[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2243121687.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n
\n\tWhen the Venice Biennale first announced the artist list for Koyo Kouoh\u2019s main exhibition in February, the show included 111 participants. But when you visit the Biennale\u2019s website now, you\u2019ll find that Kouoh\u2019s exhibition, titled \u201cIn Minor Keys,\u201d now features 110 artists.<\/p>\n
ARTnews<\/em> can reveal that the artist who was struck from the list was Bodys Isek Kingelez, a Congolese artist known for his vast, colorful cardboard sculptures of opulent cities. Kingelez, who termed these works \u201cextreme maquettes,\u201d died in 2015, by which point he had already appeared in Okwui Enwezor\u2019s Documenta XI in 2002 and was celebrated widely.<\/p>\n \n\tDespite Kingelez appearing on that initial artist list, a Biennale spokesperson told ARTnews<\/em>, \u201cHis works initially considered for inclusion were ultimately no longer available.\u201d It isn\u2019t clear which works by him Kouoh\u2019s curatorial advisers had sought to include.<\/p>\n \n\tKingelez was to be one of the few dead artists in the exhibition, alongside figures such as Marcel Duchamp, Issa Samb, Pauline Oliveros, and Seyni Awa Camara.<\/p>\n \n\tHis works are held by institutions across the globe, from the Museum of Modern Art, which held a survey of his art in 2018, to the Tate museum network in London. One of Kingelez\u2019s expansive sculptures currently forms the centerpiece of a section about urban centers in \u201cNew Humans: Memories of the Future,\u201d a sprawling group exhibition currently on view at the New Museum in New York.<\/p>\n \n\t\u201cIn Minor Keys\u201d was realized posthumously following Kouoh\u2019s death in 2025. Five curatorial advisers that Kouoh had personally chosen\u2014Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, Marie H\u00e9l\u00e8ne Pereira and Rasha Salti, along with Siddartha Mitter and Rory Tsapayi\u2014helped see through her vision.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n [analyse_source url=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/art-news\/news\/venice-biennale-2026-lost-artist-bodys-isek-kingelez-1234784463\/”]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" [analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/GettyImages-2243121687.jpg?w=1024″] When the Venice Biennale first announced the artist list for Koyo Kouoh\u2019s main exhibition in February, the show included 111 participants. But when you visit the Biennale\u2019s website now, you\u2019ll find that Kouoh\u2019s exhibition, titled \u201cIn Minor Keys,\u201d now features 110 artists. ARTnews can reveal that the artist who was struck from […]<\/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-1923447","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\/1923447","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=1923447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1923447\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1923447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1923447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1923447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}