a heritage house and its grounds.

Soft Systems takes its title from the tangle of structures — ecological, cultural, domestic, bureaucratic — that shape contemporary life, and the artists have been invited to test those structures rather than illustrate them. The emphasis falls on new work made in response to Billilla itself: its rooms, thresholds, gardens and long municipal afterlife.

The exhibiting artists are Andrew Atchison, Lauren Berkowitz, Francis Carmody, Mikala Dwyer, Hannah Gartside, Mira Gojak, Bronwyn Hack, Naoise Halloran-Mackay, Lou Hubbard, Kait James, Christopher Langton, Jenna Mayilema Lee, Chris Madden, Beth Maslen, Glenda Nicholls, Nabilah Nordin, Nicholas Smith, Sebastian Temple, Isadora Vaughan and Paul Yore.

It is a line-up that reads as a survey of how broadly sculpture is being made in this country right now — soft sculpture and textile practice sitting alongside inflatables, weaving, assemblage and the kind of installation that only makes sense in the room it was built for.

Access sits at the centre of the accompanying program rather than at its edges. Alongside artist talks and curator-led tours, the Biennale will present Auslan tours led by Deaf artist Luke D. King and an immersive tactile tour developed for blind and low vision audiences. Little Lookers: Babies’ Hour and Bayside Art Babies are designed for babies and their carers, and Connections: Art + Dementia supports engagement with the work for people living with dementia.

“We are thrilled to bring contemporary sculpture to Billilla Mansion this October,” say founding directors Adam Stone and Laura Couttie. “Our accompanying programs have been thoughtfully designed to create meaningful opportunities for people across our diverse community to experience and engage with contemporary art. We hope the Biennale sparks curiosity, inspires new perspectives and encourages lively conversations.”

Bayside Mayor Cr Debbie Taylor-Haynes describes Billilla as a cherished historic site being opened to artists and the public in a way that “celebrates creative expression, history, and community”.

Stone and Couttie founded Melbourne Sculpture Biennale in 2024 to give contemporary sculpture greater visibility and, with it, more room to be made. On the evidence of the second edition — twenty artists, three weeks, a mansion and its gardens — that argument is being made at scale.

Melbourne Sculpture Biennale 2026: Soft Systems shows at Billilla Mansion, 26 Halifax Street, Brighton, Naarm/Melbourne, from 8–25 October 2026. Open Thursday to Sunday, 11am–5pm. Entry is free.