venice biennale 2026 national pavilions

The 61st Venice Biennale is taking shape as national pavilions announce their participants and curatorial themes for the 2026 edition. Russia has confirmed its return to the Giardini with a multidisciplinary exhibition titled “The Tree is Rooted in the Sky,” following its 2022 withdrawal and the 2024 loan of its pavilion to Bolivia. The upcoming edition, themed “In Minor Keys,” will proceed under the vision of the late curator Koyo Kouoh, who passed away in 2025 after becoming the first African woman appointed to helm the prestigious event.

pope visits venice biennale

Pope Francis became the first pontiff in history to visit the Venice Biennale, touring the Vatican's Holy See pavilion at the 60th edition on April 28, 2024. The exhibition, titled "With My Eyes," was installed inside a women's prison on Giudecca Island and featured works by artists including Maurizio Cattelan, Simone Fattal, and Corita Kent. The pope met with about 80 female inmates, delivered a speech on art's power to address societal ills, and praised the contributions of women artists such as Frida Kahlo and Louise Bourgeois. He also held an open-air mass in St. Mark's Square and spoke with young people at Santa María della Salute.

pope francis contemporary art obituary

Pope Francis, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, has died at age 88. A Jesuit priest from Argentina, he was the first pope from the Americas and the first from outside Europe since the 8th century. During his papacy, he took progressive stances on social justice, migrants, the environment, and the LGBTQ community, and also engaged deeply with contemporary art. He oversaw the Vatican Museums, ordered the return of Parthenon marble fragments to Greece, restored Raphael frescoes, and became the first pope to visit the Venice Biennale, where the Vatican had its first-ever pavilion in 2013.

TOP 10 exhibitions of 2025

Designboom has curated a list of the top 10 art exhibitions of 2025, highlighting standout shows from around the world. Key exhibitions include Yayoi Kusama's new infinity room at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne, Do Ho Suh's solo show 'Walk the House' at Tate Modern, Andy Goldsworthy's 'Fifty Years' land art retrospective at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh, and Steve McQueen's immersive light and sound installation 'Bass' at Schaulager Basel. The list also features A.A. Murakami's mist-filled installation at Museo della Permanente during Milan Design Week 2025.

We visited the 2026 Venice Art Biennale: the exhibitions and pavilions you shouldn’t miss

The 2026 Venice Art Biennale has opened across the Giardini, Arsenale, and venues throughout the city, with geopolitics, climate collapse, and national identities dominating the exhibitions. Notable pavilions include Austria's "Seaworld Venice" by Florentina Holzinger, the Czech and Slovak Pavilion's "Il Silenzio della Talpa" by Jakub Jansa and Selmeci Kocka Jusko, India's "Geographies of Distance: remembering home" featuring multiple artists, and the Taiwan Pavilion's "Screen Melancholy" by Li Yi-Fan. The Russian Pavilion has become a focal point of controversy, with guards and empty beer bottles outside, and the Pussy Riot collective staging a protest nearby.

The Art Diary May 2026 – Revd Jonathan Evens

The article titled "The Art Diary May 2026 – Revd Jonathan Evens" appears to be a diary or column by Revd Jonathan Evens, published on Artlyst, covering art-related events, reflections, or commentary for May 2026. The specific content is not provided in the snippet, but the format suggests a curated overview of exhibitions, cultural happenings, or personal observations from the author's perspective.

designboom's ultimate guide to the venice art biennale 2026

Designboom has published a comprehensive guide to the 2026 Venice Art Biennale, featuring a curated list of must-see exhibitions, installations, and events across the city. Highlights include Miet Warlop's "IT NEVER SSST," Michael Armitage's "The Promise of Change" at Palazzo Grassi, and DRIFT's "Shy Society" at Palazzo Strozzi, alongside works by Lotus L. Kang, Lida Abdul, and Kan Yasuda. The guide also points to collateral shows in Pietrasanta and Berlin, offering visitors a broad itinerary beyond the main Biennale venues.

Is the US about to be humiliated on the world’s most prestigious cultural stage?

More than 70 prominent international artists have signed an open letter demanding the exclusion of the United States, Israel, and Russia from the 2026 Venice Biennale, accusing those governments of committing war crimes and atrocities. The controversy centers on the US pavilion, which will feature Mexico-based American artist Alma Allen, whose abstract, anodyne sculptures were chosen by a last-minute commissioner with no art-world experience—a luxury pet food store owner from Florida who reportedly gained the role through connections at Mar-a-Lago. The Biennale's five-person jury has already resigned amid the furor, and Russia is returning to the event for the first time since its 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

The art of politics: how global conflicts are playing out in this year's Venice Biennale

Israel is making a controversial return to the 2025 Venice Art Biennale after its pavilion was locked in 2024 with a note demanding a ceasefire in Gaza. The artist representing Israel, Belu-Simion Fainaru, will present his project "Rose of Nothingness" in the Arsenale, while Russia also returns to the Biennale after its Giardini pavilion was reassigned to Bolivia in 2024. The Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA) has renewed calls for a boycott and is organizing strike action to disrupt the event, accusing Israel of genocide.

Lotus Kang channels desire into Bvlgari's Venice Biennale pavilion

Artist Lotus Kang has created a site-specific installation for the Bvlgari pavilion at the Venice Biennale, working across three studios including a temporary Brooklyn warehouse. Her work, which includes unfixed 35mm film on the façade of Spazio Esedra and new sculptures of plaster baby birds and rubber-wrapped tatami mats, explores themes of multiplicity, permeability, and the unfixing of meaning. Kang, known for her installations at the 2023 Whitney Biennial and Chisenhale Gallery, describes herself as a maker of objects and spaces who resists single interpretations.

Venice Biennale Jury Resigns in the Wake of Controversial Prize Ban

The jury for the 2026 Venice Biennale has resigned just days before the public opening on May 9, after announcing on April 22 that it would not consider artists from countries accused of crimes against humanity for the Golden and Silver Lion prizes. The jury, consisting of Solange Oliveira Farks (president), Zoe Butt, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Marta Kuzma, and Giovanna Zapperi, cited its earlier statement of intention in its resignation, which directly impacted the participation of Russia and Israel—both subject to International Criminal Court warrants. In response, the Biennale postponed the awards ceremony from May 9 to November 22 and replaced the traditional jury with a public vote for best participant and best national participation, framing the move as upholding openness and rejecting censorship.

Deutscher Pavillon wird zum Plattenbau

The German Pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale has been transformed into a prefabricated concrete slab building (Plattenbau) for this year's edition, designed by artists Sung Tieu and the late Henrike Naumann, who died suddenly in February at age 41 from cancer. Curator Kathleen Reinhardt described the pavilion as part of a highly political Biennale, with Tieu covering the 1938 fascist-era building with a mosaic of over three million tiles depicting a Berlin apartment block that once housed Vietnamese contract workers. Naumann's interior installation features mint-green references to Soviet barracks in East Germany, a cartography of war, and works including a relief of chairs, a curtain of chainmail, and the performance "Trümmerfrau."

Venice Bound? Here’s All the News You Need to Know About This Year’s Biennale

The 61st Venice Biennale is embroiled in geopolitical controversy over Russia's return to the event in 2026, which has sparked widespread backlash. Nearly 10,000 artists and cultural leaders signed an open letter opposing Russia's participation, and the European Union withdrew €2 million in funding for the 2028 edition. Leaked emails reveal Biennale officials worked with Russian pavilion commissioner Anastasia Karneeva to circumvent EU sanctions, while Italy's culture minister Alessandro Giuli plans to boycott the opening week. Meanwhile, activists continue to push for Israel's removal from the Biennale, though Israel will be accommodated in the Arsenale this year.

Venice Biennale’s Prize Ban on Israel and Russia Falls Short for Critics

The jury of the 2026 Venice Biennale has ruled that Israel and Russia will be ineligible for the Golden and Silver Lion prizes, citing International Criminal Court charges of crimes against humanity against their leaders. The decision follows years of activism and political pressure, with the European Union withdrawing €2 million in funding from the event in protest of Russia's participation. While groups like Art Not Genocide Alliance praised the move as an unprecedented step, critics argue it falls short of a full ban on participation. Israel's artist representative, Belu-Simion Fainaru, condemned the policy as discriminatory, and an open letter signed by 70 artists and curators called for excluding all regimes committing war crimes, including the United States.

India pavilion returns to the Venice Art Biennale 2026 with a bang after seven-year hiatus

India has returned to the Venice Art Biennale with a national pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition, after a seven-year hiatus. The pavilion, titled "Geographies of Distance: Remembering Home," is presented by India's Ministry of Culture in partnership with the Nita Mukesh Ambani Cultural Centre and Serendipity Arts Foundation, curated by Amin Jaffer. It features five artists—Alwar Balasubramaniam, Sumakshi Singh, Ranjani Shettar, Skarma Sonam Tashi, and Asim Waqif—whose works explore themes of home, loss, displacement, and cultural memory through materials like soil, thread, bamboo, and clay.

Art Biennale: artists reject the popular jury

Fifty-two artists and curators, along with sixteen National Participants of the 61st Venice Art Biennale, have withdrawn from the newly introduced 'Lions of the Visitors' (People's Prizes) competition. The boycott follows the resignation of the jury appointed by artistic director Koyo Kouoh, who died in 2025, and is a protest against the inclusion of Russia and Israel in the prize—countries initially excluded by the international jury. The controversy escalated after Italian Minister of Culture Alessandro Giuli publicly opposed the Biennale president Pietrangelo Buttafuoco's decision to allow Russia's participation, drawing in the European Commission and even Ursula von der Leyen, who warned of potential sanctions violations. The signatories include artists and curators from France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Turkey, Switzerland, Spain, the Netherlands, and several other nations.

in venice, erwin wurm probes bodily perception with soft, mutable forms

Austrian artist Erwin Wurm has opened a new exhibition titled "Dreamers" at Museo Fortuny in Venice, featuring soft, mutable sculptures that probe bodily perception. The installation transforms the historic space with pliable forms that challenge traditional notions of sculpture and the human figure, inviting viewers to reconsider their relationship with physical objects and space.

at the MET's 'costume art', sculptural mannequins are scanned from real bodies

The Metropolitan Museum of Art's new exhibition 'Costume Art' features sculptural mannequins that are scanned from real bodies, including representations of corpulent and disabled bodies. The show uses 3D body scanning technology to create mannequins that accurately reflect diverse human forms, moving away from traditional idealized fashion mannequins.

lina lapelytė fills hamburger bahnhof with 400,000 cubes, inviting visitors to build and sing

Lithuanian artist Lina Lapelytė has filled Berlin's Hamburger Bahnhof museum with 400,000 lightweight foam cubes, creating an interactive installation titled "The Singing Cube." Visitors are invited to stack, carry, and rebuild the cubes while participating in collective singing performances, transforming the museum into a participatory sound and sculpture environment. The installation evolves over time through the collaborative actions of participants, blending architecture, music, and social interaction.

designboom radar: exhibitions to see around the world this may

Designboom has published its monthly roundup of must-see art exhibitions around the world for May 2026. Featured shows include Nick Doyle's 'Collective Hallucinations' at Perrotin, Nicola Turner's 'Time’s Scythe' in collaboration with Annely Juda Fine Art at YSP, and Katharina Grosse's 'I Set Out, I Walked Fast' at White Cube. The article also includes a tribute to Georg Baselitz, the influential German painter who recently passed away at 88, and a guide to the 61st Venice Art Biennale 2026.

painting unfolds across earth, canvas, and space in katharina grosse’s london exhibition

Katharina Grosse's exhibition 'I Set Out, I Walked Fast' at White Cube London presents a continuous environment where painting extends beyond the canvas into space. The show features new works, archival material, and a large in-situ installation that combines mounds of earth, a partially submerged canvas, and a bronze-cast sculpture into a single painted field. Grosse uses an industrial spray gun to apply acrylic pigments, creating works that blur boundaries between surface, site, and viewer. The exhibition avoids chronological order, instead connecting pieces from different periods to form a spatial network where individual works function as nodes.

An open letter to La Biennale di Venezia calls out inaction in the face of global atrocities

A group of 74 artists and curators invited to the 61st Venice Biennale have issued an open letter to the institution's president, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco. The signatories are protesting the decision to relocate the Israeli Pavilion to the Arsenale, placing it in close proximity to the central exhibition 'In Minor Keys' curated by the late Koyo Kouoh. The letter demands the exclusion of official delegations from countries accused of war crimes—specifically Israel, Russia, and the United States—and accuses the Biennale of complicity through its silence on global atrocities.

Al Padiglione del Giappone della Biennale di Venezia vi affidano una bambola da accudire

The Japan Pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale 2026 features an immersive, interactive exhibition titled "Grass Babies, Moon Babies" by Japanese-American artist Ei Arakawa-Nash. Visitors are invited to care for one of 200 dolls, each with a QR code that provides a "diaper poem" linked to the doll's symbolic birth date—reflecting the artist's personal experience of becoming a father in 2024 and broader social dynamics in Japan. The pavilion, curated by Lisa Horikawa and Mizuki Takahashi, evolves over the seven months of the Biennale as a platform for shared care and participation.

There is an absent pavilion at the 2026 Venice Art Biennale that no one has talked about: Venezuela

C’è un padiglione assente alla Biennale d’Arte di Venezia 2026 di cui nessuno ha parlato: il Venezuela

The Venezuelan pavilion at the 2026 Venice Art Biennale remains closed, an absence that has gone largely unnoticed amid other controversies surrounding the Russian, Israeli, South African, and Iranian pavilions. Designed by architect Carlo Scarpa and built between 1953 and 1956, the pavilion now displays a trilingual sign stating it will "rise again soon," reflecting the country's collapse after the kidnapping and imprisonment of President Nicolás Maduro by the United States and the installation of a fragile pro-American interim government.

Qatar's Pavilion at the Venice Biennale Is Not Yet Built. But It Takes Shape Under a Tent in the Giardini with a Rich Cultural Program

Il Padiglione del Qatar alla Biennale di Venezia ancora non c’è. Ma prende forma sotto una tenda ai Giardini con un ricco programma culturale

Qatar's national pavilion at the Venice Biennale, designed by architect Lina Ghotmeh, is still under construction in the Giardini. For the 2026 Venice Art Biennale, Qatar Museums and Rubaiya Qatar have commissioned artist Rirkrit Tiravanija to present "Untitled 2026 (a gathering of remarkable people)" under a tent structure on the site. The project, curated by Tom Eccles and Ruba Katrib, will feature a film by Sophia Al-Maria, live performances by Tarek Atoui, a culinary program by chef Fadi Kattan, and a large-scale sculpture by Alia Farid, bringing together artists, musicians, and chefs from the Arab world.

Since 1968, Protests Have Revealed the Real Impact of the Venice Biennale

The article recounts the 1968 protests at the Venice Biennale, where artists, students, and activists clashed with police over the event's perceived ties to bourgeois power and capitalist commodification. It draws parallels to the 2024 Biennale, where groups like Art Not Genocide Alliance, Pussy Riot, and Femen demonstrated against the participation of Russia and Israel, while artists staged strikes and performances like the Solidarity Drone Chorus to highlight the Gaza conflict.

The 10 Best Venice Films

Die 10 besten Venedig-Filme

Monopol magazine has published a ranking of the ten best films set in Venice, timed to coincide with the opening of the Venice Art Biennale. The list includes titles such as Steven Spielberg's "Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade" (1989), Joseph L. Mankiewicz's "The Honey Pot" (1967), and Kenneth Branagh's "A Haunting in Venice" (2023), highlighting how the lagoon city serves as a central character in action films, comedies, and love dramas.

Qatar makes Venice Biennale debut with pavilion built on collaboration, food and live art

Qatar has made its debut at the Venice Biennale with an official national pavilion, marking a major cultural milestone as the first new national pavilion in the Giardini in 30 years. Led by artist Rirkrit Tiravanija, the project titled "Untitled 2026: A gathering of remarkable people" transforms the space into a living environment featuring live music, film screenings, shared meals, and ongoing performances. The pavilion brings together artists, musicians, and chefs from across the Arab world and its diasporas, emphasizing cultural exchange rather than a single national narrative.

entering tilda swinton's ongoing world of ghosts, garments, and artistic fellowship

Designboom revisits Tilda Swinton's iconic sleeping performance piece, originally staged with artist Cornelia Parker, as part of a new exhibition titled 'Flat 19' that reconstructs Swinton's former London apartment alongside filmmaker Joanna Hogg. The show also features 'A Biographical Wardrobe,' displaying garments from Swinton's films, performances, and personal archives, creating an immersive exploration of her artistic collaborations and personal history.

yuko mohri tunes into the unseen energies connecting people and objects

Japanese artist Yuko Mohri has created an exhibition where decomposing fruit powers electronic systems, and visitors move through the installations, becoming part of the circulation of energy within the show. The work explores the unseen energies connecting people and objects, blending organic decay with technological interactivity.