[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2150950573.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tThe jury for the 2026 Venice Biennale, which awards the exhibition\u2019s top prizes, announced Thursday that it had resigned.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe news was posted to the Instagram account of the journal e-flux<\/em>, providing no reasoning for the decision. The statement, in full, reads: \u201cAs of 30 April 2026, we, the international jury selected by Koyo Kouoh, Artistic Director of the 61st edition of La Biennale di Venezia In Minor Keys<\/em>, have resigned. We do so in acknowledgment of our Statement of Intention issued on 22 April 2026.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe statement was signed by the five members: Solange Oliveira Farks (president), Zoe Butt, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Marta Kuzma, and Giovanna Zapperi. The jury was announced on by the Biennale on April 22, with a release saying that because of Kouoh\u2019s unexpected death in May 2025, the four-person board of the Biennale had selected the jury. <\/p>\n \n\tShortly after they were announced, the jury issued a lengthy statement, published by e-flux <\/em>on April 23, in which they said they would not consider national pavilions by any countries who are currently charged with crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court. That decision would directly impact the participation of Israel and Russia, whose inclusion had already drawn sharp criticism.<\/p>\n \n\tThe news comes as much of the international art world is getting ready to descend on La Serenissima this weekend, as the professional preview days start on Tuesday, May 5. It is unclear if the jury was asked to resign by the Biennale. <\/p>\n \n\tIn a statement sent to ARTnews<\/em> after the initial publication of this article, the Biennale said that the ceremony to award the Golden Lions, originally scheduled ahead of the exhibition\u2019s public opening on May 9, will now be pushed back to November 22, the final day of the Biennale. In its statement, the Biennale cited both the jury\u2019s resignation and \u201cthe exceptional nature of the current international geopolitical situation.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tAdditionally, the 2026 Biennale will not, in fact, award Golden Lions; instead, the public will vote on two \u201cVisitors\u2019 Lions\u201d to be awarded to \u201cthe Best Participant in the 61st Exhibition In Minor Keys<\/em> by Koyo Kouoh\u201d and \u201cthe Best National Participation in the 61st Exhibition,\u201d which are the two prizes normally awarded by the Biennale jury.<\/p>\n \n\tIn the April 23 statement, the jurors said that they have \u201ca responsibility towards the historical role of the Biennale as a platform that connects art to the urgencies of its time.\u201d In doing so, they set out \u201cour intention\u2014to express our commitment to the defense of human rights and to the spirit of Koyo Kouoh\u2019s curatorial project.\u201d <\/p>\n \n\tThe jury\u2019s statement itself was met with criticism. On X, Israel\u2019s foreign ministry called the decision \u201ca contamination of the art world\u201d that has turned this edition of the Biennale \u201cinto a spectacle of false, anti-Israeli political indoctrination.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tIn his own statement, Belu-Simion Fainaru, the artist representing Israel, said that the jury\u2019s statement \u201ccreates a hostile and degrading environment\u201d and has \u201cexceeded its mandate,\u201d putting Israel in an \u201cunequal position.\u201d<\/p>\n \n\tThe Biennale\u2019s organizers have sought to maintain the jury\u2019s independence, saying in a statement, \u201cWith regard to the statement issued today by the Jurors, this is a position that the members have chosen to anticipate and make public. It represents a natural expression of the freedom and autonomy which La Biennale guarantees.\u201d<\/p>\n Update, April 30, 2026, 1:05 p.m.:<\/strong>This article has been updated to include a statement from the Venice Biennale and the changes to the Golden Lions. <\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/venice-biennale-2026-jury-resigns-en-masse-1234783187\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2150950573.jpg?w=1024″] The jury for the 2026 Venice Biennale, which awards the exhibition\u2019s top prizes, announced Thursday that it had resigned. The news was posted to the Instagram account of the journal e-flux, providing no reasoning for the decision. The statement, in full, reads: \u201cAs of 30 April 2026, we, the international jury selected […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1911198","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1911198","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1911198"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1911198\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1911198"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1911198"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1911198"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}