BNG Announces 2026 Bermuda Biennial Jurors
The Bermuda National Gallery has announced that Akili Tommasino of The Met and Dr. Julie Crooks of the Art Gallery of Ontario will serve as jurors for the 2026 Bermuda Biennial.
A spokesperson said, “The Bermuda National Gallery is pleased to announce that the jurors for the upcoming 2026 Bermuda Biennial are Akili Tommasino, Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Dr Julie Crooks, Curator of the Arts of Global Africa and the Diaspora at the Art Gallery of Ontario [AGO].
“An open call to Bermudian artists and those resident on the island, the Biennial has been at the core of the contemporary art scene in Bermuda since its inception in 1994. Recognized by the International Biennial Association, and with works selected by a rotating cast of overseas jurors, the BNG’s flagship exhibition provides local artists with a national platform and the opportunity to have their work seen by some of the foremost art professionals in the world.”
Left: Akili Tommasino, 2023, photograph by Gregston Hurdle; Right: Dr. Julie Crooks
Jennifer L. Phillips, Executive Director of the Bermuda National Gallery, said, “We are thrilled to welcome Akili Tommasino and Dr Julie Crooks as jurors for the 2026 Bermuda Biennial, sponsored by the Green family. BNG’s flagship exhibition stands apart as a critical opportunity for Bermudian and Bermuda-based artists to have their work reviewed by esteemed international art professionals. We continue elevating the Biennial in its newest iteration, with the participation of curators from The Met and the Art Gallery of Ontario.”
The spokesperson said, “Akili Tommasino joined The Metropolitan Museum of Art in 2021, where he most recently organized Flight into Egypt: Black Artists and Ancient Egypt, 1876-Now [November 17, 2024–February 17, 2025]. Previously, Tommasino held curatorial positions at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and at the Museum of Modern Art. In 2020, along with his wife, Dr. Amanda Herrera Tommasino, he launched Pana Projects, an arts and education initiative in the Caribbean. A former Fulbright Fellow at the Centre Pompidou, Tommasino is a PhD candidate at Harvard University, where he earned his MA and BA.”
“I am thrilled and honored to serve as a Juror for the 2026 Bermuda Biennial along with my friend and outstanding curatorial colleague Dr Julie Crooks, and to connect with the community of artists in Bermuda, a place that has always been special to me as the home of a large contingent of my extended family,” said Tommasino. “I am deeply grateful to the Bermuda National Gallery’s Executive Director Jennifer Phillips and Director of Exhibitions Eve Godet Thomas for their tremendous invitation.”
The spokesperson said, “Dr Julie Crooks has been a curator at the Art Gallery of Ontario [AGO] since 2017. Her recent curatorial projects at the AGO include Free. Black. North [2017]; Mickalene Thomas: Femmes Noires [2018]; and Life Between Islands: Caribbean-British Art 1950s – Now [2023]. She holds a PhD from the Department of History of Art and Archaeology at the School of Oriental and African Studies [SOAS], University of London, UK. In 2020, Dr Crooks initiated the new Arts of Global Africa and the Diaspora department at the AGO, with the goal of addressing historic gaps and erasures related to the representation of Africa and its diasporas through programming, acquisitions, and exhibitions.”
She said, “I am deeply honored to be invited, along with my esteemed colleague Akili Tommasino, to serve as a juror for the 2026 Bermuda Biennial! I look forward to collaborating with the vibrant and multi-faceted community of artists in Bermuda.”
The spokesperson said, “The 2026 Bermuda Biennial will be the first iteration to be sponsored by the Green family, who have taken on title sponsorship of the exhibition, building on a long history of collaboration between the family and the Bermuda National Gallery.
“Submissions to the 2026 Bermuda Biennial will open in September and close in January 2026. The exhibition will be on display at the Bermuda National Gallery from June 2026 to December 2026. More information can be found at https://bng.bm/2026-bermuda-biennial.”
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