March 8 - April 11, 2026
Pen + Brush, 29 East 22nd Street, NYC
everywomanbiennial.com and @everywomanbiennial
The Every Woman Biennial, the world’s largest women and
non-binary biennial, presents its 6th edition - SPECTALiA - this spring. SPECTALiA will feature art and performance by over 400 artists at its new location Pen + Brush, the non-profit organization that has been an advocate for creating equitable opportunities for women and gender-expansive visual and literary artists since 1894. For the first time, the Every Woman Biennial will be on view for an extended month-long exhibition, opening on March 8, coincident with International Women’s Day and The Whitney Biennial, and running through April 11, 2026. The eclectic salon will feature painting, photography, video installation, sculpture, mixed media, music, dance, and performance. Inspired by the Dada, Surrealism, and Cabaret movements, born from the social and political unrest of post WWI Europe, Every Woman Biennial put out an open call to artists to embrace these movements and respond to the prompt: What are we creatively building in a troubled world that’s moving at a speed we can hardly grasp?
What emerged is a fantastical range of art and performance - a punk rock revival of the carnivalesque where joy is a subversive act. The Every Woman Biennial creates a space for radical wonder, ritual, reflection and reinvention.
“If there’s a connective tissue that unites these hundreds of works, it would be: If you don’t like the paradigm that exists, rebuild it; we don’t have to buy into dystopia. We’re collectively creating a world-building spell. This is a call to artists and the community to participate and come together, ” stated Molly Caldwell, Executive Director and Co-Curator.
The opening kicked off with street performances by Hungry March Band and a dance procession by Melissa Riker of the Kinesis Project that turned into a communal Flash Mob Dance. Inside, performances included The Singing Cabinet of Mathilde Lebeau, a coin operated automaton-style performance operatic arias on tales of misogyny, technology, witchcraft and revenge; and FOU FOU HA FOU - New York, a fashionista trickster performance group thrown in a gender-blender with a twist of neo-Vaudeville and a side of circus.
EVERY WOMAN BIENNIAL TEAM 2026
Molly Caldwell: Executive Director and Co-Curator
Ash Edes: Art Director, Co-Curator
C. Finley: Founder
Maureen Sullivan | Red Art Projects: Communications
SPONSORS
Funding for the 2026 edition of the Every Woman Biennial is generously provided by: The Deborah
Buck Foundation, Annabelle Rinehart, Janice Judd, and Caldwellings Real Estate. Every Woman
Biennial is proud to participate with Reel Works providing mentorship opportunities for teens.
