Venice Jury Named

La Biennale di Venezia has named the five-member jury for Biennale Arte 2026, with Brazilian curator Solange Oliveira Farkas serving as president. (labiennale.org) The other jurors are Zoe Butt, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Marta Kuzma, and Giovanna Zapperi, according to the Biennale’s April 22 announcement. The awards ceremony is scheduled for May 9, the exhibition’s opening day. (labiennale.org) The jury will decide the official prizes for the 61st International Art Exhibition, including the Golden Lion for best national participation and the Golden Lion for the best participant in the international exhibition. La Biennale said the show will run from May 9 to November 22, 2026, with preview days on May 6, 7, and 8. (labiennale.org; labiennale.org) In Venice, those prizes can shape an artist’s market, museum profile, and place in the wider narrative of a given edition. ARTnews reported that the jury’s composition also helps frame the critical conversation around which practices and geographies get singled out during the exhibition. (artnews.com) This year’s edition already carries unusual weight because La Biennale is proceeding with *In Minor Keys*, the exhibition conceived by Koyo Kouoh, after her death on May 10, 2025. The institution says the 2026 show will be presented with the support of Kouoh’s family. (labiennale.org; labiennale.org) La Biennale announced in February that *In Minor Keys* will include 110 invited participants across the Giardini, the Arsenale, and other sites in Venice. That scale means the jury’s choices will land inside a large international field assembled under Kouoh’s curatorial premise. (labiennale.org; labiennale.org) The appointees bring a mix of exhibition-making, scholarship, and institution-building: Farkas founded Videobrasil; Butt works as a curator, writer, and educator in Thailand; Dyangani Ose is artistic director of the Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial; Kuzma teaches at Yale School of Art; and Zapperi is a professor at the University of Geneva. (labiennale.org) The result is that one of the art world’s most watched prize panels is now set ahead of the May opening in Venice. By May 9, this group will be the one deciding which artists and pavilions leave with the Lions. (labiennale.org; artnews.com)