Exhibitions in Venice
May 2026
May 2026 at a glance: 16 exhibitions opened, 0 closed, and 11 more were on view across the city.
Opened in May
Nigel Cooke: Bad Habits5 MayFondazione Querini Stampalia
British painter Nigel Cooke's first solo show in Italy, staged during the 2026 Biennale in the library's portego, transformed into an artist's studio.
Marina Abramović: Transforming Energy6 MayGallerie dell'Accademia
The first major show here by a living woman artist: Abramović's performance works, interactive Transitory Objects and new commissions set among Renaissance masterpieces.
Amoako Boafo6 MayMuseo di Palazzo Grimani
Ghanaian painter Amoako Boafo's first solo show in Italy: new finger-painted portraits in dialogue with Venetian portraiture, on the palazzo's second floor.
Erwin Wurm. Dreamers6 MayPalazzo Fortuny (Museo Fortuny)
First major Italian retrospective of Austrian sculptor Erwin Wurm: One Minute Sculptures, anthropomorphic objects and the body as sculpture, blending humour and philosophy.
In Minor Keys – 61st International Art Exhibition9 MayLa Biennale di Venezia (Giardini & Arsenale)
Koyo Kouoh's Biennale Arte 2026, completed by her team after her 2025 death: 110 artists across the Giardini, Arsenale and Venice, tuned to earth, life and quiet signals.
German Pavilion: Ruin – Henrike Naumann & Sung Tieu9 MayLa Biennale di Venezia (Giardini & Arsenale)
Henrike Naumann and Sung Tieu use vanished East German sites as blueprints; Tieu wraps the facade in a trompe-l'oeil mosaic of a ruined Berlin housing block.
Italian Pavilion: Con te con tutto – Chiara Camoni9 MayLa Biennale di Venezia (Giardini & Arsenale)
Chiara Camoni fills the Tese delle Vergini at the Arsenale with 24 life-sized sculptures woven from plants, flowers, plastics and debris, curated by Cecilia Canziani.
US Pavilion: Call Me the Breeze – Alma Allen9 MayLa Biennale di Venezia (Giardini & Arsenale)
Alma Allen's biomorphic sculptures in walnut burl, volcanic rock, Yule marble and bronze explore elevation and transformation of matter, in the Giardini's US Pavilion.
British Pavilion: Predicting History: Testing Translation – Lubaina Himid9 MayLa Biennale di Venezia (Giardini & Arsenale)
Lubaina Himid's large multi-panel paintings of architects, boatbuilders and tailors debating whether to move or stay probe belonging and making a home somewhere new.
French Pavilion: Comme Saturne – Yto Barrada9 MayLa Biennale di Venezia (Giardini & Arsenale)
Yto Barrada draws on the long history of textile work in a sequence of environments: suspended shapes, a Saturn room of folded wool, and stalling machines.
Japan Pavilion: Grass Babies, Moon Babies – Ei Arakawa-Nash9 MayLa Biennale di Venezia (Giardini & Arsenale)
For the pavilion's 70th anniversary, Ei Arakawa-Nash merges art and parenting: visitors carry one of 200 baby dolls through the gardens and Yoshizaka's building.
Venice Pavilion: Note Persistenti9 MayLa Biennale di Venezia (Giardini & Arsenale)
Curated by Giovanna Zabotti, a lagoon-inspired show with Dardust, Paolo Fantin, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov and Alberto Scodro, opening on a reflecting pool of underwater "notes".
Cosmotechnics: Ding Yi as a Planetary Code9 MayFondazione Querini Stampalia
Shanghai abstractionist Ding Yi shows new black-and-white paintings and stone steles from his Appearance of Crosses series, curated by Cramerotti and Scalera.
Helter Skelter: Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince9 MayFondazione Prada Venezia (Ca' Corner della Regina)
Nancy Spector curates 50+ works by Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince, two image scavengers who mine American pop culture. Includes explicit content.
The Tarbouche. When an Accessory Becomes a Symbol19 MayPalazzo Mocenigo – Museum of Textiles and Costume
Lebanese artist Mouna Rebeiz sets the tarboosh on monumental female nudes, using the traditional headgear to question femininity, beauty and the hidden meaning of accessories.
Alfred Eisenstaedt. La fotografia era nell'aria22 MayMuseo Storico Navale
A century through the lens of the Life photojournalist behind V-J Day in Times Square, from 1930s Europe to portraits of Einstein and Marilyn Monroe. Curated by Monica Poggi.
Was on view in May
Etruschi e Veneti. Acque, culti e santuarito 29 SeptPalazzo Ducale (Doge's Palace)
Water worship and sanctuaries of the Etruscans and ancient Veneti, from Tyrrhenian ports to healing springs and Adriatic sites, in the Doge's Apartment.
Tide of Returnsto 11 OctOcean Space (Chiesa di San Lorenzo) · Free
The Repatriates Collective fills the church with a sand dune of shell figures, ghost nets, video and sound on repatriation, Indigenous knowledge and the ocean.
Nature Speaks. Listening for Rights of Nature in Venice and Europeto 11 OctOcean Space (Chiesa di San Lorenzo) · Free
The Research Room becomes a Policy Lab on the Rights of Nature movement and the Venice Lagoon, with documentaries, activist props and research materials.
Peggy Guggenheim in London: The Making of a Collectorto 19 OctPeggy Guggenheim Collection
Peggy Guggenheim's formative UK years and her London gallery Guggenheim Jeune (1938-39), which gave Kandinsky his first London solo show.
Paulo Nazareth. Algebrato 22 NovPunta della Dogana
Brazilian artist Paulo Nazareth fills the former customs house with twenty years of work tracing colonial fractures, threaded by a line of salt outlining a ghost slave ship.
Lorna Simpson. Third Personto 22 NovPunta della Dogana
Lorna Simpson's largest European show in over a decade: about fifty paintings, collages, sculptures, installations and films on memory, representation and identity.
Jenny Saville a Ca' Pesaroto 22 NovCa' Pesaro – International Gallery of Modern Art
First major Venice show of British painter Jenny Saville: 30+ paintings and drawings from the 1990s to today, ending with new works made in homage to the city.
Spiral Economy. Charrière and Canovato 22 NovMuseo Correr
Julian Charrière's works in dialogue with Canova's marbles in the Canova Galleries, on stone, geological memory and deep time.
Bizhan Bassiri. Principe. Il Nottambulo del Pensiero Magmaticoto 22 NovMuseo Correr
Bizhan Bassiri's recent and emblematic works in the Sala delle Quattro Porte, with ninety images of artists from the 15th to 21st centuries in a suspended, stepped display.
Amar Kanwar. Co-travellersto 10 JanPalazzo Grassi
Two multimedia installations by Indian artist Amar Kanwar, The Torn First Pages and The Peacock's Graveyard: poetic, political meditations on justice, mortality and impermanence.
Michael Armitage. The Promise of Changeto 10 JanPalazzo Grassi
45 paintings and over 100 studies by the Kenyan-British painter, whose works on Ugandan bark cloth weave East African politics, violence, migration and dreamlike visions.
Stay in the loop on Venice
A short note now and then when something new opens worth your time.