We celebrate alumni-artists of Delfina Foundation and Delfina Studio Trust (our predecessor) presenting work in and around the 61st Venice Biennale of Art.
International Art Exhibition in the Giardini and Arsenale
In Minor Keys, this year’s International Exhibition curated by the late Koyo Kouoh, includes six alumni-artists: Annalee Davis (Barbados, resident in 2016), Nolan Oswald Dennis (Zambia/South Africa, 2021), Michael Joo (South Korea, 1996), Raed Yassin (Lebanon, 2010 & 2014), and Elolo Bosoka (Ghana, 2025) as part of blaxTARLINES KUMASI. Additionally, Gala Porras-Kim (Colombia/USA, 2021) will present work as part of the Applied Arts Pavilion – a special project by La Biennale di Venezia and the V&A Museum.
National Pavilions
- Abbas Akhavan (2011 & 2012): Canada
- Dana Awartani (2015): Saudi Arabia
- Oriol Vilanova (2017): Spain
- Oscar Santillán (2015): Ecuador
- Xin Liu (2025): Uzbekistan
- Farah Al-Qasimi (2017), Jawad Al Malhi (2010), and Taus Makhacheva (2015): UAE
Additionally, the Pavilion of Uzbekistan emerges from five curators participating in the Bukhara Biennial Curatorial School, an initiative by the Art and Culture Development Foundation with Diana Campbell, Artistic Director of the 1st Bukhara Biennial, in collaboration with Delfina Foundation.
Collateral and parallel exhibitions
- Hera Büyüktaşçıyan (Turkey, 2014), Nazira Karimi (Tajikistan/Kazakhstan, 2025), and Madina Joldybek (UK Associate, 2026) in TURANDOT: To the Daughters of the East at ACP-Palazzo Franchetti
- Lydia Ourahmane (Algeria, 2016) – solo exhibition to inaugurate the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation in Venice
- Manal AlDowayan (Saudi Arabia, 2009), Wael Shawky (Egypt, 2011), Marwa Almugait (Saudi Arabia, 2019), Nolan Oswald Dennis (South Africa/Zambia, 2021) and Nasser AlSalem (Saudi Arabia, 2018) in A Necessary Fiction: Maps, Art and Models of Our World, which takes place at Abbazia di San Gregorio, Dorsoduro 172
DELFINA’S HISTORY IN VENICE
Alumni from across Delfina Foundation and Delfina Studio Trust have a great record of award-winning presentation at Venice, including: Delfina alumni DAAR winning the Golden Lion in 2023 (architecture biennale); Delfina studio alum Sonia Boyce winning the Golden Lion in 2022; Silver Lions awarded to Ali Cherri in 2022 and Hassan Khan in 2017; four alumni as part of the 2015 Golden Lion winning Armenian pavilion; and then-studio artist Luisa Lambri being part of the Golden Lion winning Italian pavilion in 1999.
In 2019, Delfina Foundation co-produced with Venice Biennale a special series of performances, co-curated by Aaron Cezar and Ralph Rugoff, during the opening and closing of the biennale, involving artists: Alex Baczynski-Jenkins, boychild, Nástio Mosquito, Florence Peake & Eve Stainton, Sin Wai Kin, Zadie Xa, Vivian Caccuri, Cooking Sections, Invernomuto, Paul Maheke, Nkisi and Ariel Efraim Ashbel, Vivien Sansour, Bo Zheng, and Solange Knowles.