The "Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale (Fukuoka Triennale, FT)" is the largest exhibition presented by the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum. The word "triennale" is an Italian word that means "every three years". However it is now commonly used in the art world as a pronoun for an international art exhibition held every three years after the Milan Triennale and the Venice Biennale ("biennale means "every other year") came to be acknowledged as authoritative international contemporary art exhibitions.

The reason for having such exhibitions every two or three years is to introduce a trend of the most up to date tendency of contemporary art under a specific theme. As these exhibitions gather the latest art trends from different places of the world periodically and continuously, they can reflect and represent contemporaneity and internationality.

The Venice Biennale started in 1893 is the oldest exhibition whilst biennales and triennales from Sao Paulo, India, Bangladesh, and Sydney are also long running and well known. However, the map of international contemporary art exhibitions has undergone a huge transformation over the past decade. Biennales in the non-Western sphere, namely Johannesburg, Istanbul and Havana have shown progressive, experimental exhibitions drawing richly on themes from their historical background. Rising biennales and triennales of East Asia are also creating a stir in the Western-initiated international art exhibitions. Some of the examples are Yokohama, Tsumari (Niigata) in Japan, Gwangju and Busan in Korea, Shanghai, Guangzhow, Beijin in China and Taipei. The backgrounds of these exhibitions are advances of Asian artists assimilated into the international art scenes as well as recent economical developments and internationalisation. The Brisbane Triennale may be thought to have a similar viewpoint as the Fukuoka Triennale in terms of their approach and its focus on the art in Asia and Pacific region. This may be a result of the city strategy to respond to the current ongoing decentralisation from the West.

That said, it is clear that the Fukuoka Triennale is not just part of this recent boom in Asian art exhibitions that has been distinctive. Its predecessor, "The Asian Art Show", dates back twenty-five years; had been held every five years at the Fukuoka Art Museum since 1980, a time when many people were still wondering whether there was any contemporary art in Asia. In addition, the Fukuoka Triennale has featured numerous unknown Asian artists, some of whom had not been internationally exposed. These exhibitions were materialised by the networks in Asian countries and regions that were nurtured through the series of activities originally conducted by the Fukuoka Art Museum.

The Fukuoka Triennale sets a different theme for each exhibition focusing on the most remarkable movements in Asian art of a particular time to introduce original creativities of Asia and the original activities of the museum in the context of the history, society and culture of Asia of that time. It is for this reason that the Fukuoka Triennale attracts so much attention.