16+ exhibitions to see during the 2026 Venice Biennale

As the 61st Venice Biennale returns from May to November 2026, the city will see a network of exhibitions staged across historic palazzi, museums, and foundations, extending far beyond the central exhibition and national pavilions. Alongside major presentations by artists such as Anish Kapoor and Marina Abramović, Lee Ufan will present a significant survey of his practice, while new work by Amoako Boafo responds to Venetian history and architecture. A dialogue between Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince examines American visual culture, and Gabrielle Goliath presents an independent project following the cancellation of her national pavilion. This is our guide to the must-see exhibitions to in Venice during the 2026 Biennale.

Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince: Helter Skelter

Arthur Jafa, Mickey Mouse was a Scorpio, 2017 (detail). Private collection © Arthur Jafa / Midnight Robber © Photo: Ian Watts.TV. Richard Prince, Graduation, 2018. Collection of Larry Gagosian © Richard Prince

#FLODown: Curated by Nancy Spector, Helter Skelter brings together a creative dialogue between two prominent American artists, Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince. The exhibition examines how Jafa and Prince appropriate and manipulate images from popular culture, film, comic books, social media, music, and celebrity memorabilia to expose and reflect on the complexities of American identity. Jafa’s work engages with the African American experience and Black artistic expression, while Prince critiques white masculinity and explores the undercurrents of the American psyche. The show features photographs, videos, sculptures, installations, and a collaboratively conceived zine, highlighting both their individual practices and shared obsessions.

Date: 9 May – 23 November 2026. Location: Fondazione Prada, Venice. fondazioneprada.org

Lee Ufan

Lee Ufan Relatum (formerly Iron Field), 1969/2019. Photo by Bill Jacobson Studio, New York. © Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/ADAGP, Paris. Courtesy Dia Art Foundation, New York

#FLODown: The Dia Art Foundation will present a major solo exhibition of work by Lee Ufan at SMAC Venice. Curated by Jessica Morgan, the exhibition will bring together paintings, large-scale installations, and a new site-specific commission developed in collaboration with the artist. Presented across eight galleries at the Procuratie in Piazza San Marco, the show highlights more than seven decades of Ufan’s practice, exploring space, time, gesture, and balance. The project coincides with the artist’s 90th birthday and will run alongside a parallel presentation of his work at Dia Beacon.

Date: 9 May – 30 August 2026. Location: SMAC Venice (San Marco Art Centre), Procuratie, Piazza San Marco. smacvenice.org

Gabrielle Goliath: Elegy

Gabrielle Goliath © Anthea Pokroy

#FLODown: In response to the controversial cancellation of the South African Pavilion, Gabrielle Goliath will present an independent exhibition of her long-term performance project Elegy at the Chiesa di Sant’Antonin in Castello, Venice. The work, realised with support from the Bertha Foundation and in partnership with Ibraaz, takes the form of a multi-channel video installation featuring three new suites of Elegy performances. Across eight monumental video screens, the piece mourns intertwined losses, from femicide in South Africa and the erasure of Ovaherero and Nama life-worlds in Namibia, to the killing of Palestinian civilians, including poet Heba Abunada. Through voice, song, and shared presence, the exhibition creates a space of collective reflection, care, and imagining a world otherwise. Click here to discover more.

Date: 5 May – 31 July 2026. Location: Chiesa di Sant’Antonin, Salizada S. Antonin, Castello, 3477, Venice. elegyinvenice.com

Amoako Boafo

Amoako Boafo in his studio, Accra, 2025. Artwork © Amoako Boafo. Photo: Nii Odzenma

#FLODown: Amoako Boafo’s first solo exhibition in Italy features a series of new works inspired by the architecture and historical context of Museo di Palazzo Grimani. Continuing his exploration of identity and style, the paintings are installed on the second floor of the palazzo, where they enter into dialogue with the surrounding Venetian artworks and interiors. Created specifically for the space, the exhibition highlights Boafo’s engagement with both place and representation. Presented in collaboration with Gagosian.

Date: 6 May – 22 November 2026. Location: Museo di Palazzo Grimani, Venice. museogrimani.cultura.gov.it

Anish Kapoor

At the Edge of the World II, 1998, Fibreglass and pigment, 3x8x8m, Photograph: David Stjernholm © Anish Kapoor. All rights reserved, 2026

#FLODown: Anish Kapoor will present a major exhibition at Palazzo Manfrin, bringing together around 100 architectural models, sculptures, and installations spanning the past 50 years of his practice. Many of the models relate to unrealised large-scale projects, offering insight into his experimental approach and the development of ideas beyond market-driven work. Set within the 16th-century palazzo, opening to the public for only the second time, the exhibition will explore Kapoor’s interest in sculpture as a means of creating space, featuring monumental installations, mirror works, and pigment pieces that challenge perception, scale, and material. The presentation will coincide with Kapoor’s exhibition opening at London’s Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre, in June. Click here for more.

Date: 6 May – 9 August 2026. Location: Palazzo Manfrin, Cannaregio, Venice.

Marina Abramović: Transforming Energy

The Artist is Present, 2010, Performance, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 3 months, © Marina Abramovic and Sean Kelly Gallery, NY. ©Marco Anelli, 2025

#FLODown: Marina Abramović will present Transforming Energy at the Gallerie dell’Accademia di Venezia, marking her first major exhibition at the institution and making her the first living woman artist to be honoured there. Curated by Shai Baitel in close collaboration with the artist, the exhibition will celebrate Abramović’s 80th birthday and explore her pioneering performance practice in dialogue with the museum’s Renaissance masterpieces. Taking over both the permanent collection galleries and temporary exhibition spaces, an unprecedented move for the institution, the presentation will situate her work within the broader context of Venetian cultural history.

Date: 6 May – 19 October 2026. Location: Gallerie dell’Accademia di Venezia, Venice, gallerieaccademia.it

Jenny Saville a Ca’ Pesaro

Jenny Saville, Byzantium, 2018 © Jenny Saville. Image credit Mike Bruce

#FLODown: The International Gallery of Modern Art at Ca’ Pesaro will host a major exhibition of Jenny Saville, presenting over 30 paintings and drawings that trace her career from the 1990s to the present. Curated by Elisabetta Barisoni with support from Gagosian, the show highlights Saville’s focus on the human body, portraiture, and the physicality of paint. Her monumental canvases engage directly with Venice’s artistic heritage, particularly the Venetian School, while also on show will be previously unseen cycle of works created specifically in homage to the city. The exhibition celebrates both Saville’s devotion to painting and Venice’s ongoing role as a centre of cultural innovation.

Date: 28 March – 22 November 2026. Location: Ca’ Pesaro–Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Moderna, Venice. capesaro.visitmuve.it

Amar Kanwar

Amar Kanwar, The Peacock’s Graveyard, 2023, Pinault Collection. Installation view Amar Kanwar. Co-travellers, 2026. Image credit Marco Cappelletti Studio © Palazzo Grassi, Pinault Collection

#FLODown: Palazzo Grassi is presenting an exhibition of Indian artist Amar Kanwar, curated by Jean-Marie Gallais, featuring two major multimedia installations. The Torn First Pages (2004–2008) explores political protest in Myanmar through archival materials and video, while The Peacock’s Graveyard (2023) meditates on death, impermanence, and human morality using text, abstract imagery, and music. The exhibition will coincide with Kanwar’s presentation at the Serpentine in London, opening in September 2026, offering a broader view of his poetic and politically engaged practice.

Date: 29 March 2026 – 10 January 2027. Location: Palazzo Grassi, Venice (Pinault Collection). pinaultcollection.com

Michael Armitage: The Promise of Change

Michael Armitage, 2022. Photo by Tom Jamieson

#FLODown: major solo exhibition of Kenyan-born painter Michael Armitage is on show at Palazzo Grassi, featuring large-format paintings and drawings from the past ten years. His works combine East African references with mythology and Western art history, addressing politics, migration, and sexuality through dense, vivid compositions. Across two levels of the palazzo, the exhibition offers a comprehensive overview of Armitage’s practice, interweaving personal memory, collective history, and symbolic imagination. Curated by Jean-Marie Gallais in collaboration with Hans-Ulrich Obrist, Caroline Bourgeois, and Michelle Mlati.

Date: 29 March 2026 – 10 January 2027. Location: Palazzo Grassi, Venice  (Pinault Collection). pinaultcollection.com

Georg Baselitz: Eroi d’Oro

Georg Baselitz, Die goldene Kittelschürze (detail), 2025. Oil and gold paint on canvas. 300 × 215 cm. © Georg Baselitz 2026. Photo: Stefan Altenberger

#FLODown: Eroi d’Oro, curated by Luca Massimo Barbero, presents Georg Baselitz’s most recent series of large-scale paintings on Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore. The works feature golden planes that create a flat, icon-like space, inhabited by sharply defined, spectral figures, including self-portraits and portraits of his wife, Elke. Baselitz applies diluted black paint with the fluidity of ink alongside thick, variegated brushstrokes, drawing on the gestural energy of Japanese calligraphy and the gilded backgrounds of the Northern Renaissance. This exhibition marks a new direction in his practice, where gold directly engages with the tradition of icon painting. Organised in partnership with Thaddaeus Ropac Gallery.

Date: 6 May – 27 September 2026. Location: Isola di San Giorgio Maggiore, Venice. cini.it

Kandis Williams, Meriem Bennani & Orian Barki, Tai Shani: If All Time Is Eternally Present

Tai Shani, My Bodily Remains, Your Bodily Remains and All the Bodily Remains that Ever Were and Ever Will Be, 2023–2026. Video, 15 min. © Tai Shani

#FLODown: The Pier Luigi Nervi Foundation in Venice will present If All Time Is Eternally Present, curated by Chiara Carrera and Marta Barina, featuring works by Kandis Williams, Meriem Bennani & Orian Barki, and Tai Shani. The exhibition transforms the façade of Palazzo Nervi Scattolin into a nocturnal urban canvas, staging a dialogue between moving image, architecture, and public space. By shifting the focus from passive consumption to active encounter, the works explore contemporary conditions through critical deconstruction, with video pieces including Williams’ A Travel Guide: Black Gothic in South Korean Horror, Bennani & Barki’s 2 Lizards, and Shani’s My Bodily Remains. Sponsored exclusively by Bottega Veneta. 

Date: 9 May – 7 June 2026. Location: Pier Luigi Nervi Foundation, Venice. pierluiginervi.org

Su Xiaobai’s Alchemical Universe

Portrait of the artist Su Xiaobai © Su Xiaobai Foundation, 2026. Courtesy of the Su Xiaobai Foundation

#FLODown: A major exhibition organised by the Su Xiaobai Foundation in collaboration with the Los Angeles County Museum of Art will present the works of Su Xiaobai at Palazzo Soranzo Van Axel. Curated by Stephen Little, Curator of Chinese Art and Head of the Chinese, Korean, and South and Southeast Asian Art Departments at LACMA, the exhibition, Su Xiaobai’s Alchemical Universe, brings together 35 paintings from 2003 to recent works, highlighting the artist’s distinctive use of natural lacquer to create meditative abstractions that bridge Chinese tradition and European modernism. A key focus is the Niao Niao series, which explores transience through subtle monochromatic tones inspired by classical ink painting.

Date: 9 May – 22 November 2026. Location:  Palazzo Soranzo Van Axel, Cannaregio 6099, Venice Price: Free admission. suxiaobai-foundation.org

Peggy Guggenheim in London: The Making of a Collector

Rita Kernn-Larsen (1904-1998), Self-Portrait (Know Thyself) (Selvportrat [Kend dig selvl), 1937. Oil on canvas, 40 x 45 cm; Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York, Purchased with funds contributed by Penny Borda, Lewis and Laura Kruger, and the Guggenheim Circle, 2013.

#FLODown: An exhibition exploring Peggy Guggenheim’s early years as a collector in the United Kingdom, will go on show at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice in April 2026. The show highlights her gallery Guggenheim Jeune (1938–1939) and features key works and archival material from this pivotal period, including pieces by Kandinsky, Mondrian, Barbara Hepworth, Eileen Agar, and Henry Moore, illustrating her role in championing avant-garde artists. Following Venice, the exhibition will travel to the Royal Academy of Arts in London in November 2026 and the Guggenheim Museum in New York in spring 2027.

Date: 25 April – 19 October 2026. Location: Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice. guggenheim-venice.it

Lydia Ourahmane: 5 Works

Image courtesy of Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation

#FLODown: 5 Works, a solo exhibition by Lydia Ourahmane at the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation, has been developed following a residency in Venice. The exhibition will bring together newly commissioned pieces created in collaboration with local craftspeople, organisations, and communities. Working across installation, sculpture, sound, and moving image, Ourahmane examines displacement, access, and the movement of people and objects, often extending the reach of her practice beyond the exhibition space. Combining found materials with site-specific processes, several works emerge from exchanges with local groups and historic sites, reflecting the social and political realities of Venice while rethinking how art is produced, experienced, and embedded in everyday life. Curated by Polly Staple.

Date: 5 May – 22 November 2026. Location: Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation, Venice. nf.foundation

Lorna Simpson: Third Person

Lorna Simpson, Tried by Fire (detail), 2017, courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Installation views, Lorna Simpson. Third Person, 2026, Punta della Dogana, Venezia. Ph. James Wang © Palazzo Grassi, Pinault Collection

#FLODown: Third Person by Lorna Simpson, on view at Punta della Dogana, presents the artist’s most significant European exhibition in over a decade. Curated by Emma Lavigne in partnership with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, the show brings together around fifty works, including paintings, collages, sculptures, and films, covering more than twenty years of Simpson’s practice. It addresses themes of memory, representation, and identity, featuring major series such as Ice, Special Characters, and Earth and Sky, alongside new works created for Venice, highlighting Simpson’s experimental use of collage and visual archives.

Date: 29 March – 22 November 2026. Location: Punta della Dogana, Venice (Pinault Collection). pinaultcollection.com

Erwin Wurm: Dreamers

Erwin Wurm, Dreamer, One Arm, 2024. Aluminium, acrylic paint. 36 7/32 x 58 9/32 x 36 5/8 inches. 92 x 148 x 93 cm. Image courtesy of Lehmann Maupin

#FLODown: Dreamers, a major solo exhibition by the Austrian sculptor Erwin Wurm at Museo Fortuny in Venice, showcases his long‑established practice of expanding the possibilities of sculpture. Known internationally for his One Minute Sculptures series, Wurm explores everyday objects in ways that challenge traditional notions of form and spectatorship. The exhibition brings together works that examine volume, absurdity, and the human body, from anthropomorphised objects to pieces reflecting on time, mass, and contemporary social pressures. Curated by Elisabetta Barisoni and Cristina Da Roit, the show demonstrates Wurm’s significant impact on contemporary art.

Date: 6 May – 22 November 2026. Location: Museo Fortuny, Venice. fortuny.visitmuve.it

Hernan Bas: The Visitors

Hernan Bas, The Romeo of last resort, 2025, Acrylic on linen, 127 x 101.6 cm, 50 x 40 in. © Hernan Bas. Courtesy the artist, Lehmann Maupin, Perrotin and Victoria Miro.

#FLODown: The Visitor by Herman Bas, curated by Elisabetta Barisoni and presented at Ca’ Pesaro – International Gallery of Modern Art, will present over 30 new paintings created specifically for the exhibition. Drawing inspiration from Venice and its complex relationship with tourism, Bas depicts visitors in both real and imagined scenarios, emphasising their detachment from the environments they traverse. Developed in part during a residency in the city, the works respond to the lagoon, its light, and its artistic heritage, while reflecting on the clichés and contradictions of contemporary travel. The exhibition is supported by Victoria Miro, Lehmann Maupin, and Perrotin.

Date: 7 May – 30 August 2026. Location: Ca’ Pesaro – International Gallery of Modern Art, Venice. visitmuve.it