The world renowned Venice Biennale returns this year for the 61st edition, titled In Minor Keys, opening for previews on 5 May and running until 22 November. Find our unmissable highlights from the most anticipated art event of the year.

^{Image: Galleria dell'Accademia Venezia}

Marina Abramović: Transforming Energy at Gallerie dell'Accademia (6 May - 19 October)

Internationally renowned artist Marina Abramović will make history in 2026 as the first living female artist to be honored with a major exhibition at the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice. The exhibition marks the artist's 80th birthday and establishes a profound dialogue between her pioneering performance art and the Renaissance masterpieces that have shaped Venice's cultural identity.

^{Image: 2026 Fondazione Dries Van Noten}

Fondation Dries Van Noten

Housed in a 15th-century Venetian Gothic palazzo on the Grand Canal, Fondazione Dries Van Noten is the retired Belgian fashion designer's ambitious next chapter. A non-profit dedicated to craftsmanship in its broadest sense — spanning fashion, food, glass, music, and AI — it brings together established and emerging makers. The new space opens with an exhibition, The Only True Protest Is Beauty, presenting 200 works across 20 rooms.

^{Image: DSL Studio}

Anish Kapoor at Palazzo Manfrin (6 May - 8 August)

Anish Kapoor unveils an ambitious new exhibition at Palazzo Manfrin, a Venetian landmark in Cannaregio with layers of history dating back to the 16th century. The exhibition brings together large-scale installations and architectural models spanning the last 50 years, alongside a series of mirror and stainless-steel works.

^{Image: Matthew Wong Foundation}

Matthew Wong: Interiors at Palazzo Tiepolo Passi (6 May - 1 November)

This exhibition will feature approximately 35 rarely seen and never before-exhibited paintings and works on paper by Wong that explore interiors, both physical and psychological. The exhibition is the first to focus on this important theme in Wong’s body of work and will be accompanied by a scholarly catalogue published by the Foundation with a text by renowned art historian and curator Nancy Spector.

^{Image:  ©Marco Cappelletti}

Lorna Simpson: Third Person at Punta Della Dogana (29 March - 22 November)

The solo exhibition of Lorna Simpson represents the most significant presentation of her work in Europe in more than a decade, focusing on her painting practice. The Venetian iteration of Source Notes (Metropolitan Museum of Art) offers a renewed selection and brings together around fifty works – paintings, as well as collages, sculptures, installations, and film – drawn from the Pinault Collection, private collections, international institutions, and from the artist’s own archive.

^{Image: Marsilio Arte}

DRIFT: Shy Society at Palazzo Balbi (3 - 10 May)

For the Biennale's opening week, DRIFT presents Shy Society, a site-specific, kinetic light installation mounted above Venice’s Grand Canal. Installed on the façade of Palazzo Balbi between the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and the historic Ponte dell’Accademia, the work will be visible from the Accademia Bridge and by boat, transforming one of Venice’s most iconic waterways into an immersive stage for a continuously unfolding choreographed performance of light and movement.