Artists are invited to submit work for the Burrinja Climate Change Biennale #4: Acquisitive Award Exhibition, a nationally significant event exploring the intersection of art, activism, and environmental futures.
Since 2015, the Burrinja Climate Change Biennale has brought together artists, thinkers, and communities to engage with the climate emergency through creative practice. Set within the Dandenong Ranges, the biennale positions art as a powerful tool for inquiry, resistance, and hope.
The 2026 edition calls for submissions from visual artists across Australia whose work confronts, questions, or reimagines relationships between climate, land, species, systems, and possible futures. Selected finalists will be exhibited in Burrinja’s Main Gallery as part of a wider program of exhibitions, public events, and cross-disciplinary dialogue.
Works across all visual art forms are encouraged, including painting, photography, sculpture, installation, digital and new media, and interdisciplinary practices.
A panel of industry professionals will award three prizes:
Acquisitive Award: $3,000
Young Artist Award: $1,000
People’s Choice Award: $500
The Acquisitive Award-winning work will enter Burrinja’s permanent collection, contributing to an evolving archive of contemporary Australian responses to climate change.
Exhibition Dates: 22 August – 25 October 2026
Submission Fee: $55 standard / $44 concession
Image: Chris Lawry The Great Wave Goodbye 2017 Linocut Burrinja Collection Cat-no C017 (c) The artist
