Venice Biennale Jury Named
- The International Jury for the 61st Venice Biennale was announced, led by Solange Oliveira Farkas. (labiennale.org) - Jury members named include Zoe Butt, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Marta Kuzma, and Giovanna Zapperi. (labiennale.org) - The awards ceremony is scheduled for Saturday, May 9, as the Biennale finalizes its selection process. (labiennale.org)
La Biennale di Venezia has named the five-member jury that will decide the top prizes at the 61st International Art Exhibition, opening in May. (labiennale.org) Brazilian curator Solange Oliveira Farkas will serve as jury president. The other jurors are curator and writer Zoe Butt, curator Elvira Dyangani Ose, Yale School of Art professor Marta Kuzma, and University of Geneva professor Giovanna Zapperi. (labiennale.org) The awards ceremony and inauguration are scheduled for Saturday, May 9, 2026, after a three-day pre-opening on May 6, 7, and 8. The exhibition itself will run from May 9 to November 22 across the Giardini, the Arsenale, and other Venice sites. (labiennale.org) At the Venice Biennale, the international jury is the panel that assigns the exhibition’s main official prizes, including Golden Lions and Silver Lions. This year’s jury arrives as the 2026 edition moves from artist selection into final presentation and awards. (labiennale.org) The 2026 exhibition is titled *In Minor Keys* and is curated by Koyo Kouoh, who was appointed in November 2024 to lead the Biennale’s visual arts edition. La Biennale says the show will include 110 invited participants, including individual artists, duos, collectives, and artist-led organizations. (labiennale.org 1) (labiennale.org 2) Kouoh’s exhibition text frames “minor keys” as a way of listening and attending to smaller worlds, emotions, and political conditions that sit inside larger systems. That gives the jury a defined curatorial field to assess when prizes are handed out in May. (labiennale.org) Farkas brings more than four decades of curatorial work and led the Videobrasil Biennial as artistic director from 1983 to 2024, according to La Biennale. The institution’s announcement also highlights international work by the other jurors across museums, academia, criticism, and biennial-making. (labiennale.org 1) (labiennale.org 2) The next public marker is May 9, when the exhibition opens and the jury’s choices become the first official verdict on *In Minor Keys*. (labiennale.org)
