The Big Review | Venice Biennale 2026: In Minor Keys ★★★½

The Venice Biennale 2026, titled "In Minor Keys," was curated posthumously following the death of artistic director Koyo Kouoh in May 2025. A team of five curators and advisors—Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, Marie Hélène Pereira, Rasha Salti, Siddhartha Mitter, and Rory Tsapayi—executed her vision across the Giardini and Arsenale venues. The exhibition features 110 artists, with a strong emphasis on new commissions, and is structured around themes of procession, resistance, and joy. Key works include Big Chief Demond Melancon's "Amistad Takeover" (2026), Nick Cave's "Amalgam (Origin)" (2025), and Otobong Nkanga's rewilded columns at the Central Pavilion.

Three artists, three questions: Immersed in colors

Three Israeli artists—Vera Kunis, Avraham Kan, and Tal Tenne Czaczkes—are featured in a column exploring their use of color amid the ongoing war with Iran. Kunis, a data engineer and artist, opened her first solo exhibition, "Imagination Algorithm," at the Global Art Gallery in Tel Aviv on March 10, 2026, during the conflict. The interview was conducted remotely due to war conditions, with a siren interrupting the conversation. The artists discuss their inspirations, definitions of art, and what makes their work unique, emphasizing resilience and optimism through color.

War-time exhibition: Yaacov Dorchin’s iron angels and sculptural language

Renowned Israeli sculptor Yaacov Dorchin, recipient of the 2004 Emet Prize and the 2011 Israel Prize for Visual Arts, opened his latest exhibition "Decapitated Fish and Additional Sculptures" at the Gordon Gallery in Tel Aviv on March 12, 2026—his 80th birthday and two weeks into the war with Iran. The exhibition, held without a large opening night due to the conflict, features about 15 sculptures spanning from 1993 to the present, including works in iron, steel, basalt, and other industrial materials. In an interview interrupted by an air raid siren, Dorchin discussed his approach to sculpting, the lyrical names of his heavy works, and how he reorganized the exhibition to create dialogues between older and newer pieces.

Not-to-miss exhibitions in Italy — May 2026

May 2026 brings a packed calendar of exhibitions across Italy, ranging from independent galleries to major museums. Highlights include Igor Grubić's early works at Laveronica Gallery in Modica, a photographic exhibition by Lisetta Carmi at Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria in Perugia, thematic investigations into Ettore Sottsass in Pistoia, Larry Nederlof's solo show at Extra Factory in Livorno, and an archaeological exhibition titled "Parthenope. The Siren and the City" at the National Archaeological Museum. The article also provides practical tips for visitors, such as checking opening times, booking tickets online, and planning transport.

Tel Aviv Museum turns shelters into art spaces during war

During weeks of war in Israel, the Tel Aviv Museum of Art closed its galleries and moved a rare exhibition, "The Day Is Gone: 100 Years of the New Objectivity," into reinforced protected spaces. Director Tania Coen-Uzzielli then created guided tours inside the shelter, complete with live piano music and interpretation, allowing visitors to experience the artworks in a space designed for safety rather than display. The tour, titled "The Event Has Not Ended," plays on the automated safety notification that signals the end of a siren threat, suggesting that the event of war never truly ends.

"In Minor Keys" Hits All the Right Notes

The 61st Venice Biennale's international exhibition, titled "In Minor Keys," opened with a somber curatorial press conference, as artistic director Koyo Kouoh, who died in May 2024 at age 57, was not physically present. The exhibition features 110 invited participants across the Arsenale and Giardini, including works by Buhlebezwe Siwani, Johannes Phokela, Wangechi Mutu, Ebony G. Patterson, and Kambui Olujimi. Protests marked the opening, with gatherings at the temporary Israeli pavilion and Pussy Riot's presence at the Russian pavilion, while the exhibition itself asks viewers to look closer at overlooked forms of representation and consider innovative models of measuring the world.

Rafał Zajko Is Hatching a Plan

Rafał Zajko's exhibition 'The Egg Egg' at Arsenal Gallery in Białystok, Poland, brings together 50 works from the past decade across two floors of a former power station, organized into nine 'acts'. The show features modular installations like 'Funny Games' (2025), a set of pastel-colored platforms on wheels with ceramic reliefs, and monumental sculptures such as 'Sisyphus' (2025), a suspended ceramic bobbin evoking textile factory tools. Performances by Agnieszka Szczotka, including 'Song to the Siren' (2026), activate works like 'Amber Chamber III Echo' (2025), blending archaism, futurism, and themes of labor and technology.

Nick Cave at the 2026 Biennale. Seven works between loss, memory and protest

Nick Cave è alla Biennale 2026. Sette opere tra perdita, memoria e protesta

Nick Cave presents "Two Points in Time at Once" at the 2026 Venice Biennale, a project spanning seven locations across Venice. The installation features a series of bronze works, including the "Amalgam" series (Seated, Origin, Plot, Resuscitation, Meditation) along with "Grapht" and "Siren." This marks a significant material shift from Cave's iconic fabric Soundsuits to bronze, exploring themes of loss, memory, trauma, and protest through a more static yet politically charged presence.

Actress Alba Clemente Tells Her Story in the Theater and Reveals What Lies Behind Her Partenope, a Smoking Siren

L’attrice Alba Clemente si racconta a teatro e svela cosa si nasconde dietro la sua Partenope, sirena fumatrice

Actress Alba Clemente (née Primiceri) recounts her life and career in a theatrical performance titled "Racconto di una vita, anzi tre: ALBAINCLEMENTE," directed by Guido Torlonia. The show, adapted from an earlier piece created with director Andrew Ondrejcak, premiered in Naples and is set to tour Rome and Milan. Clemente reflects on her rebellious youth in Amalfi, her studies at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Naples, and her encounters with artists such as Joseph Beuys, Andy Warhol, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Alex Katz, and Robert Mapplethorpe. She also describes meeting her husband, internationally renowned painter Francesco Clemente, in Rome on the day Pier Paolo Pasolini was assassinated.

Preemptive Listening review – artist’s film about sirens is buzzing with sonic ideas

The Guardian reviews Aura Satz's art film "Preemptive Listening," which explores the cultural and political meanings of sirens as warning devices. The film features a drone shot of a siren in a residential area, a soundtrack by composer Laurie Spiegel, and commentary from British-Egyptian actor Khalid Abdalla on sirens during the 2011 Arab Spring protests. It also covers sirens on Nakba day in Palestine, a US activist linking emergency vehicle lights to danger for Black women, clocks frozen at the time of the Fukushima disaster, and a Maori activist discussing environmental catastrophe. The reviewer finds the film's ideas interesting but notes it lacks coherence as a feature-length experience, suggesting it would be better suited to a gallery setting.

Pavlina Vagioni Oikeiōsis: A Greek Artist Asks Venice to Remember How to Belong

Pavlina Vagioni's exhibition *Oikeiōsis*, presented by the Hellenic Diaspora Foundation at the Venice Biennale, takes its name from a Stoic concept about recognizing belonging and expanding care outward. The show is structured in two rooms: the first, named Neikos (strife), features a fragmented plexiglass cube that reflects visitors in multiplied form, evoking separation. The second, Philotes (harmony), contains warm rock-salt seats and a layered vocal soundscape that activates the Tartini effect—a psychoacoustic phenomenon where two frequencies produce a phantom third tone, symbolizing collective kinship. The salt seats will physically change over the Biennale's six-month run, accumulating the memory of each visitor.

Ukrainians seeking cultural escape from war’s brutality find comfort and resilience at Kyiv art fair

The Art Kyiv fair, titled "This is Normal," has been held in Kyiv, Ukraine, as a contemporary art event designed to help society cope with the realities of war. Organized by director Anna Avetova, the fair features hundreds of works by Ukrainian artists at the Lavra Gallery, deliberately avoiding any booths dedicated to the war itself. The event aims to provide cultural continuity, emotional sustenance, and a boost to the domestic art market, which has struggled since the COVID-19 pandemic and the Russian invasion.