The latest announcement: Yto Barrada will represent France
The 61st Venice Biennale, due to open in April 2026, is yet to announce its curator, but many nations are already making plans for which artists will represent their national pavilions. ArtReview will keep a running tally as they come:
Abbas Akhavan has been selected to represent Canada at the Venice Biennale, the National Gallery of Canada announced. Born in Tehran and based between Montreal and Berlin, Akhavan’s multidisciplinary practice reflects on the geopolitical forces which define spaces. He was the recipient of the Sobey Art Award in 2015, and in November 2026, the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis will present a mid-career survey of Akhavan’s work. ‘Abbas’s work is shaped by the unique characteristics of the sites he works on, including the architectures, surrounding economies, and individuals who frequent them,’ National Gallery of Canada director and Canada Pavilion commissioner Jean-François Bélisle said in a statement. ‘We look forward to supporting him in bringing this vision to life at the Canada Pavilion.’
Merike Estna will represent Estonia at the 61st Venice Biennale. Based between Tallinn and Mexico City, Estna’s formalist painting practices uses craft techniques and traditions that have not been historically recognised in the medium. Estna studied painting at the Estonian Academy of Arts (2005) – where she would later be an associate professor at the Department of Painting from 2017–2023 – and then completed her MFA at Goldsmiths, University of London (2009). Estna’s selection was the outcome of an open call by the Estonian Centre for Contemporary Art. In a statement, the jury recognised Estna’s work for its ‘maturity and impact’, and highlighted the artist’s ‘insistence on situating painting at the intersection of performance and the social. Her approach shows how traditional media can be re-invented as tools to regenerate a collective trust in art.’
Yto Barrada will exhibit in the French Pavilion. Born in Paris and raised in Tangier, Barrada has, in two decades, gone from being a student of political science at the Sorbonne, as well as her family’s historian and archivist, to a prolific producer of photographs, prints, sculptures, films, artist books and para-institutional projects. The French jury – arranged by the French Institute and chaired by Claire Le Restif, director of the Art Center contemporary of Ivry–Crédac – chose Barrada ‘for her multidisciplinary practice that brings together various artistic and social communities in search of a new utopia’. Writing in ArtReview, Jenny Wu describes how ‘Barrada is like an Oulipo poet: constantly setting up what she calls constraints – I call them structures of support – for freedom in play and education to coalesce.’
Aline Bouvy will represent Luxembourg, Delano reports. The artist, who lives and works between Belgium and Luxembourg, explores – in sculpture, drawing, photography and sound – the relationship between the body and space, and principles of beauty and repulsion. For thirteen years, she worked as a duo the artist John Gillis. Bouvy’s pavilion will be curated by Stilbé Schroeder, and will follow a solo exhibition at Casino Luxembourg in 2025.
Isabel Nolan will represent Ireland at the Venice Biennale, the Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sports and Media, Catherine Martin T.D. has announced. She will work alongside Georgina Jackson, Director of The Douglas Hyde Gallery of Contemporary Art, as the curator. One of Ireland’s foremost artists, Nolan explores through her multidisciplimary work the capacity of humans for love, taking in subjects as vast as cosmology, mythology and mortality. ‘Art has a strange and special capacity to make and test powerful kinds of community with shared knowledge and beauty, however temporary,’ Nolan said in a statement. ‘La Biennale di Venezia is a stage like no other.’
More to follow…
