The fifth edition of Shanghai Biennial will take place from September, 28th to November, 28th 2004.The academic theme of this Biennale, "Techniques of the visible", is focusing on the close relationship between art, science, and technology, in particular how art has revealed the interdependent social and political forces that produce and subject technology and humanity. Taken from the Ancient Chinese philosophy of 'ying xiang', the concept emerges from an interest in the visual products of modern technology that retain critical historical and emotive references. 'Ying Xiang Sheng Cun' ('Techniques of the Visible') suggests that artistic practice engaging with 'technology' is inherently placing itself within a historical continuum, where cultural metaphor becomes critical to its understanding. This fifth edition of Shanghai Biennale's main venue is Shanghai Art Museum, the museum will organize exhibitions in cooperation with other places in the city; this various geographical type of sites will facilitate contacts between art and population.

2002 Shanghai Biennial was hosted by the Organizing Committee of Shanghai Biennial. The main theme of this Biennial, "Urban Creation" was divided into three parts: 'Urban Creation' Exhibition, 'Urban Creation' International Student Retrospective Exhibition and an exhibition of one hundred photographs of one hundred Shanghai historic buildings. The theme of this Biennial focused on the fast development of urbanization process: the new city buildings have been changing China's landscape with unprecedented depth and universality, resulting into the profound transformation of the previous cultural situations and living conditions. It is of primary importance for contemporary Chinese culture to inspect this reality with a constructive attitude and to consider the subjects of countryside and city, tradition and modernity, local and globalization, conservation and development, inheritance and creation, and so on.

2000 Shanghai Biennial's main topic was "Spirit of Shanghai". 67 artists from 18 countries presented more than 300 works including oil paintings, Chinese paintings, prints, sculptures, photographs, installations, video, media, architecture works, etc. For the first time, a small group of curators was formed within the Biennial by both Chinese and international members. Foreign artists (coming from Europe, USA, Africa and Asia) selected by this group were all deeply invested in the 90ies international artistic world and represented the contemporary international art tendency. In terms of contemporary cultural issues, they adopted positive attitude and cutting edge positions. Most of the Chinese artists selected by the curators' group were leaders of contemporary art in China, they did not neglect any kind of influence in order to become vigorous actors of Chinese art. A colloquium about the issue '"Spirit of Shanghai", a specific form of modernization' was also organized.

1998 Shanghai Biennial was jointly organized by Shanghai Art Museum and Annie Wong Art Foundation from October, 20th to November, 20th 1998. Exhibitions venues were Shanghai Art Museum and Liu Hai Su Museum. The main theme was "Inheritance and Exploration"; 256 works were exhibited; most of them were recent ink paintings, which illustrated the latest evolution of this traditional technique. Art works were divided into two parts according to the style influence.

Under the authority of the Chinese Ministry of Culture and the Municipal Administration of Shanghai, Shanghai Art Museum organized the 1996 Shanghai Biennial from March, 18th to April, 7th 1996. The first edition was organized by Shanghai Municipal Cultural Department and Shanghai Art Museum. With 'Open Space' as main theme, Shanghai Biennial aimed to show how, since the outstanding opening reform, Chinese art had evolved in different forms and means including all kinds of styles. The imported technique of oil painting had been largely used in China via expressionism, abstraction, installations, etc. 160 works of 29 artists were exhibited.