The Expansion Of Borders Through Installations In African Art

This issue opens with the theme and the selected African artists for the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, which will open in May and run through November.

EDITORIAL

The Invited Artists At The Venice Biennale 2026

The 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia will open in May and run through November. Themed In Minor Keys, the exhibition expands upon the late Koyo Kouoh’s relational geography of encounters with artists over her lifetime.

Alioune Diagne, Bokk - Bounds, Installation view, Senegal Pavilion, La Biennale di Venezia, 2024. Image courtesy of Templon.

The Venice Biennale will feature 110 invited participants, among them, individual artists, collaborative duos, collectives, and artist-led organisations, from many different geographies and regions. Selected by Koyo Kouoh, who was nominated as the artistic director of La Biennale di Venezia’s visual arts department in November 2024, and paying particular attention to resonances, affinity, and possible convergences between practices, these artists are from Dakar, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa, Cameroon, Côte d’Ivoire, and so on.

The selected artists are: Akinbode Akinbiyi, Kader Attia, Seyni Awa Camara, Nolan Oswald Dennis, Godfried Donkor, Adebunmi Gbadebo, Wangechi Mutu, Otobong Nkanga, Kaloki Nyamai, Temitayo Ogunbiyi, Kambui Olujimi, Thania Petersen, Johannes Phokela, Issa Samb, Berni Searle, Mmakgabo Mmapula Helen Sebidi, Billie Zangewa, Victoria-Idongesit Udondian, Buhlebezwe Siwani, Ranti Bam, and Sammy Baloji.

Koyo Kouoh at the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town, South Africa, in 2023. Image courtesy of Hyperallergic.