Biennale jury named

La Biennale di Venezia has named the five-member international jury for the 61st International Art Exhibition, setting the panel that will award the show’s top prizes on May 9. (labiennale.org) Solange Oliveira Farkas will serve as jury president. The other jurors are Zoe Butt, Eugenio Viola, María Inés Rodríguez and Sabelo Mlangeni, according to the Biennale’s announcement published on April 22, 2026. (labiennale.org) The Biennale said the board approved the jury after a selection by curator Koyo Kouoh. Kouoh is organizing the 61st edition under the title *In Minor Keys*. (labiennale.org) The exhibition opens to the public in Venice on May 9 and runs through November 22, 2026. The pre-opening is scheduled for May 6, 7 and 8, with the awards ceremony and inauguration both set for May 9. (labiennale.org) This jury matters because the Biennale’s main prizes shape early reception for the international exhibition and the national pavilions shown across Venice. The 2026 edition will include 110 invited participants in Kouoh’s central exhibition, alongside 100 National Participations and 31 Collateral Events. (labiennale.org 1) (labiennale.org 2) The Biennale stages its art exhibition at the Giardini and the Arsenale, with additional projects elsewhere in the city. The Giardini also houses the long-established national pavilions, which the Biennale says have been built there since 1907. (labiennale.org 1) (labiennale.org 2) Farkas leads Associação Cultural Videobrasil, while Butt works as an independent curator and writer, Viola is chief curator at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá, Rodríguez directs the Institut Valencià d’Art Modern, and Mlangeni is a photographer and artist. Those backgrounds give the panel a mix of institutional, curatorial and artist perspectives. (labiennale.org) For artists and pavilion teams, the calendar is now fixed: the jurors are named, the pre-opening starts on May 6, and the first verdicts arrive on May 9 in Venice. (labiennale.org 1) (labiennale.org 2)