Today, Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, Marie Hélène Pereira, Rasha Salti, Siddhartha Mitter and Rory Tsapayi – members of the curatorial team of the late Koyo Kouoh, curator of the 61st Venice Biennale – shared the list of participating artists for the 2026 edition at a press conference.
Titled In Minor Keys, the international exhibition will feature 105 artists and collectives, as well as six artist-led organisations, hailing from different geographies and regions. The selection’s focus on schools, including G.A.S. Foundation, blaxTARLINES KUMASI and Denniston Hill, ‘‘points to key ecosystems and networks built and sustained by artists, which carry a clear sense of both localism and transnationalism in generative symbiosis,’’ said Marie Hélène Pereira.
Rasha Salti said that Kouoh identified several conceptual motifs to guide the exhibition, which is organised by a compositional method “in respect of undercurrent priorities”, rather than according to formal sections. Two reference points that Kouoh shared as inspiration included Toni Morrison’s 1987 novel, Beloved, and Gabriel García Márquez’s 1967 novel 100 Years of Solitude.
The exhibition will unfold across the Central Pavilion in the Giardini and the Arsenale, as well as in selected sites beyond the main venues. The programme will also include outdoor installations, performances that will ‘‘centre the body as a site of knowledge and memory’’, and a procession of poets in the Giardini.
‘‘The 61st international art exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia intends neither a litany of commentary on world events, nor an inattention or escape from compounding and continuous intersecting crises,’’ said Rory Tsapayi. ‘‘Rather, it proposes a radical reconnection with art’s natural habitat and role in society, that is the emotional, the visual, the sensory, the effective, the subjective’’.
The 61st Venice Biennale will run from 9 May through 22 November 2026. It was set to be curated by Koyo Kouoh, who died on 10 May 2025.
The full list of artists and organisations in the 2026 Venice Biennale
Philip Aguirre y Otegui
Akinbode Akinbiyi
Fabrice Aragno
arms ache avid aeon: Nancy Brooks Brody, Joy Episalla, Zoe Leonard, Carrie Yamaoka, fierce pussy, Joey-Tang
Ranti Bam
Éric Baudelaire
Sabian Baumann
blaxTARLINES KUMASI
Beverly Buchanan
Nick Cave
Annalee Davis
BuBu de la Madeleine
Dawn DeDeaux
Denniston Hill
Bonnie Devine
Godfried Donkor
Marcel Duchamp
Edouard Duval-Carrié
rana elnemr
Rachel Fallon (with Alice Maher)
Sofía Galisá Muriente
Leonilda González
Linda Goode Bryant
Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige
Alexa Kumiko Hatanaka
Clarissa Herbst & Dominique Rust
Nicholas Hlobo
Alfredo Jaar
Mohammed Joha
Bodys Isek Kingelez
Marcia Kure
Natalia Lassalle-Morillo (in collaboration with Gloria Morillo)
Florence Lazar
Dan Lie
Werewere Liking
Daniel Lind-Ramos
Alice Maher
María Magdalena Campos-Pons & Kamaal Malak
Guadalupe Maravilla
Manuel Mathieu
Georgina Maxim
Tiona Nekkia McClodden
Avi Mograbi
Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute (NCAI)
Eustáquio Neves
Kaloki Nyamai
Temitayo Ogunbiyi
Kambui Olujimi
Hagar Ophir
Uriel Orlow
Ebony G. Patterson
Thania Petersen
Alan Phelan
Johannes Phokela
Mohammed Z. Rahman
RAW Material Company
Tabita Rezaire
Guadalupe Rosales
Yo-E Ryou
Rose Salane
Marigold Santos & Rajni Perera
Amina Saoudi Ait Khay
Carrie Schneider
Hala Schoukair
Berni Searle
Mmakgabo Mmampula Helen Sebidi
Wardha Shabbir
Yoshiko Shimada
Himali Singh Soin & David Soin Tappeser
Buhlebezwe Siwani
Vera Tamari
Tsai Ming-liang
Victoria-Idongesit Udondian
Celia Vásquez Yui
Kennedy Yanko
Raed Yassin
Sawangwongse Yawnghwe
Applied Arts Pavilion – Special Project of La Biennale di Venezia and Victoria and Albert Museum, London (Out of competition)
