Manuel Mathieu debuts Venice Biennale

Manuel Mathieu’s first appearance at the 61st Venice Biennale has put the Haitian-Canadian artist in two of the exhibition’s main sites at once: the Arsenale and the Giardini. Observer, in a review published June 1, said Mathieu was one of the few participants showing in both venues and described the presentation as a meditation on how memory, grief and history recur across materials and spaces. La Biennale di Venezia’s official 2026 materials list Mathieu in Koyo Kouoh’s exhibition “In Minor Keys,” which opened to the public on May 9 and runs through November 22. ### Why does showing in both the Arsenale and the Giardini stand out? The Arsenale and the Giardini are the Biennale’s two core exhibition sites, and La Biennale says the 61st International Art Exhibition is staged across both venues as well as other locations in Venice. Observer said Mathieu is among the few artists in this year’s exhibition with work in both the Arsenale and the Giardini, giving his debut an unusually broad physical footprint. (observer.com) The official artist page for Mathieu says his practice spans painting, ceramics, mosaic, film and scent. That range helps explain how the work can operate across multiple rooms and formats rather than as a single isolated installation. ### What is Mathieu showing in Venice? La Biennale says Mathieu’s work begins from fractures in time and draws on Haiti’s artistic, literary, musical and spiritual legacy as well as the country’s contemporary challenges. (observer.com) The official description says painting anchors the practice, while ceramics, mosaic, film and scent extend its material vocabulary. (labiennale.org) Observer’s review gives a more site-specific account. It described a low-lit Arsenale space marked by the smell of Haitian vetiver and linked the work to questions about being trapped in historical loops and whether art can interrupt them. The review also said the Giardini presentation extends those concerns through layered canvases and installations shaped by memory and loss. (labiennale.org) ### How does this fit Koyo Kouoh’s Biennale? Koyo Kouoh, the late curator of the 61st edition, gave the exhibition the title “In Minor Keys.” La Biennale says it proceeded with Kouoh’s exhibition with the support of her family, and the official homepage describes the show as running from May 9 to November 22, 2026. Observer said Mathieu was invited by Kouoh and wrote that his work sits closely within her curatorial frame. (observer.com) The review characterized “In Minor Keys” as favoring quieter forms of resistance over grand declaration, an approach it said matched Mathieu’s use of layered surfaces, sensory cues and historical references. (labiennale.org) ### What themes are attached to Mathieu’s work? La Biennale’s artist note says marked boxes in Mathieu’s mixed-media canvases become stand-ins for corporeality and probe the body’s perimeter and relational field. It also places his work in an inquiry shaped by Haitian history and present-day pressures. Observer framed those concerns in more emotional terms, writing that the Venice presentation asks how the past is carried forward and how grief persists rather than resolves. (observer.com) That reading is the basis for much of the early attention around the debut, but it is attributed to the review rather than stated by La Biennale itself. (labiennale.org) ### When can visitors see it? Biennale Arte 2026 opened to the public on Saturday, May 9, after preview days on May 6, 7 and 8, according to La Biennale and the exhibition ticketing page. The exhibition runs through Sunday, November 22, 2026, in the Giardini, the Arsenale and other sites across Venice. Mathieu’s work remains part of that exhibition schedule at both main venues. (labiennale.org) (observer.com)