Venice Biennale preview
- The Venice Biennale named its international jury and set the Awards Ceremony for Saturday, May 9, 2026. - The jury will be led by Solange Oliveira Farkas, and the U.S. Pavilion has been described as unusually tense during prep. - Curatorial notes say Jeffrey Uslip called his process “the smoothest” in decades, while Haiti and Oman preview Venice-bound works locally and with material experiments ( ).
The Venice Biennale has set its 2026 awards for Saturday, May 9, as national pavilions race through their final weeks of preparation across Venice. (labiennale.org) La Biennale said on April 22 that Brazilian curator Solange Oliveira Farkas will chair the five-member international jury, joined by Zoe Butt, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Marta Kuzma, and Giovanna Zapperi. The 61st International Art Exhibition, titled *In Minor Keys*, runs from May 9 to November 22, with pre-opening days on May 6, 7, and 8. (labiennale.org, labiennale.org) The main exhibition was shaped by the late curator Koyo Kouoh, and La Biennale has said it will include 110 invited participants across the Giardini, the Arsenale, and other Venice sites. National pavilions are being announced separately by countries and commissioners, which is why the Biennale now reads as both one exhibition and dozens of parallel national shows. (labiennale.org, labiennale.org) That split is most visible in the United States, where the pavilion has become a story about process as much as art. The State Department said in November that the American Arts Conservancy would organize “Alma Allen: Call Me the Breeze,” with Jeffrey Uslip as curator, after a selection process that drew scrutiny in the art press and in the *New York Times*. (state.gov, artnews.com, nytimes.com) Uslip has pushed back on the idea that the show itself was chaotic. In an interview published April 23, he said, “This is the smoothest exhibition I’ve curated in 30 years,” even as broader questions persisted about delays, leadership, and political oversight around the U.S. pavilion. (yahoo.com, artnews.com) Elsewhere, countries are using the run-up to Venice to stage local previews. WLRN reported on April 23 that Haitian American artist Edouard Duval-Carrié is previewing work for Haiti in Miami’s Little Haiti after being selected to represent the country at the 61st Biennale. (wlrn.org) Oman is sending artist, architect, and curator Haitham Al Busafi, whose installation will combine sand, metal, and sound. *ArtAsiaPacific* said the work opens in Venice on May 9 and extends Oman’s continuing use of the Biennale to project a national cultural profile abroad. (artasiapacific.com, artasiapacific.com) The Biennale’s jury will decide the Golden Lions and other official prizes on opening weekend, but much of the attention before then is already fixed on how countries frame themselves before the doors open. By May 9, the art will be in place; the arguments around it are already underway. (labiennale.org, artnews.com)
