Lubaina Himid will represent Great Britain at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026, the British Council has announced. Born in Zanzibar in 1954, Himid moved to the UK when she was a few months old. In her work she makes use of storytelling practices and historical research to challenge dominant Eurocentric narratives, exploring themes of race, cultural memory and identity. Trained in theatre design, she often combines painting with sound and sculptural installation as a means of enacting social critique, working with a diversity of materials, narratives and formats.
A pioneer of the Black British Art Movement, Himid curated significant exhibitions in the 1980s and 1990s including Five Black Women at the Africa Centre in 1983, and The Thin Black Line at the Institute of Contemporary Arts in 1985, both of which focused on the work of Black female artists. Himid was awarded the Turner Prize in 2017, and is currently Emeritus Professor of Contemporary Art at the University of Central Lancashire.
‘I laughed out loud with both disbelief and pleasure when I found out about this wonderful invitation to represent Britain at the Venice Biennale in 2026,’ Himid stated. ‘It is such a great honour and at the same time a brilliant and exciting opportunity to make something particularly special, which resonates with multiple audiences, communicates with complex histories and looks to a more collaborative future.’
