After the success of its inaugural edition in October 2024, the Melbourne Sculpture Biennale is set to return in 2026. The second edition will be a larger and more ambitious exhibition than the first, taking over the magnificent Billilla Mansion in Brighton from 8 to 25 October 2026.
Melbourne Sculpture Biennale 2026 – quick links
Expect fabulous forms
Supported by Bayside City Council, the 2026 Melbourne Sculpture Biennale will feature site responsive works and contemporary forms of sculptural storytelling, set against the backdrop of Billilla Mansion’s grand architecture and lush gardens. The biennale will bring together a new group of leading Victorian artists, who will be invited to create sculptural installations in response to the unique heritage site.
In 2026, visitors can expect large-scale installations that engage directly with the site’s history and context, alongside newly created works from emerging and established artists who are pushing the boundaries of form and fabrication.
The biennale’s public programs will include talks and tours, offering deeper insight into the artists’ creative processes.
As with the inaugural edition, Melbourne Sculpture Biennale will again be free to attend and open to the public.
Billilla Mansion: a new heritage home for Melbourne Sculpture Biennale
The first Melbourne Sculpture Biennale transformed the lavish Villa Alba Museum – a heritage mansion with sprawling gardens adjacent to Studley Park in Kew – with the work of 19 artists based in the greater Melbourne (Naarm) area.
The new venue Billilla Mansion, which stands on the ancestral land of the Ngaruk Willam clan of the Bunurong people of the Kulin Nation, was constructed as a Victorian villa in the late 19th century, and was transformed into a striking example of Art Nouveau design by the Weatherly family in the early 1900s.
Once a hub of Brighton’s social life, Billilla was the Weatherlys’ home for more than 80 years before being purchased by Brighton Council in 1973 for public use. While Billilla’s interiors retain many of their original heritage features, time has taken its toll and ornate details, timberwork and decorative elements show signs of wear after decades of use.
After the 2026 Melbourne Sculpture Biennale has come and gone, Billilla Mansion will undergo careful refurbishment and restoration work to ensure that the whole building can be opened to the public on a regular basis in the near future.
What sets Melbourne Sculpture Biennale apart?
Major seasonal sculpture shows have been growing in popularity over the years. They often prioritise massive outdoor artworks – especially when delivered along coastlines, in vineyards or throughout gardens – or, conversely, petite sculptures that can fit neatly on a shelf.
But as Celina Lei laid out in ArtsHub‘s 4.5-star review of the inaugural exhibition, the Melbourne Sculpture Biennale has carved out its own identity by presenting non-functional sculptures of all shapes and sizes that respond to both a heritage location and a thematic provocation. (The 2024 edition, under the care of Founding Directors Adam Stone and Laura Couttie, was curated to the theme ‘The Burden of Objects’.)
In Lei’s words: ‘[T]he inaugural Melbourne Sculpture Biennale has punched above its weight and the city is lucky to have this new initiative platforming critical investigations into contemporary sculpture.’
The 2026 biennale aims to bring sculpture back into a domestic setting, with Stone and Couttie describing it as a ‘celebration of critically engaged contemporary sculpture in Naarm/Melbourne’. The indoor setting also opens up material possibilities that would not be viable in an open air exhibition.
