{"id":1917919,"date":"2026-05-04T09:39:34","date_gmt":"2026-05-04T06:39:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1917919"},"modified":"2026-05-04T09:39:34","modified_gmt":"2026-05-04T06:39:34","slug":"shows-around-venice-not-to-miss-during-the-2026-biennale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1917919","title":{"rendered":"Shows Around Venice Not to Miss During the 2026 Biennale"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\tEvery two years, Venice is activated with more art than is possible to see in a week. While much attention this year will be on \u201cIn Minor Keys,\u201d the central show curated by the late Koyo Kouoh, as well as a slew of intriguing\u2014and controversial\u2014pavilions in the Arsenale and Giardini, Venice will also have on view a number of exhibitions elsewhere in the city that are worth checking out. Some will be held at the city\u2019s main art institutions, like the San Marco Art Centre and Gallerie dell\u2019Accademia, while others will be on view at the Venetian outposts of collector-founded venues, like the Fondazione Prada, the Pinault Collection, Berggruen Arts & Culture, and the Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo. Plus, other venues will be activated via official collateral events, or even a three-night-only performance at the Teatro Goldoni.<\/p>\n
\n\tWhat should you prioritize during a visit to Venice when time is precious and navigating La Serenissima itself can be a challenge? ARTnews<\/em> has you covered. Below, a look at some of the most interesting exhibitions to not miss around Venice.<\/p>\n
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Lee Ufan at SMAC Venice<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Photo Bill Jacobson Studio, New York\/\u00a9Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York\/ADAGP, Paris\/Courtesy Dia Art Foundation, New York\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\n\tThe San Marco Art Centre, or SMAC Venice for short, is host to a major survey of Lee Ufan\u2019s work, courtesy of the Dia Art Foundation in New York. Curated by Dia director Jessica Morgan, the exhibition will survey Lee\u2019s career and present around 20 works, both historical paintings and sculptures as well as new site-specific commissions across eight of the museum\u2019s galleries. \u201cDia has sustained a deep relationship with Lee Ufan for many years, and this presentation in Venice reflects that long-term commitment to bringing his work to our publics,\u201d Morgan previously told\u00a0ARTnews<\/em>.<\/p>\n
At Piazza San Marco 105; May 9\u2013November 22.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n
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\u201cHelter Skelter: Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince\u201d at Fondazione Prada<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: From left: Photo Ian Watts.TV\/\u00a9Arthur Jafa, Midnight Robber\/Private collection; \u00a9Richard Prince\/Collection of Larry Gagosian \t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\n\tFor its Biennale exhibition this time around, the Fondazione Prada has tapped Nancy Spector, who served as commissioner for the 2007 US Pavilion of Felix Gonzalez-Torres, to organize an exhibition. She chose the pairing of Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince, two artists born a decade apart who have more in common than one might initially think. <\/p>\n
\n\tPer an exhibition description, they \u201cshare an ethos of lawlessness when it comes to the appropriation and manipulation of images siphoned\u201d from mass media and popular culture. This sure-to-be-talked about exhibition will feature more than 50 works, from painting and sculpture to photography and video to installation, alongside a new work by each artist and a collaborative zine.<\/p>\n
At Ca\u2019 Corner della Regina, in Calle de Ca\u2019 Corner, Santa Croce 2215, Venice; May 9\u2013November 23.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n
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\u201cStrange Rules\u201d at Palazzo Diedo<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy the artist, Kiang Malingue and neugerriemschneider \t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\n\tHans Ulrich Orbist\u2019s Copson show isn\u2019t the only project he has cooking up timed to this year\u2019s Biennale. With the support of the Berggruen Arts & Culture, he has conceived of an exhibition, with artists and collaborators Mat Dryhurst and Holly Herndon, tilted \u201cStrange Rules.\u201d The exhibition is meant to be movement-defining, as it will introduce the concept of \u201cProtocol Art,\u201d or, as a press release puts it, \u201ca practice that engages with the underlying rules that dictate how culture is produced, distributed, and perceived in a digital age. These rules frequently manifest as algorithms, artificial intelligence models, computer protocols, platforms, and various technological infrastructures. Protocol Art does not simply use these tools; it exposes, analyses, and transforms them into artistic material itself.\u201d The artist list includes a who\u2019s who of artists working in these modes, such as Trevor Paglen, Ayoung Kim, Agnieszka Kurant, Avery Singer, Simon Denny, Stephanie Dinkins, and Laurence Abu Hamdan, among others. \u00a0<\/p>\n
At Palazzo Diedo Berggruen Arts & Culture, Fondamenta Diedo, Cannaregio 2386, Venezia; May 4\u2013November 22<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n
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Minor Music at the End of the World<\/em> at Teatro Goldoni<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Fabian Calis; \t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\n\tFor three nights only this week (May 5\u20137), the Amsterdam-based Hartwig Art Foundation will present Minor Music at the End of the World<\/em>, a major stage performance by Saidiya Hartman and directed by Sarah Benson. Now traveling to the Teatro Goldoni in Venice after its premiere in Amsterdam, Minor Music at the End of the World<\/em> features performances by Andr\u00e9 Holland\u00a0and Okwui Okpokwasili, an Arthur Jafa film, and interventions by Precious Okoyomon and\u00a0Cameron Rowland. Structured in three movements, the work is based on Hartman\u2019s essay \u201cThe End of White Supremacy, An American Romance,\u201d which itself is influenced by W.E.B. Du Bois\u2019s 1918 short story \u201cThe Comet.\u201d A new text by Hartman, Dead River<\/em> (2025), also features in this iteration.<\/p>\n
At San Marco 4650\/b \u2013 30124 Venice<\/em>; May 5\u20137.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n
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Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo on Isola\u00a0di\u00a0San\u00a0Giacomo<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Courtesy Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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ARTnews <\/em>Top 200 Collector Patrizia Sandretto Re Rebaudengo will at last officially launch the Venice outpost for her foundation on the Isola di San Giacomo, about a 30-minute boat ride from the lagoon. At the 2024 Biennale, she commissioned a performance by Eun-Me Ahn to bless the island, which was once the site of a staging of Polish avant-garde theatre director Jerzy Grotowski\u2019s Apocalypsis cum figuris<\/em>. Now, the island is officially ready for visitors. Up first is a Matt Copson solo exhibition, \u201cFanfare\/Lament,\u201d curated by Hans Ulrich Orbist, the artistic director of the Serpentine Galleries in London; \u201cDon\u2019t have hope, be hope!\u201d which draws from the Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Collection; and a slideshow by Giovanna Silva and Antonio Fortungo, documenting the four-year renovation of the island. They join a suite of outdoor art installations by Goshka Macuga, Pamela Rosenkranz, Claire Fontaine, Thomas Sch\u00fctte, Hugh Hayden, and Mario Garc\u00eda Torres.<\/p>\n
At Isola di San Giacomo; From May 7.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n
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Nalini Malani at Magazzini del Sale n. 5<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: \u00a9Nalini Malani\/Kiran Nadar Museum of Art\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\n\tAs an official collateral event, the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA) in New Delhi has commissioned Nalini Malani to make a new site-specific work for the Magazzini del Sale, a former salt warehouse. Curated by Roobina Karode, the KNMA\u2019s artistic director and chief curator, Of Woman Born<\/em> will look at the ancient Greek myth of Orestes, who kills his mother but is ultimately pardoned via a trial led by Athena. (The story has previously featured in Malani\u2019s work.) \u201cBut no myth is important unless it becomes contemporary. And this one is,\u201d Malani recently told ARTnews <\/em>of the Venice project. \u201cToday, we still see how women\u2019s lives are devalued, how violence continues, and how rarely women\u2019s voices are heard.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
At Magazzini del Sale n. 5, Fondamenta Zattere ai Saloni, Dorsoduro 262; May 9\u2013November 22.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n
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\u201cIf All Time Is Eternally Present\u201d at Pier Luigi Nievi Foundation<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: \u00a9Tai Shani\/Courtesy the artist\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\n\tThe Pier Luigi Nervi Foundation was established in 2008 to preserve the legacy of its namesake architect and engineer who was best known for his use of reinforced concrete. Now, the foundation is launching \u201cBuilding Dialogue,\u201d a new curatorial program that will bring together artists to interpret Nervi\u2019s architecture through a contemporary lens. The first of these is \u201cIf All Time Is Eternally Present,\u201d which will present projections on the fa\u00e7ade of Palazzo Nervi Scattolin every evening for the next month. Curated by Chiara Carrera and Marta Barina, the exhibition \u201cdelineates a geography in which Venice is an allegory of both local and global conditions, where historical memories and present-day frictions intersect in relation to New York, Rabat, London, Berlin, and Baltimore,\u201d according to a description. It features Kandis Williams\u2019s A Travel Guide: Black Gothic in South Korean Horror<\/em>\u00a0(2025), Meriem Bennani & Orian Barki\u2019s 2 Lizards<\/em>\u00a0(2020), and Tai Shani\u2019s My Bodily Remains, Your Bodily Remains and All the Bodily Remains that Ever Were and Ever Will Be<\/em>\u00a0(2023\u201325).<\/p>\n
At Palazzo Nervi Scattolin, Campo Manin, Venice; May 6\u2013June 7, beginning at 8:30 p.m<\/em>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n
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Iv\u00e1n Tovar at Ex Istituto Idrografico\u00a0\u2014 Museo Storico Navale<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: \u00a9Fundaci\u00f3n Iv\u00e1n Tovar; Rizek Guerrero Family Collection \t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\n\tBorn in the Dominican Republic in 1942, Iv\u00e1n Tovar first began embracing the Surrealistic tendencies his art would become famous for when he arrived in Paris in the 1960s. His work last showed in Venice in 1972, as part of the 31st Biennale. Now, more than 50 years later, his foundation, established in 2022, two years after his death, is staging \u201cLe Retour\u201d (The Return) at the Ex Istituto Idrografico, as an official collateral event to the 2026 Biennale. Curated by\u00a0Christian Viveros-Faun\u00e9 and accompanied by a monograph, the exhibition aims to position \u201c the artist\u2019s transatlantic trajectory\u2014formative years in the Dominican Republic, two decades working in Paris, and an eventual return home\u2014as central to the global history of Surrealism,\u201d according to a release.<\/p>\n
At Castello 2148, 30122 Venezia; May 9\u2013November 22.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n
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Paulo Nazareth at Punta della Dogana<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Jacopo Salvi\/\u00a9Palazzo Grassi, Pinault Collection\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\n\tThe Pinault Collection\u2019s two venues, the Palazzo Grassi and the Punta della Dogana, sit on opposite sides of the Grand Canal from each other. If you time the Vaporetto correctly, Google Maps says it\u2019s only a 15-minute journey from one to the other. This year, each venue will play host to two exhibitions a piece: Michael Armitage and Amar Kanwar at Palazzo Grassi and Paulo Nazareth and Lorna Simpson at Punta della Dogana. If you\u2019re short on time, the Nazareth exhibition will likely be the most intriguing, as it will display a number of previously unseen works that belong to the Pinault Collection. Curated by Fernanda Brenner, the exhibition\u2019s title, \u201cAlgebra,\u201d refers to the meaning of its Arabic root word, al-jabr<\/em>, \u201cthe setting of broken bones, evoking algebra\u2019s essence as the art of solving for unknowns and mending what has been fractured,\u201d which Nazareth sees as a way to attend \u201cto history\u2019s unhealed fractures,\u201d per a description.<\/p>\n
At Punta della Dogana, Dorsoduro 2, Venice<\/em>; through November 22.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n
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Marina Abramovi\u0107 at Gallerie dell\u2019Accademia di Venezia<\/h2>\n\n\t\t\t\t\tImage Credit: Reto Guntli\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
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\n\tAfter first appearing at the Modern Art Museum Shanghai, Marina Abramovi\u0107\u2019s survey, \u201cTransforming Energy\u201d will travel to Venice\u2019s Gallerie dell\u2019Accademia, where the artist will be the first living woman to have a major exhibition at the storied museum. The exhibition brings together some of Abramovi\u0107\u2019s most well-known works like Imponderabilia<\/em>\u00a0(1977), Rhythm 0\u00a0<\/em>(1974), Light\/Dark\u00a0<\/em>(1977), and Carrying the Skeleton<\/em>\u00a0(2008), alongside earlier performances and new work. This presentation will also have special resonance as the 1983 work Piet\u00e0 (with Ulay)<\/em>\u2014in which Abramovi\u0107 takes on the role of the Virgin Mary holding Ulay, her former, longtime collaborator, as Jesus\u2014will be hung near Titian\u2019s Piet\u00e0<\/em>\u00a0(ca. 1575\u201376), the Renaissance master\u2019s final, unfinished piece, which is marking its 450th anniversary this year.<\/p>\n
At Campo della Carit\u00e0, Dorsoduro 1050, 30123 Venice; May 6\u2013October 19.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/14.-Trevor-Paglen-Voyager-2026.-Photo-by-Trevor-Paglen-Courtesy-of-Trevor-Paglen.jpg?w=1024″] Every two years, Venice is activated with more art than is possible to see in a week. While much attention this year will be on \u201cIn Minor Keys,\u201d the central show curated by the late Koyo Kouoh, as well as a slew of intriguing\u2014and controversial\u2014pavilions in the Arsenale and Giardini, Venice will […]<\/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-1917919","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\/1917919","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=1917919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1917919\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1917919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1917919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1917919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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