FACT Liverpool reveals 2026 exhibitions programme

FACT Liverpool has revealed its full exhibitions programme for 2026, featuring major new commissions, immersive installations and participatory projects that explore the intersection of art, technology and society.

The year-long programme will see FACT present newly commissioned works alongside re-staged pieces by emerging and internationally recognised artists, using tools such as playable game worlds and artificial intelligence to explore ideas around myth-making, ancestry, more-than-human perspectives, resistance and collective action.

Highlights of the 2026 programme include new commissions by Rachel Maclean, ONLY SLIME, Sahjan Kooner, Rae-Yen Song 宋瑞渊 and Seema Mattu, alongside a major group exhibition curated by FACT’s 2025 Curator-in-Residence, Milia Xin Bi.

Opening the year is Can Meeple Escape the Neurophoria? (6 February – 26 April 2026), a playful yet thought-provoking group exhibition inspired by tabletop gaming and world-building. Featuring work by Vytas Jankauskas, Joseph Wilk and Jan Zuiderveld, the exhibition examines how humans interact with intelligent technologies, including AI, while touching on surveillance, climate anxiety and digital systems.

From March to August, FACT will host two major concurrent exhibitions. Celebrated Scottish artist Rachel Maclean premieres They’ve Got Your Eyes, a new theatrical installation featuring a world-first film created using AI models trained on her own image and archive. The exhibition explores authorship, identity and power in the age of artificial intelligence through Maclean’s distinctive blend of satire, fantasy and unease.

Alongside this, artist duo ONLY SLIME will present an expanded version of their interactive game-opera AFTERLIFE, inviting visitors to step into fantasy computer-game worlds using motion capture and playful mini-games, blurring the boundaries between creator, player and avatar.

In May, artist and worldbuilder Sahjan Kooner will unveil a new collaborative project created with young people from youth clubs in Liverpool and Wigan. The exhibition invites participants to imagine museums of the future, rethinking collections as spaces shaped by identity, heritage and imagination.

The autumn season sees two ambitious new commissions opening in September. Rae-Yen Song 宋瑞渊 will transform FACT’s gallery into a subaquatic world inspired by diasporic mythologies and family lore, featuring newly commissioned sculptures, textiles, sound and moving image works. At the same time, Seema Mattu will present Saheli, a participatory project bringing together South Asian, queer, female and non-binary musicians to form a sonic collective addressing misogyny, casteism and queer erasure through music, film and installation.

FACT will also continue to present exhibitions into early 2026, including solo shows by Bassam Issa Al-Sabah and Nina Davies, which explore how digital representations can distort and replace lived experience.

Nicola Triscott, Director and CEO at FACT, said the programme continues the organisation’s long-standing commitment to ambitious, forward-thinking work at the intersection of art and technology.

She said: “In 2026, FACT continues exploring where art, technology and society intersect. Our year-round programme includes major exhibitions examining the creative possibilities and cultural implications of AI, alongside participatory projects with young people and collaborations with leading national and international institutions.”

Maitreyi Maheshwari, Head of Programme at FACT, added: “Across 2026, our exhibitions explore our search for meaning in a moment shaped by political uncertainty and technological anxiety. These works invite audiences to consider how the mythological, scientific and speculative coexist, and how we might collectively imagine different futures.”

Further details on exhibitions, opening dates and events will be announced by FACT Liverpool throughout the year.

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