venice, biennale, art, artists, painting, performance art, sculpture, marina abramovic

Courtesy Of Sutton Comms La Biennale Di Venezia

Art

The Female Artists To See at This Year's Venice Biennale

From established names to hot new debuts.

The Female Artists To See at This Year's Venice Biennale

From established names to hot new debuts.

The Venice Biennale, the oldest and arguably most influential exhibition in contemporary art, returns for its 61st edition amid a wave of controversy. From renewed calls to exclude Israel, to scrutiny over Russia’s participation and the removal then reinstatement of Australian artist Khaled Sabsabi, this year’s build-up has been anything but quiet. Still, if history proves anything, it’s that art doesn’t retreat, it responds.

Set against this politically charged backdrop, the floating city will once again become a global stage, welcoming artists from across disciplines and geographies. Alongside established names like Marina Abramović, a new wave of voices is stepping forward, with the 2026 edition also hosting dedicated spaces celebrating Black and Indigenous artists for the first time.

Running from May 9 to November 22, the Biennale offers plenty to take in, but if you’re curating your route, we’ve spotlighted the female artists you shouldn’t miss. Keep reading for your essential guide.

Maja Malou Lyse

venice, biennale, art, artists, painting, performance art, sculpture, marina abramovic The Danish Arts Foundation unveils Things To Come, an exhibition by Maja Malou Lyse, the youngest artist to represent Denmark at the Venice Biennale. Curated by Chus Martínez, this is a visionary work that engages with the widely documented global decline in male fertility. The exhibition explores how science, fiction and pornography intersect in a response to research suggesting that exposure to virtual sexual stimuli can increase sperm motility. It therefore considers a paradoxical role of contemporary media as both a toxin and an antidote.

Jenny Saville

venice, biennale, art, artists, painting, performance art, sculpture, marina abramovic Jenny Saville will present her paintings in the city’s first major exhibition of her work. The show follows her acclaimed retrospective at London’s National Portrait Gallery last year, titled The Anatomy of Painting. Many of the same pieces will be on display alongside a selection of never-before-seen works made especially for this show. Expect huge canvases in all their grotesque glory, together with sensual close-ups.

Nalini Malani

venice, biennale, art, artists, painting, performance art, sculpture, marina abramovic Nalini Malani will stage a large-scale installation that considers women and myth through 67 animations and soundscapes. The artist rewrites the Greek myth of Orestes (who avenged his father’s death by murdering his mother and her lover) in a contemporary exploration of how we view accountability and women’s experience of patriarchal violence today. This is set to be a moving experience.

Ásta Fanney Sigurðardóttir

venice, biennale, art, artists, painting, performance art, sculpture, marina abramovic Iceland will present Pocket Universe, an exhibition by artist, poet, composer and filmmaker Ásta Fanney Sigurðardóttir. The showcase focuses on shifting perspectives through hope and belief, proving that even in times of instability, changing mindsets can open up new possibilities. This feels especially poignant today. “We are at the threshold of different times. In moments like
this, imagination and intuition have the capacity to orient us, to offer a sense of direction for where we might be heading,” shared Sigurðardóttir.

Natasha Tontey

venice, biennale, art, artists, painting, performance art, sculpture, marina abramovic Natasha Tontey will stage a multi-media installation following the story of a 1950s female resistance fighter in Indonesia. The showcase will explore bodily transformation, Minahasan symbolism and contemporary military imaging in times of surveillance. Titled The Phantom Combatants and the Metabolism of Disobedient Organs, this is Tontey’s largest and most ambitious work to date.

Merike Estna

venice, biennale, art, artists, painting, performance art, sculpture, marina abramovic Representing Estonia, Merike Estna uses her paintings as a space for politically and socially relevant questions. Her showcase, titled The House of Leaking Sky, transforms the exhibition space into an open studio where visitors can witness the artwork coming into existence. This is a contemporary showcase that blurs the boundaries between painting and performance.

Margaret Whyte

venice, biennale, art, artists, painting, performance art, sculpture, marina abramovic Artist Margaret Whyte will represent Uruguay with her new installation work, ANTIFRAGIL. Whyte’s work reflects the idea that systems become stronger through disorder and instability, needing to adapt. Coming from a place of tension, vulnerability and mistakes, the artist uses these ‘negative’ aspects instead as creative forces. Rather than attempting to eliminate chaos, she works with it, resulting in a powerful form of resistance. Textiles are combined with outdated tech objects to create an intense friction and reflect on the relationship between art and philosophy.

Marina Abramović

venice, biennale, art, artists, painting, performance art, sculpture, marina abramovic Marina Ambramović is no stranger to making history, and this year, she will be the first living woman artist to have a dedicated exhibition at the Gallerie dell’Accademia. This is almost 30 years after she became the first woman to win the Golden Lion for Best Artist at the 1997 Venice Biennale. Ambramović’s exhibition, titled Transforming Energy, puts her work in dialogue with Renaissance masterpieces, for example, juxtaposing her photograph “Pietà (with Ulay)” against Titian’s final piece “Pietà (1575-76).

Jenna Sutela

venice, biennale, art, artists, painting, performance art, sculpture, marina abramovic Jenna Sutela will represent Finland, showcasing the exhibition Aeolian Suite. Curated by Stefanie Hessler, the installation unfolds as a multisensory environment transforming the space into a windscape of sound and movement. The artwork uses meteorological data, musical instruments and the winds from Venice, Helsinki and beyond to explore the ambivalence of the unpredictable atmospheric presence.