Little is yet known about next year’s 61st Venice Biennale, which will run from April until November 2026, but that does nothing to dampen our excitement. Curator Koyo Kouoh, director of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town, has been named the first African woman to helm the biennial, and her chosen theme will likely only be announced this spring or summer. Will it be as divisive as Adriano Pedrosa’s “Foreigners Everywhere” was in 2024?
While we wait to find out, we have a drip feed of building anticipation thanks to the regular announcements rolling in about which artists will be representing their country at the art world Olympics. Denmark is the latest country to name its artist for the event: Maja Malou Lyse, whose practice uses popular contemporary formats like television and social media as well as IRL performances to explore the power dynamics that pervade daily life.
As always a new edition of the Biennale brings exciting changes as well as new controversies. So far, ahead of 2026, Qatar announced that it has secured a spot in the Giardini to build the first new pavilion there since South Korea’s in 1995. Australia, meanwhile, named artist Khaled Sabsabi as its Venice representative before dropping the artist just a week later, after his selection had became a political hot potato.
Here’s our regularly updated, up-to-the-minute list of all the national pavilions that have been announced so far.
Last updated on March 11
Denmark
Maja Malou Lyse, Antibodies (still). Image courtesy of the artist.
Artist: Maja Malou Lyse
Curator: To be announced
Venue: Giardini
What to know: Born in 1993, Maja Malou Lyse merges modern mediums like video, text, and performance with popular contemporary formats like television, billboards, and social media to explore the dynamics of desire and power that pervade our daily life. Though her practice deals predominantly with the digital realm, she has done in-person performances at the National Gallery of Denmark, Tate Modern in London, and Moderna Museet in Stockholm.
Austria
Florentina Holzinger. Photo: Elsa Okazaki, @elsaokazaki.
Artist: Florentina Holzinger
Curator: Nora-Swantje Almes
Venue: Giardini
What to know: Born in Vienna in 1986, Florentina Holzinger is known for performances that test the limits of what her audience can handle, in a practice that blends feminist body art with the tradition of Viennese Actionism. Last fall, it was reported that 18 audience members required medical treatment for nausea and shock after seeing her production Sancta, a remake of the blasphemous 1921 opera Sancta Susanna, at the Stuttgart Opera in Germany. The performance featured explicit and violent sex scenes, real injuries and blood, nail-biting stunts, and abundant nudity. Eek!
Canada
Abbas Akhavan. Photo: Alex de Brabant.
Artist: Abbas Akhavan
Curator: To be announced
Venue: Giardini
What to know: Born in Tehran in 1977, Abbas Akhavan emigrated to Canada with his family during conflict in the 1980s and now lives and works between Montreal and Berlin. Akhavan is interested in interrogating the history of place, and as such is known for site-specific installations that incorporate a wide variety of media like video, sculpture, drawing, and performance. No specific theme has yet been announced, but Akhavan is expected to respond directly to the Canada pavilion in Venice’s Giardini.
Estonia
Artist: Merike Estna
Curator: To be announced
Venue: To be announced
What to know: Born in 1980 and now based between Tallinn and Mexico City, Merike Estna’s practice expands traditional notions of painting by introducing once-marginalized craft elements. Not only is this a formal inquiry, but Estna impressed the selection jury for how her work, despite its vividly fantastical, mostly abstract appearance, invokes political and socially urgent themes. With an inherent theatricality that is never limited by the canvas, her works have also been used as stage sets for performance art pieces, featuring everyday items like food and drink with a surprising, arty twist.
Finland
Jenna Sutela and Stefanie Hessler. Photo: Matteo de Mayda.
Artist: Jenna Sutela
Curator: Stefanie Hessler
Venue: Giardini
What to know: Born in Turku in 1983 but now based in Berlin, Jenna Sutela’s varied practice incorporates scientific disciplines of all kinds, from biology to computation and astronomy to create unique sculptural installations. One of her best known works, Pond Brain (2023), is on display at Castello de Rivoli in Italy. At first glance the bronze bowl appears to be a fountain but visitors are invited to touch the work, turning into an instrument that harmonizes the deep reverberations of the water with an A.I. trained on polyphonic sounds from nature. The work debuted at the Helsinki Biennial in 2023.
France
Artist Yto Barrada in her installation, “Yto Barrada: Agadir” at The Curve Barbican Centre. Photo: by Tristan Fewings/Getty Images.
Artist: Yto Barrada
Curator: To be announced
Venue: Giardini
What to know: French-Moroccan artist Yto Barrada was born in Paris in 1971 but mostly grew up in Tangier, Morocco, a locale that has been the subject of her major photography series like “A Life Full of Holes” (1998), which studied the transitory existence of migrants attempting to flee to Europe, and Iris Tingitana Project (2007). She has worked in many mediums, but is best known for her abstract textiles and for her photography and film works, all of which become a means to address wider geopolitical issues like the climate crisis, immigration, and post-colonialism.
Great Britain
Lubaina Himid will represent Great Britain at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026. Photo: Adama Jalloh, courtesy of the British Council.
Artist: Lubaina Himid
Curator: To be announced
Venue: Giardini
What to know: Born in Zanzibar in 1954, Preston-based Himid moved to Britain with her mother as a baby and became a founding member of the Black British Art Movement in the 1980s. She is also a curator, best known for boosting the visibility of Black women artists with landmark shows like “Five Black Women” at the Africa Center in London in 1983 and “The Thin Black Line” at the ICA in London in 1985. Despite this pioneering work, high profile recognition of Himid has been belated, as was the case for many members of the Black British Art Movement. In 2017, she won the Turner Prize, becoming the oldest artist to do so at the age of 63, and, in 2018, she was honored with a CBE (Commander of the Order of the British Empire) for her contributions to the arts. International institutional acclaim has followed.
Hungary
Endre Koronczi. Photo courtesy of Luca Cserhalmi.
Artist: Endre Koronczi
Curator: Luca Cserhalmi
Venue: Giardini
What to know: Born in Budapest in 1968, concept artist Endre Kornoczi has worked predominantly with the natural medium of wind for the past decade and, while not much is yet revealed about his exhibition “Pneuma Cosmic” for Venice, it will continue with this theme. Among his previous installations, video works, and open air projects is Extreme Sleep (2006-2020), for which the artist blended the banal and absurd by attempting to sleep by sheer force of will in various spots of open wilderness, such as slumped against a bumpy rock in the sun.
Iceland
Munnhola, obol ombla obla by Ásta Fanney Sigurðardóttir. Performance film 29 min.Premiered at Sequences Festival, 2021. Courtesy of the artist and Iceland Pavilion
Artist: Ásta Fanney Sigurðardóttir
Curator: To be announced
Venue: Arsenale
What to know: Reykjavík-based Ásta Fanney Sigurðardóttir was born in 1987 and is recognized for her multidisciplinary practice that fuses visual art mediums ranging from drawings to sculptures with sound, text, and moving image, to pull us out of our present moment and welcome us into a beguiling spiritual dimension. She is also an award-winning poet who has published five books and does regular live performances of her work, blurring distinctions between literature, theatre, and visual art.
Ireland
Artist Isabel Nolan, curator Georgina Jackson, and producer Cian O’Brien at The Douglas Hyde Gallery of Contemporary Art, Dublin. Photo: Ste Murray.
Artist: Isabel Nolan
Curator: Georgina Jackson
Venue: Arsenale
What to know: Born in Dublin in 1974, Isabel Nolan has turned to the expanse of human history and the universe at large for inspiration in her art practice, counting among her references antiquities, literary figures, religious relics, and cosmological phenomena. She is no more limited by scale or medium either, with her output ranging from intimate, handmade objects or drawings to vast monumental structures. It is a busy time for the artist, who will also participate in the 13th Liverpool Biennial this summer.
Lithuania
Eglė Budvytytė, De sang chaud et de terre (Warm Blooded and Earthbound) (2024) © Eglė Budvytytė.
Artist: Eglé Budvytyté
Curator: Louise O’Kelly
Venue: To be announced
What to know: Born in Kaunas in 1982 and based between Vilnius and Amsterdam, Eglé Budvytyté uses various audio-visual media like video or radio to explore the blurry boundary between fiction and reality, creating scenarios that are partially staged and partially improvised. Much of her work is collaborative, and one recent film Warm Blooded and Earthbound, spotlights the sprawling landscapes of her native Lithuania.
Luxembourg
Artist: Aline Bouvy
Curator: Stilbé Schroeder
Venue: Arsenale
What to know: Born in Brussels in 1974, Aline Bouvy works between Luxembourg and Belgium and is known for her work in a mix of media. One particular focus of her practice is the embrace of the body as a medium through which we have sensory experiences, whether pleasurable or otherwise. What is the political status of the body in 2025? Are we more or less restricted than in the past? Bouvy’s presentation is likely to provoke these questions.
New Zealand
Fiona Pardington stands between two portraits from a series of life casts at the Royal Academy, London. Photo by Jonathan Brady/PA Images via Getty Images.
Artist: Fiona Pardington
Curator: To be announced
Venue: Arsenale
What to know: The New Zealand pavilion is back in 2026 after taking a hiatus in 2024, citing “inadequate” resources. Its comeback will be fronted by the artist Fiona Pardington, of Kāi Tahu, Kāti Mamoe, Ngāti Kahungunu, and Clan Cameron of Erracht, who was born in Devonport, Auckland in 1961. She works predominantly in photography, particularly still-life compositions, and has gained recent recognition for her sensitive studies of objects in museum collections.
Switzerland
Artists: Gianmaria Andreetta, Luca Beeler, Nina Wakeford, Miriam Laura Leonardi, Lithic Alliance and Yul Tomatala
Curator: N/A
Venue: Giardini
What to know: A group of six creative practitioners have teamed up to represent Switzerland at Venice in 2026, beating out 140 rivals in the country’s first open competition for the privilege. Fittingly for such a large group, their project The Unfinished Business of Living Together will explore the state of coexistence, and our human capacities and limitations when it comes to social cohesion and tolerance. The diverse group represent different generations and different language speaking regions of Switzerland.
Taiwan
Li Yi-fan. Photo courtesy the artist and Taipei Fine Arts Museum.
Artist: Li Yi-fan
Curator: To be announced
Venue: Palazzo delle Prigioni
What to know: The Taiwan 2025 exhibition has been an official collateral event of the Venice Biennale since 2003 after it lost its national pavilion status following protests from China. Born in 1989, Taipei-based Li Yan-fan works with digital media, often creating surreal and humorous narratives with the use of game engines that he develops. In 2023, he debuted the video What Is Your Favorite Primitive at the Taipei Biennial, a parody of a Big Tech keynote speech that skewered the ethical ambiguities of the industry.
This is a developing story and will be updated. More