The jury of the 61st International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, scheduled from May 9 to Nov. 22, 2026 between the Giardini and the Arsenale in Venice, will be composed of only women. Chairing the panel will be Solange Oliveira Farkas, flanked by Zoe Butt, Elvira Dyangani Ose, Marta Kuzma and Giovanna Zapperi. The appointment was decided by the Biennale’s board of directors on the recommendation of Koyo Kouoh, curator of the international exhibition, this year titled In Minor Keys. The composition of the jury reflects a plurality of experiences and perspectives, with active curatorial, academic and critical figures from diverse geographic and cultural backgrounds.
Leading the proceedings will be Solange Oliveira Farkas, founder and artistic director of Associação Cultural Videobrasil. Her long experience in the field of international curating includes directing the Videobrasil Biennial from 1983 to 2024 and prominent positions such as leading the Museu de Arte Moderna da Bahia between 2007 and 2010. Throughout his career he has participated in numerous international events, including FUSO in Portugal, Dak’Art in Senegal, the Jakarta International Video Festival in Indonesia, and the Sharjah Biennial in the United Arab Emirates.
Alongside her, Zoe Butt brings a profile strongly oriented toward dialogue between cultures in the Global South. A curator and writer, in 2022 she founded “in-tangible institute,” a platform dedicated to supporting arts infrastructure in Southeast Asia. In 2025, she was appointed artistic director of “deCentral,” a social enterprise for contemporary arts with a planned opening in Thailand in 2027.
Elvira Dyangani Ose contributes to the jury with established experience in museum leadership and international curating. Artistic director of the second edition of the Public Art Abu Dhabi Biennial 2026-2027, she led MACBA Barcelona from 2021 to 2026. Previously she was Director and Chief Curator of The Showroom in London, Curator of the 8th Gothenburg International Biennial for Contemporary Art, Senior Curator at Creative Time, and Curator of International Art at Tate Modern.
Marta Kuzma’s academic and curatorial profile is distinguished by high-level assignments on the international scene. A professor at the Yale School of Art, where she served as dean from 2016 to 2021, she was the first woman to hold an institutional leadership position in the institution’s 150-year history. Her positions include art director and chief curator of Faktura 10 in Ukraine in 2025, participation on the curatorial team of Documenta 13, and co-curator of Manifesta 5 in San Sebastian. She has also held senior positions as chancellor of the Royal Institute of Art in Stockholm, director of the Office for Contemporary Art in Norway and founding director of the Soros Center for Contemporary Art in Kyiv.
Completing the panel is Giovanna Zapperi, an art historian and full professor of contemporary art history at the University of Geneva. Her research activity focuses on feminist epistemologies and practices in the visual arts, with particular attention to the relationship between gender, the body and visual culture in modernity. The author of numerous essays published in international journals and exhibition catalogs, she is also known for the volume “L’artiste est une femme. La modernité de Marcel Duchamp,” published in 2012. Throughout her career, she has received several awards for her contribution to art-historical research.
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| An all-female jury for the Venice Biennale 2026 |
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