A Data Analysis of the 2026 Venice Biennale Signals a Shift to the Present
Artnet’s data analysis of the 2026 Venice Biennale finds a shift back toward living, mid-career artists, with more than 90% of the main-exhibition participants still alive. The exhibition, titled “In Minor Keys,” was conceived by curator Koyo Kouoh and realized posthumously after her death in 2025 by a team of curators, and it includes 111 participants structured as 99 individuals, five duos, one collective, and six artist-led organizations (four based in Africa). Excluding organizations, the cohort includes 64 women, 48 men, and two artists using they/them pronouns, and it is presented as less expansive than Adriano Pedrosa’s 2024 edition, which had 331 artists. The analysis compares Kouoh’s lineup with those of Pedrosa (2024), Cecilia Alemani (2022), and Ralph Rugoff (2019), concluding Kouoh’s demographics more closely resemble Rugoff’s 2019 exhibition and show a roughly 50/50 split between artists born in the West and the Global South.
From This Briefing
This story was covered in Biennales in Flux, Institutions Under Pressure