Venice Biennale 2026 Guide: In Minor Keys at the Worlds Biggest Art Event

The 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia as a lesson in attention. Under the curatorial project “In Minor Keys” by the late Koyo Kouoh, the exhibition asks visitors to slow down and engage art with their senses, to listen to the artists as oracles for a future in which intuition will reign alongside the chaotic reality of our times. Instead of the usual sprint from spectacle to spectacle, the exhibition unfolds like a musical score, a jazz improvisation across the Giardini, the Arsenale, and satellite venues from 9 May to 22 November 2026 (previews 6–8 May).

The curatorial team of Biennale Arte 2026 standing on stage in front of a large screen, while an audience photographs them with their phones. Photo by Andrea Avezz, courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia.

Biennale Arte 2026. Photo by Andrea Avezzù.

In Minor Keys: Curatorial Framework of Venice Biennale 2026

Kouoh’s legacy sets the tone. A Cameroonian‑Swiss curator and institution‑builder (RAW Material Company, Dakar; Zeitz MOCAA, Cape Town), she shaped exhibitions around Pan‑African and diasporic narratives and pedagogy. Biennale Arte 2026 is realised according to her proposal and by the professional team she selected, keeping faith with a curatorial methodology grounded in listening and polyphony. Visitors can expect rooms that braid sound, performance, moving image, painting, sculpture, and social practice, with time treated as a material: works of art that ask to be revisited rather than consumed at speed.

Curator Koyo Kouoh standing with folded arms in a blue dress and gold necklace, in front of a grey wall with climbing branches.

Koyo Kouoh. Photo by Emeka Okereke.

What’s New at Venice Biennale 2026: Why “In Minor Keys” Matters

In a season of constant alerts with climate headlines, algorithmic noise, brittle politics, “In Minor Keys” offers a counter‑practice: quiet attention as civic muscle. Rather than amplifying urgency until it blurs, the exhibition proposes ways to make meaning under pressure: tending care ecologies, treating islands and gardens as interdependent systems; practising listening through choirs, radios and quiet rooms; building schools and networks as artworks in themselves; and rewriting archives so broken lineages can be repaired. The stakes aren’t smaller, and the forms result more durable.

Presentation of Biennale Arte 2026 In Minor Keys in a grand hall, with a speaker at a podium and a large screen showing the exhibition dates in front of a seated audience. Photo by Andrea Avezz, courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia.

Biennale Arte 2026 “In Minor Keys” presentation. Photo by Andrea Avezzù. Courtesy of La Biennale di Venezia.

Beyond the Biennale: Foundations and Art Galleries in Venice

As national pavilion are now starting to reveal their representative for the 2026 edition, the rest of Venetian Lagoon amplifies this mood. A set of galleries and foundations across the city can be read through the Creole Garden metaphor: small plots, distinct soils, connected by water and breeze. The venues below cultivate a specific micro‑climate of practice and attention, and each sit naturally beside “In Minor Keys”.

Beatrice Burati Anderson - Art Space & Gallery (San Polo)

Near the canal in Corte Petriana, this gallery invites the city’s elements indoors: the sight of water just outside, a breeze that slips through, and a sand‑covered floor that absorbs sound and remaps time. Exhibitions are characteristically site‑responsive: drawing, sculpture, sound, and performance tuned to the room’s acoustics and textures so that material becomes memory and attention becomes method.

Programme and information: Beatrice Burati Anderson gallery

Sibilla, a turquoise glass sculpture by Tristano di Robilant for Venice Works, shown against a plain light background.

Tristano di Robilant, Sibilla. Courtesy of Venice Works.

A plus A Gallery & School for Curatorial Studies Venice (San Marco)

The gallery intertwines art exhibition programming with the School for Curatorial Studies Venice, using exhibitions as pedagogical engines. Projects are typically co‑curated with the School, placing emerging artists from Venice and abroad in thoughtful conversation. A recent example is SLOW MANIFESTO (May–July 2025), a gallery–school exhibition that treated slowness as method and mapped desire, manipulation, and authenticity through installations, video, and performance; an approach that mirrors Biennale Arte 2026’s emphasis on schools, ensembles, and learning as a form. Details: A plus A gallery

Galleria Alberta Pane (Dorsoduro)

For Biennale Arte 2026, the gallery presents “The materiality of Judy Chicago”, a solo exhibition by Judy Chicago, curated by Allison Raddock, on view May–Nov 2026. The project foregrounds material processes as meaning, situating Chicago’s decades‑long enquiry into form and feminism within Venice’s slower, attentive cadence.

Details: Alberta Pane gallery

Artist Judy Chicago sits smiling with folded arms beside a black-and-white cat, in front of her work

Judy Chicago in her studio, 2024. Photo © Chicago Woodman LLC; Donald Woodman/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Pink smoke rising from floating lotus sculptures on a pond at sunset, with a contemporary glass and stone building in the background.

Judy Chicago, smoke and lotus installation from “The Materiality of Judy Chicago.” Courtesy of Galleria Alberta Pane / the artist.

Pinault Collection at Palazzo Grassi (San Marco)

For Biennale Arte 2026, Palazzo Grassi hosts two solo exhibitions in parallel: Michael Armitage (29 Mar 2026–10 Jan 2027) and Amar Kanwar (29 Mar 2026–10 Jan 2027), both curated by Jean‑Marie Gallais. Conceived as a double narrative within the palazzo’s enfilade, the curatorial concept sets up a quiet dialogue between painting and moving image: Armitage’s Kenyan‑made paintings on lubugo, where folklore, news imagery and personal memory overlap, converse with Kanwar’s film installations and text works that treat testimony, land, and justice as living archives. Together, the two shows explore how images circulate, how stories are carried by materials and voices, and how attention produces political clarity, echoing the minor‑key ethos of 2026.

Programme and tickets: Pinault Collection at Palazzo Grassi

Mare Karina (Castello)

A hybrid gallery/studio/incubator with European roots and a Venetian address, Mare Karina privileges project rooms, cross‑industry collaborations, and artist development. It is a place to see ideas mid‑air with laboratory‑style presentations that echo the Biennale’s emphasis on support structures as part of the artwork.

Information: Mare Karina gallery

Joystick (San Polo)

An independent cultural space where art meets craft without hierarchy, ceramics, wood, drawing, sound, and where exhibitions often emerge from making together. The mood is a neighbourhood studio, and it models the commons‑building ethos at the heart of In Minor Keys.

Details: joystick.space

Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa (Galleria di Piazza San Marco & Giudecca)

Venice’s backbone for young artists, with ateliers and exhibition spaces that keep the city’s ecosystem grounded in production as much as presentation. Expect residency outcomes, archival conversations, and civic formats that trace how practice develops over time.

Information: Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa

terzospazio and zolforosso (Santa Croce & satellite locations)

zolforosso is an artist‑run constellation of spaces that moves between studio, publishing, and exhibition, staging small, quick shows and conversations that reset the day’s rhythm. terzospazio is their project space. The willingness to keep the door open to dialogue makes this network a model of curating a shared practice.

Instagram’s profiles: terzospazio and zolforosso

Installation view of Come raccogliere il fuoco che ci attraversa, with suspended nets, found objects, and a green padded form on the floor against a white gallery wall.

“Come raccogliere il fuoco che ci attraversa,” installation by Irene Mathila Alaimo, Nelle Gevers, and Gabriele Longega.

Biennale Arte 2026: Practical Information

For official exhibitions, schedules, tickets, and the confirmed lists of National Pavilions and Collateral Events, consult La Biennale di Venezia labiennale.org/en/art/2026. Additionally, get the latest updates on exhibition and events by subscribing to the newsletter. By choosing a lower register, Biennale Arte 2026 proposes a world stage where repair replaces shock, listening replaces noise, and ensembles outpace solo heroics.

This November 13–16, Paris Photo, the world’s foremost photography fair, returns to the heart of the French capital for its 28th edition. Now in its second year back at the historic Grand Palais—following three years at the GrandPalais Éphémère, the temporary venue used during renovations—the fair brings together galleries, publishers, and curators from across the globe, celebrating photography in its many forms, from its storied past to its evolving present.

Large Paris Photo 2024 banners hanging between the classical stone columns of a historic Parisian building, seen through slightly blurred branches with leaves and flowers in the foreground.

Banners announcing Paris Photo, 7–10 November 2024, displayed on the façade of a classical colonnaded building in Paris.

A Medium in Transition

It’s a strange moment for photography. The rise and rapid proliferation of AI-generated imagery has sparked fears within the industry, with some commentators even predicting the medium’s impending demise. Yet while these developments present undeniable challenges for photographers and the wider industry, photography remains an essential tool for storytelling, documentation, and provocation: capable of moving, informing, and challenging audiences in ways no other medium can. Paris Photo, the world’s foremost photography fair, demonstrates how the medium is adapting and evolving, highlighting the enduring power and relevance of the photographic image.

A Platform for Photography’s Evolution

Since its inception in 1997, Paris Photo has grown into a major event on the photography calendar. Paris itself boasts a photographic heritage like no other: central to photography’s invention and early development in the 19th century, and later a hub for 20th-century photographers—from Henri Cartier-Bresson and Robert Doisneau to ManRay and William Klein—its streets and studios have shaped generations of image-makers.

While fundamentally a fair, Paris Photo offers far more; it is a space for encounter, discovery, and reflection, drawing together galleries, publishers, artists, collectors, and enthusiasts from around the world.

Key Galleries and Exhibitors

This year, Paris Photo will host 224 exhibitors, including 183 galleries and 41 publishers from 33 countries. While established names like Pace (New York, London, Seoul), Fraenkel (San Francisco), and Thomas Zander (Cologne) return, it's refreshing to see newcomers from emerging markets such as Vadehra Art (New Delhi), Ayyam Gallery (Dubai), and Hafez Gallery (Jeddah). These galleries not only inject fresh perspectives but also highlight the growing prominence of the Middle East and South Asia in the global photography scene. This international presence is vital for moving beyond the traditionally Western-centric focus of photography, fostering dialogue with diverse global perspectives and practices.

Meanwhile, smaller Parisian galleries like Papillon and Poggi bring a sharper, more experimental edge to the fair, showcasing conceptually driven work that reflects the city’s evolving contemporary photography scene. For visitorsless familiar with Paris’s art world, these galleries provide a rare window into its current currents and emerging trends.

Scattered throughout the nave, the Prismes projects continue to offer large-scale propositions, while the curated Voices sector, now in its second edition, remains at the heart of the fair, spotlighting ambitious curatorial projects that explore relationships, kinship, and socio-political reflections within contemporary photography.

Wide view of the Paris Photo art fair inside a vast glass-roofed hall with green iron arches, showing rows of white exhibition booths filled with photographs and books, and crowds of visitors walking through the space.

Paris Photo fair inside the Grand Palais in Paris, with photography galleries, bookstands, and visitors gathered beneath the historic iron-and-glass roof.

From Masters to Emerging Voices

One of Paris Photo’s enduring strengths is its balance of history and innovation: iconic masters share space with contemporary and emerging artists, creating a dialogue between photography’s past, present, and future, a dynamic especially evident in 2025.

Lee Friedlander (Fraenkel Gallery), Lisette Model (Galerie Julian Sander), Man Ray (Bruce Silverstein Gallery), Bill Brandt (Atlas Gallery), Helen Levitt (Zander Galerie), and Helmut Newton (Hamiltons), are just a few of the masterswhose silver gelatin prints will be on display, offering insight into the foundations of modern photography and the lasting influence of these pioneering figures.

While their work will understandably attract much attention, visitors will also encounter a striking counterpoint incontemporary voices such as the ever-enigmatic Juergen Teller and the critically acclaimed Tania Franco Klein. Mexico-born Franco Klein is rapidly establishing herself as one of the most distinctive image-makers of her generation, with her cinematic, color-saturated photographs—often staged self-portraits set in liminal spaces like motels, highways, and domestic interiors—which explore themes of isolation, nostalgia, and the psychological weight of modern life. This has been a landmark year, with her first solo show in Paris, at Les Filles du Calvaire, inclusion in MoMA’s New Photography 2025: Lines of Belonging, and new representation by Yancey Richardson Gallery in New York.

Emerging photographers bring fresh energy and perspective to the fair. Marine Lanier (Espace Jörg Brockmann)works in a poetic register, folding landscape and narrative to explore identity and environment. Hungarian-born,Paris-based András Ladocsi (Galerie Obsession) produces intimate, often analog-leaning images that attend to bodies, movement, and tactility. Sylvie Bonnot (HANGAR) engages with landscape and materiality, most recently in her series Le Royaume des Moustiques, developed during a residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris. Meanwhile, Melissa Schriek (Hama Gallery) moves between staged and documentary modes, exploring bodies, urban life, and performative encounters with a formal sensitivity that complicates easy reading. And Melissa Schriek (Hama Gallery) pushes toward the surreal, weaving dreamlike narratives that blur intimacy and strangeness, subtly stretching the possibilities of contemporary photography.

Aerial view of a deep red tailings pond with white, cracked mineral deposits spreading upward in branching, vein-like patterns along the lower edge of the image.

Murrin Murrin Tailings Pond #1, Murrin Murrin Mine, Western Australia, Australia, 2025. © Edward Burtynsky. Courtesy of Flowers Gallery, London and Hong Kong.

Digital Sector: Photography in the Digital Age

The Digital sector returns for its third consecutive year, this time curated by Nina Roehrs, and feels more pertinent than ever amid the rapid rise of AI and other technological shifts. The 13 participating exhibitors, including Heft (NewYork), Nagel Draxler (Berlin, Cologne, Meseberg), and Office Impart (Berlin), present works that push the boundaries of the medium through augmented reality, blockchain, VR, and other hybrid forms.

At a moment when image-making is increasingly entangled with questions of authorship, authenticity, and appropriation, such experiments can be divisive. Full AI-generated images—often built on datasets scrapedwithout consent—have sparked heated debate within the photographic community. Yet many artists here seem to take a more nuanced path: using digital tools as extensions of photographic practice rather than wholesale replacements.

This balancing act is crucial. By integrating technology while maintaining dialogue with photography’s traditions, theseprojects suggest ways forward that embrace innovation without abandoning the medium’s history. With galleries likeRolf Art (Buenos Aires) and Anita Beckers (Frankfurt) expanding their main-sector participation with digital-specific works, the fair underscores not just photography’s adaptability, but also its resilience in the face of rapid technological change.

Emergence Sector: Rising Voices on the Global Scene

Located on the first floor of the Grand Palais, the Emergence sector showcases 20 projects by emerging artists, offering a window into photography’s next generation. This year highlights voices making bold statements across diverse international backgrounds. Bérangère Fromont (Bacqueville, Lille) presents intimate, psychologically charged portraits, Suwon Lee (Sorondo Projects, Barcelona) explores identity and memory through staged compositions, Mia Weiner (Homecoming, Amsterdam) investigates domesticity and displacement, Atong Atem (Mars Gallery, Amsterdam) merges performance and portraiture to probe visibility and representation, and Louis Porter (Chiquita Room, Barcelona) experiments with form and color to challenge photographic conventions.

Spanning regions from South Sudan to Mexico and Venezuela, the sector emphasizes photography as a global language. These projects navigate socially engaged work alongside experimental approaches, revealing fresh perspectives and new directions for the medium.

Book Sector: Contemporary Publishing in Photography

The Book sector remains a cornerstone of Paris Photo, with 41 publishers presenting the breadth of contemporary photography. From renowned names like Aperture and Mack to independents such as TBW Books (Oakland), known for championing underrepresented voices and experimental projects; RM (Mexico City/Barcelona), with its focus on Latin American photography, both emerging and established; and Witty Books (Turin), which brings a design-driven, often interdisciplinary approach. Together, they span monographs, artist books, anthologies, and more exploratory projects, offering a chance to encounter both established and unexpected voices. It’s also a space where books come alive through talks and signings with photographers, details of which are usually announced closer to the fair.

Woman with a short blonde wig and bright red lipstick standing on a crowded pebble beach, wearing a light blue bikini top held in place by black-gloved hands, with rocky cliffs, sunbathers, and a stone bridge over turquoise water in the background.

Curators: Shaping the Vision

The curatorial program at Paris Photo 2025 mirrors the shifting concerns and directions of the medium itself. The Elles × Paris Photo path, led by Devrim Bayar—who brings experience from KANAL, Center Pompidou (Brussels),and WIELS Contemporary Art Center—in partnership with the French Ministry of Culture, continues to address gender imbalance, with women now representing 38% of the artists featured, up from 20% in 2018.

The Voices sector, curated by Nadine Wietlisbach (Fotomuseum Winterthur) and Devika Singh (Courtauld, formerly Tate Modern), highlights international contemporary practices, foregrounding political, ecological, and personal dimensions while giving emerging and experimental artists space to shape the conversation.

Perhaps most intriguing is the returning Nina Roehrs, who oversees the Digital sector. Known for her pioneering work at Roehrs & Boetsch in Zurich—a gallery that championed digital-native art in its formative stages—Roehrs has long been interested in how artists use new technologies to reimagine visual culture. At a moment when questions of technology, authorship, and authenticity aremore pressing than ever, her curatorial vision is particularly important: she confronts these issues head-on, positioning digital practice as central to photography’s ongoing evolution.

Photography in Paris: Reflecting on the Past, Shaping the Future

Paris Photo 2025 promises to show that, contrary to the predictions of doomsayers, photography is as strong as ever; a medium still capable of surprising, challenging, and inspiring. Set against the grandeur of the Grand Palais—an architectural masterpiece built for the 1900 Exposition Universelle and long a symbol of Parisian cultural life—this edition underscores photography’s enduring relevance, offering visitors a glimpse of its rich history and evolving future, while reaffirming Paris’s role as a vital center for the photographic image.

Paris Photo 2025, the 28th edition, will take place from 13–16 November at the Grand Palais. Tickets and more information are available on the official website