Like the rising sea levels that have periodically threatened to submerge this city, the 2026 Venice Biennale has experienced waves of uncertainty that have only grown in strength as the public opening of the world’s most prestigious international art exhibition nears on Saturday morning.
Its curator, Koyo Kouoh, died last year at age 57, within days after receiving a terminal diagnosis of liver cancer, leaving her team with a still-unfolding view of the exhibition she intended to build. And the 61st Biennale, featuring artists representing nearly 100 countries, is no longer a real competition; last week, the five-member prize jury resigned after backlash from its decision to exclude artists from countries whose leaders were being investigated by the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity, and after the artist representing Israel threatened legal action. (Instead, there will be popularity awards voted on by visitors).
The Venice Biennale Foundation, which oversees the exhibition, is also facing scrutiny from the Italian government and European Union because of its decision to allow Russia to participate in this year’s edition.
Here are five questions you might have about the Venice Biennale — and why this year’s edition has encountered so much controversy.
Who curated this year’s Venice Biennale?
In December 2024, the Venice Biennale Foundation announced that Kouoh would oversee the central exhibition for the 61st edition of the Biennale. She was born in Cameroon, spent her teenage years in Switzerland, and was the first African woman selected to organize the prestigious show.
In her original curatorial statement, which is titled “In Minor Keys,” she aid the show would not be “a litany of commentary on world events,” though it would not shy from politics.
“In refusing the spectacle of horror, the time has come to listen to the minor keys, to tune in sotto voce to the whispers, to the lower frequencies; to find the oases, the islands, where the dignity of all living beings is safeguarded,” Kouoh wrote.
After her sudden death in May 2025, the Biennale asked Kouoh’s collaborators to complete her vision. The team includes the curators Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo of Britain, Marie Hélène Pereira of Senegal and Rasha Salti, who is based in Berlin and Beirut. Her former assistant, Rory Tsapayi is also a core adviser, as is the journalist Siddhartha Mitter, a New York Times contributor, who is editor in chief of the catalog.
Kouoh was respected in the international art scene as a torchbearer for artists of color from Africa and elsewhere. Until her death, she lead Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, one the continent’s largest contemporary art institutions, and staged influential exhibitions like “When We See Us: A Century of Black Figuration in Painting,” which traveled internationally.
How faithful will the exhibition be to her vision?
Kouoh only had a few months to plan the centerpiece exhibition before her death, leaving an outline of the show for her colleagues to fill. The team behind the current exhibition declined interview requests; however, Salti previously told reporters that she and her colleagues had spent an “intense” week with Kouoh in Dakar, Senegal just before her death. It was there that they agreed on plans for the show, she said, including the artist list.
Several previous curators of the Biennale said that in their experience, it would not have been enough time to finalize the artist’s plans; they also pointed to the sizable fund-raising requirements of doing such a massive show in Venice, which usually falls on the curator.
“I was still in the research phase,” said Cecilia Alemani, the Italian curator who oversaw the 2022 Venice Biennale, adding that she hadn’t started contacting artists at that point.
Without a figurehead, the Biennale relied on Kouoh’s colleagues to finish the job.
Audiences will be looking for Kouoh’s fingerprints on the exhibition, asking if the final result feels more like a tribute or a true embodiment of her ideals.
How is Russia participating in this year’s Biennale?
Russia has not made a significant contribution to the Venice Biennale since 2019. The country’s pavilion was closed in 2022 after its invasion of Ukraine earlier that year, when two of its own artists pulled out in protest. And during the last edition, in 2024, the Russian government rented its pavilion to Bolivia.
Although there was no formal ban on Russia’s participation this year, few people expected to see a new exhibition from the country because of the ongoing war. Yet in March, when the Biennale announced this year’s national pavilions, which run alongside the central exhibition and are curated independently, Russia was on the list. It is presenting a group show of at least 38 artists and musicians, called “The Tree Is Rooted in the Sky” that will only open for the press preview, which runs Tuesday through Friday. The organizers said in a statement that the show “rejects any form of exclusion or censorship of culture and art.”
Ksenia Malykh, a curator for the Ukraine pavilion, told The New York Times that Russia’s return to Venice was the latest example of its use of art “as a weapon in the information war.”
Kirill Savchenkov, one of the Russian artists who withdrew from Venice in 2022, said in an email that his country reopening its pavilion was “unhinged” and “some sort of active measure to cause political division in Europe.”
In March, the European Union’s legislative body, the European Commission, said it would suspend more than $2.3 million in funding to the Venice Biennale if it didn’t reverse course, writing in a later statement that it was a decision “made in the name of protecting European values.” When the prize jury stepped down last week after saying it would not consider any countries whose leaders are facing charges of crimes against humanity at the International Criminal Court, it was indirectly pointing to Russia and Israel.
The Italian government has also expressed its opposition to the Biennale’s decision to host Russia, even sending inspectors to investigate if its participation was compatible with existing sanctions. While the Italian government provided funding to the event and appointed its president, Pietrangelo Buttafuoco, Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said that the Biennale is an autonomous organization that must make its own choices.
Many artists and curators involved in the Biennale have made their dissent known, and protests against Russia’s participation are expected.
Did the jury have other motivations for resigning?
The debate surrounding Russia’s participation in the Venice Biennale comes with long-running concerns by some artists and curators about the participation of other countries involved in global conflicts, including Israel and the United States.
At the last edition of the Venice Biennale, protesters marched by the pavilions of both countries and chanted “Viva, viva, Palestina!” But the Israel pavilion was already closed by then: Ruth Patir, the artist representing the country, had refused to open her exhibition, posting a sign on the window that the pavilion would remain shut until “a cease-fire and hostage release agreement is reached.”
This year, Israeli organizers expect to open their pavilion with an installation by the artist Belu-Simion Fainaru, who told The Times that he was happy the jury stepped down. “Their decision discriminated against me on a racial basis,” he said.
The jury’s resignation came as several activist groups have raised concerns about how countries use the soft power of cultural diplomacy to rebrand themselves in the public eye. Protesters with the group Art Not Genocide Alliance have focused attention on the plight of the Palestinians and have called for the exclusion of Israel from the Biennale. Dozens of artists and curators signed an open letter from the group, including many involved in other national pavilions and the main show.
Organizers are also expecting that activists will stage demonstrations about Russias invasion of Ukraine, Israel’s military campaign in the Gaza Strip and the American-Israel war with Iran.
What are the United States’ plans for the Biennale?
The United States had a rocky start to its selection process for Venice. State Department officials abandoned using an independent review panel, and several delays left officials scrambling to find an artist willing to represent the country.
Toward the end of last year, officials thought they had found a winning proposal by the artist Robert Lazzarini and the curator John Ravenal. But when the project’s fiscal sponsor dropped out, an appointee at the agency helped clear the way for a friend to take the lead.
That is how Jenni Parido became commissioner of the U.S. Pavilion, despite having no museum experience. For almost a decade, Parido had owned a pet food store in Tampa, Fl. with her husband. She also was involved in animal charities like Big Dog Ranch Rescue, which stages events at Mar-a-Lago and includes members of President Trump’s inner circle among its supporters. She founded the nonprofit American Arts Conservancy last year, which took over the artist selection process for the pavilion.
Parido has relied on the expertise of the curator Jeffrey Uslip, whose last major role at a museum ended about a decade ago when he stepped down from the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis.
Uslip had difficulty finding an artist to represent the United States. At least two rejected his offer. Then he found Alma Allen. He was an unusual pick: The artist lives in Mexico and creates large, abstract sculptures that have rarely been featured in American museums. Most artists who have represented the United States in previous Biennales have a longer institutional record.
Last month, a White House spokesman, Davis Ingle, said the administration was confident in its plans. “The Department of State is proud to showcase American excellence at the Venice Biennale through the artistic vision of Alma Allen,” he said. “The Trump administration delivered the selection of a talented self-taught American sculptor who personifies the greatness of the American dream.”
Neither the curator nor the commissioner ever visited Allen’s studio, which is unusual for the organizers of a major exhibition. The artist said that he had creative control over the sculptures included in the show, adding that the State Department has not censored his work.
Acknowledging the strange circumstances around his selection, Allen has said that his career was made on taking risks and that he hoped that people would view his work at the Venice Biennale with an open mind.
“As an artist you want people to view the work in an open way,” Allen said. “In this context, that’s a fantastic way. The people will try to decipher the meaning.”
Alex Marshall contributed reporting.
