The Vancouver Biennale has appointed Brazilian artist and documentary filmmaker Marcello Dantas as senior curator for its 2027–29 edition. Dantas, currently art director at the immersive museum Ster Ik in Tulum, Mexico, recently cocurated the 2024 iteration of Saudi Arabia's Desert X AlUla with Maya El Khalil. He has previously organized exhibitions for artists including Ai Weiwei, Anish Kapoor, Shirin Neshat, and Bill Viola, and curated a project by Vik Muniz for the 2013–15 Vancouver Biennale. Dantas plans to shape the event by addressing the city's corporate real estate development alongside its First Nations and colonial history, exploring themes of displacement and belonging.
The appointment matters because the Vancouver Biennale is a significant open-air outdoor sculpture exhibition that has helped raise the profile of young Canadian artists and gained international attention, such as when a sculpture by Sophie Ryder was stolen in 2010. Dantas's focus on ecology, identity, and coexistence in the public realm signals a continued commitment to socially engaged public art, potentially expanding the biennial's impact on both local and global art conversations.