Coventry Biennial 2025 - Resurfacing
The Fifth edition of the Coventry Biennial of Contemporary Art runs until the 25th of January 2026. The name and topic is Obsessions, Possessions.
What is a biennial?
The Coventry Biennial is an arts and culture event that runs every other year and began in 2017, with the inaugural edition titled “The Future”.
The founding prospects of the Biennial are to Connect, Make and Develop.
And, following the supposed recent influx in tourism in Coventry, we look to see how Coventry’s Biennial plays its part, with artistic director Ryan Hughes stating in the past that - “We have delivered 3 biennials since 2017, attracting more than 1,000,000 visitors to artworks, exhibitions and events in Coventry and Warwickshire.”
The Biennial was also wholly embedded into the UK City of Culture 2021 title and provided a boost to the city’s visual arts profile.
Obsessions, Possessions: Explained
This overarching theme of the 2025 Coventry Biennial invites the audience into a conversation about our own and each other’s habits and relationship with what we own and what we collect and not only the physical objects but the memories that make us who we are.
This section of the Biennial: The Resurfacing
Image Source - Visit Coventry
Resurfacing is a collaborative project between artist Caitlin Kiely and researcher Dr Jamie Larkin and is hosted in St Michael’s Gallery at Coventry Cathedral.
The initial implications of the piece are blunt and dull. At first glance, it appears to be an exploration of stone and surfaces. However, when you inquire deeper, it’s an inquiry into the meaning behind the material’s history. Its essence and memory teach lessons on the labour and struggles of those who moved and formed the stone, injuring themselves in the process to achieve what we have today.
The exhibition uses materials sourced from a quarry in Staffordshire and imagery sourced from archives. Those coming to visit are invited to reflect upon the unseen stories embedded in not paper or books but the stone that’s lasted all of these years - those working in the quarry, the craftsmanship, the passage of time and the city’s rebuilding and remembrance that it prides itself on.
The physical placement of Resurfacing and situating it in the Lower Gallery draws he viewers beneath the surface, encouraging them to consider the lies hidden beneath the surfaces of the architecture.