Kaloki Nyamai’s artwork at Venice Biennale 2026. [Courtesy]
Kenyan artists are among those showcasing at the 2026 Venice Biennale, the world’s most prestigious contemporary art exhibition.
Wangechi Mutu, Kaloki Nyamai, and the Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute (NCAI) are part of the 110 invited participants at the 61st Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition, which runs from May 9 to November 22, 2026, in the Giardini, Arsenale, and other venues in Venice.
This year’s edition is historic, as it is the first curated by an African woman, Koyo Kouoh, and features a very high number of African artists selected for the main exhibition.
Held every two years, the Biennale Arte 2026 takes place after the death of its artistic director Koyo Kouoh in May 2025, at age 57. Appointed in 2024 as the first African woman to curate the Biennale Arte 2026, Kouoh left behind a complete vision and exhibition title, In Minor Keys, which the Biennale has said will be realised by her curatorial team with the support of her family.
The artistic director for Venice Biennale 2026, the late Koyo Kouoh. [Courtesy]
In Minor Keys is inspired by music in which a minor key represents introspection, restraint, quietude, and depth.
Kouoh, known for her work championing artists from Africa and the diaspora while being the executive director of the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa in Cape Town, developed a curatorial direction that imvolves African artists working on the continent and in the diaspora for the Biennale Arte 2026. Her selection featured artists and institutions engaging with themes such as memory, environmentalism, social history, and cross-cultural experience.
The main exhibition features nearly 30 artists from the African continent and its diaspora, with African-born artists representing approximately 20 percent of the 111 participants—double the figure from 2024. In addition, 13 African nations will showcase at national pavilions, with first-time participants such as Somalia, Guinea, Equatorial Guinea, and Sierra Leone.
Kaloki Nyamai at Venice Biennale 2026. [Courtesy, Artsy]
Among the Kenyan artists featured is Wangechi Mutu, based between Nairobi and New York. Mutu is showing two works in the main exhibition: a bronze sculpture titled Simbi Siren (2026) and an installation titled In the End When All Began, Eden; they explore ecofeminism and mythology centred on a reimagined Garden of Eden.
Kaloki Nyamai, based in Nairobi, presents Kwata Kau, Ithyonze nitwavika vaa, and Ithyonze nitwavika vaa II (2026) at the Arsenale. His works are large-scale fabrics sewn together with yarn to form oversized faces and bodies.
The Nairobi Contemporary Art Institute (NCAI), founded by Kenyan-British artist Michael Armitage, is also participating in the exhibition. It presents eight artworks from its collection made between 1950 and 1984 by artists trained at Makerere University in Uganda: Sam Ntiro, Charles Mukiibi, Kefa Ssempangi, C. Driciru, Josephine Alacu, Peter Mulindwa, and Godfrey Banadda. It also includes two artist portrait films featuring Asaph Ng’ethe Macua and Elimo Njau.
“Despite the vitality of artistic production in this region, many significant works have remained absent from public view or have left East Africa. NCAI builds a permanent collection in response, recovering works not merely as objects but as records of an artistic culture that deserves to be encountered in its original context,” NCAI stated.