Venice 2026: the 61st Venice Art Biennale will be accompanied by an exceptional constellation of museum shows, foundation projects, and landmark retrospectives across the city.
The 61st Venice Art Biennale: In Minor Keys
The heart of the season is the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, titled In Minor Keys, conceived by curator Koyo Kouoh. Running from 9 May to 22 November 2026 (with previews on 6–8 May), the exhibition unfolds across the Giardini, the Arsenale and multiple sites throughout Venice.
Following Kouoh’s sudden passing in May 2025, La Biennale confirmed – together with her family – that the exhibition will be realized exactly as she envisioned it, honoring her intellectual and poetic legacy. In Minor Keys proposes an exhibition attuned to subtle frequencies: sorrow and melancholy coexist with joy, resilience, solace and transcendence. Artists are positioned as essential interpreters of social and psychic realities, capable of imagining new relations and futures.
As Kouoh evocatively framed it, the exhibition listens to “the songs of those producing beauty in spite of tragedy,” embracing the quiet yet persistent signals of life, earth and collective healing.
National Pavilions to Watch
Among the most anticipated national presentations:
- Austria will present a project by acclaimed performance artist Florentina Holzinger, known for radical, physically intense works that confront power, sexuality and spectacle.
- Cyprus will be represented by Marina Xenofontos, with the project It rests to the bones, curated by Kyle Dancewicz. Combining sculpture, video, and sound, the installation explores personal and cultural memory, folk traditions and inherited social structures.
- Estonia has selected painter Merike Estna, whose practice merges painting with craft traditions and everyday life. Her work expands the medium to include overlooked forms of knowledge and making.
- Finland will present Jenna Sutela, curated by Stefanie Hessler. Sutela’s installations and sound works investigate biological and computational systems – from microbiomes to artificial intelligence – questioning anthropocentrism and emphasizing interdependence across scales.
Major Exhibitions Across the City
Beyond the Biennale itself, Venice’s institutions and foundations will host an extraordinary lineup of exhibitions that rival the main event, transforming the city into a dense and polyphonic cultural landscape.
Jenny Saville at Ca’ Pesaro
Ca’ Pesaro – International Gallery of Modern Art will host the first major Venetian exhibition dedicated to Jenny Saville (28 March–22 November 2026). Curated by Elisabetta Barisoni, the show traces Saville’s career from the 1990s to today, highlighting her sustained dialogue with Old Masters and the Venetian School of painting. The exhibition concludes with new, previously unseen works created especially for Venice.
Pinault Collection: Palazzo Grassi & Punta della Dogana
From 29 March 2026, the Pinault Collection will simultaneously present four solo exhibitions:
– Michael Armitage and Amar Kanwar at Palazzo Grassi
– Lorna Simpson and Paulo Nazareth at Punta della Dogana
Together, these exhibitions span painting, film, photography and political storytelling, reinforcing Venice’s role as a platform for global narratives.
Marina Abramović at the Gallerie dell’Accademia
In a historic first, Marina Abramović becomes the first living female artist to receive a major exhibition at Le Gallerie dell’Accademia. Marina Abramović: Transforming Energy (6 May–19 October 2026), curated by Shai Baitel, integrates her work into both the permanent collection and temporary galleries. A highlight is the powerful dialogue between Pietà (with Ulay) (1983) and Titian’s unfinished Pietà (1575–76), reinterpreting Renaissance notions of pain, redemption and transcendence through the contemporary body.
Fondazione In Between Art Film: Canicula
Canicula, a group exhibition presented by Fondazione In Between Art Film, will open on 6 May 2026 at the Complesso dell’Ospedaletto. Curated by Alessandro Rabottini and Leonardo Bigazzi, Canicula is the third and final chapter of the foundation’s acclaimed “Trilogy of Uncertainties”, following Penumbra (2022) and Nebula (2024). The exhibition premieres eight new site-specific video installations, commissioned and produced by the foundation, by Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Massimo D’Anolfi and Martina Parenti, Roman Khimei and Yarema Malashchuk, Janis Rafa, P. Staff, Wang Tuo, Yuyan Wang and Maya Watanabe.
Fondazione Prada: Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince
At Fondazione Prada, Helter Skelter: Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince (9 May–23 November 2026), curated by Nancy Spector, stages a charged dialogue between two influential American artists. Drawing from film, music, mass media and internet culture, the exhibition dissects the myths, violence, and contradictions of American popular imagery.
Judy Chicago at Alberta Pane Gallery
Alberta Pane Gallery will present The Materiality of Judy Chicago (May–November 2026), curated by Allison Raddock. The exhibition offers a focused exploration of the materials and experimental strategies that have defined Chicago’s six-decade career, reaffirming her central role in feminist and conceptual art history.
