New Pavilion Lineups
The Pavilion of Lebanon will present Nabil Nahas’s Don’t Get Me Wrong, curated by Nada Ghandour for the 61st Venice Biennale, and the UAE pavilion is promoting a listening-focused presentation described as an invitation to “listen closely.” (e-flux.com) (thenationalnews.com). Art-press previews also flagged work by artists such as Barry X Ball and Wallace Chan in wider Biennale coverage. (artcollector.net.au).
Lebanon and the United Arab Emirates have now outlined sharply different pitches for the 2026 Venice Biennale: one monumental painting installation, one sound-led group show. (e-flux.com) (nationalpavilionuae.org) The Pavilion of Lebanon will present Don’t Get Me Wrong, an exhibition by Nabil Nahas curated by Nada Ghandour, at the Arsenale from May 9 to November 22, 2026. E-flux and the pavilion site say the work spans 45 linear metres and is built from 26 acrylic-on-canvas panels, each 3 metres high. (e-flux.com) (lebanesepavilionvenice.com) (myartguides.com) The National Pavilion United Arab Emirates will present Washwasha, a six-artist exhibition curated by Bana Kattan with assistant curator Tala Nassar. The pavilion says the title means “whispering” in Arabic and that the show looks at contemporary soundscapes in the United Arab Emirates shaped by migration, transience, and long-term ties to the land. (nationalpavilionuae.org 1) (nationalpavilionuae.org 2) Those announcements land less than a month before the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia opens to the public on May 9, with preview days on May 6, 7, and 8. La Biennale says the 2026 edition, In Minor Keys, runs through November 22 across the Giardini, the Arsenale, and venues around Venice. (labiennale.org) (labiennale.vivaticket.it) The Biennale’s national pavilions are country-backed exhibitions that sit alongside the main international show, and they often use Venice to frame how a country wants its art scene read abroad. In 2026, the United Arab Emirates marks its ninth participation, while Lebanon is again using the Arsenale to stage a single-artist presentation. (nationalpavilionuae.org) (e-flux.com) The United Arab Emirates’ artist list points to a group format built around listening rather than a single signature object. The pavilion names Mays Albaik, Jawad Al Malhi, Farah Al Qasimi, Alaa Edris, Lamya Gargash, and Taus Makhacheva as the six participants. (nationalpavilionuae.org) (universes.art) Lebanon’s presentation is more concentrated around Nahas, a Beirut- and New York-linked painter whose pavilion materials describe the project as an immersive frieze inspired in part by Persian miniatures. The Lebanese pavilion site says Nahas moved to the United States in 1969, earned degrees from Louisiana State University and Yale University, and lives and works between New York and Beirut. (myartguides.com) (lebanesepavilionvenice.com) Wider Venice coverage is already treating these pavilion reveals as part of a broader citywide build-up that stretches beyond the official national entries. Art Collector’s preview also pointed readers to Barry X Ball’s The Shape of Time at the Basilica di San Giorgio Maggiore and Wallace Chan’s Venice-Shanghai project Vessels of Other Worlds opening at the Chapel of Santa Maria della Pietà on May 8. (artcollector.net.au) (myartguides.com) (forbes.com) By early May, Venice will have the full contrast in view: Lebanon asking visitors to face a single 45-metre image, and the United Arab Emirates asking them to listen for a chorus. (e-flux.com) (nationalpavilionuae.org)
