Artists flagged for Venice

Art Collector Magazine’s Venice Biennale preview has put Wallace Chan and Barry X Ball among seven shows to watch as the 2026 edition opens in Venice next month. (artcollector.net.au) The magazine’s piece, published April 13, says the seven picks span national pavilions, collateral events and independent projects tied to the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. The Biennale itself runs from May 9 to November 22, 2026, with preview days on May 6, 7 and 8. (artcollector.net.au) (labiennale.org) Chan’s project, “Vessels of Other Worlds,” opens in Venice on May 8 at the Chapel of Santa Maria della Pietà and then opens a parallel show at the Long Museum in Shanghai on July 18. A 2025 press release says the exhibition is curated by James Putnam and centers on a new body of monumental titanium sculpture. (fitzandco.com) (artomity.art) The Venice presentation includes three titanium sculptures inspired by the Olea Sancta, the three sacred oils used in Catholic blessing rituals, with a video triptych linking the Venice and Shanghai sites. The Shanghai works are listed at seven, eight and ten meters high in the exhibition materials. (fitzandco.com) Barry X Ball’s Venice exhibition, “The Shape of Time,” runs from May 9 to November 22 at the Basilica of San Giorgio Maggiore. My Art Guides says the show brings together 23 sculptures, most of them being shown publicly for the first time, under curator Bob Nickas. (myartguides.com) (barryxball.com) That places both artists in the wider orbit of Biennale-week attention, where official exhibitions, collateral events and independent shows compete for the same collectors, curators and museum visitors moving through Venice in May. La Biennale says the 2026 edition includes 99 National Participations and 31 Collateral Events. (labiennale.org) The 2026 exhibition carries the title “In Minor Keys” and was conceived by curator Koyo Kouoh. La Biennale says it is proceeding with the project as she defined it, with the support of her family. (labiennale.org) Art Collector’s preview frames that larger field as geographically spread across churches, palazzos and other venues beyond the Giardini and the Arsenale. In that map of Venice, Chan’s chapel installation and Ball’s basilica survey sit inside the same seasonal rush for attention, even though neither is the central exhibition itself. (artcollector.net.au) (myartguides.com) (fitzandco.com) For visitors arriving in early May, that means the Biennale’s public opening will also serve as the launch window for a slate of adjacent shows that can shape market and museum conversations before the 2026 edition settles into its six-month run. (labiennale.org) (artcollector.net.au)