James Cohan congratulates gallery artists Ranti Bam, Tuan Andrew Nguyen, and Kennedy Yanko, as well as Yinka Shonibare and Guest Artists Space (G.A.S.) Foundation, who have been invited to the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia, curated by Koyo Kouoh.
The 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia – In Minor Keys by Koyo Kouoh – will run from May 9 through November 22, 2026, at the Giardini, the Arsenale and in various locations around Venice.
British-Nigerian artist Ranti Bam (b. 1982, Lagos, Nigeria; lives and works in Paris, France) creates vessels made of clay, their surfaces and contours evoking vulnerability. Bam’s practice engages with the semiotic aspects of the feminine; confronting notions of intimacy, care and fragility. The artist’s sculptures embody this life force spanning two related bodies of work: abstract vessels and Ifas.
For the Biennale, Bam will present a series of hand-built Ifas, her largest to date, arranged in the heart of the Arsenale. These sculptural forms echo bodies in varying states of presence and transformation. In titling her ongoing series Ifas, Bam draws on Nigerian dialects to signal layered meanings and multiplicities. In Yoruba, Ifá refers both to divination and, phonetically, to the phrase I fàá—“to pull close.”
Several vessels rest on stools known as akpoti, an object deeply embedded in everyday and spiritual Yoruba life. Traditionally used for rest and communal gathering, these stools also support practices of material and spiritual sustenance. Bam symbiotically merges these supports with the vessels themselves, presenting the Ifas as votive offerings—objects that function as portals between realms.
The installation Ifa Ile Oja, 2026, comprises five deep black stoneware vessels that pay homage to the philosophy that spirit and human life meet in the marketplace (Oja). The vessels’ exteriors, which resemble skin or leather, yield to the artist’s touch as she prioritizes spirit over fixed form. Through her varied explorations in clay, Bam reframes our relationship to the body and the natural world, working to unsettle and dismantle inherited ideological constructs.
Vietnamese-American artist Tuan Andrew Nguyen (b. 1976, Saigon, Viet Nam; lives and works in Ho Chi Minh City, Viet Nam) will debut a major new two-channel video installation, Ñi Demoon Ñoo Dellusi (Those Who Left Are Those Who Return), 2026.
This two-channel video installation weaves intimate interviews, spoken narratives and archival material surrounding the larger-than-life character Bouba Chinois, one of West Africa’s most infamous bandits. His story defies categorization and abounds with mythology. He’s been charged with a litany of criminal acts and is famous for escaping from the harshest prisons in West Africa. He is also lauded as a rebel who stole from the rich and gave to the poor as an influential member of the Senegalese-Vietnamese community in Senegal. His life is a relentless torrent of ruptures that trace back to a profoundly tangled colonial moment. In Choinois’ life, truth is elusive—almost an echo rather than a certainty. And hence, memory is inherently fragmented and contested.
Ñi Demoon Ñoo Dellusi (Those Who Left Are Those Who Return) aims to reveal and simultaneously dismantle the generational wounds brought onto the African and Asian communities at the hands of French colonial powers. Through the mythologies surrounding Chinois, the film traces the impact of a life lived in the margins of society.
Nguyen’s closely-knit collaboration with Chinois opens spaces for his subject to be a protagonist, antagonist, witness, agent, victim, protector, criminal, and raconteur. The artist’s synthesis of archive, fiction and testimony pushes our understanding of trauma and its various dimensions, but also connects us to possible ways of healing
through storytelling.
Kennedy Yanko
American artist Kennedy Yanko (b. 1988, St. Louis, MO; lives and works in Miami, FL) will debut a series of sculptures that fuse paint and metal. Steeped in the visual language of Abstract Expressionism, Action, and Color Field Painting, Yanko’s works cast off the boundaries of their medium, occupying a generative space between the surreal and earthbound. Her newest body of work echoes poetry, holding memory and carrying a specific cadence and rhythm. Matter is both contained and free- flowing—a poignant response to Koyo Kouoh’s invitation to journey, reflect, and commune.
In this presentation, a monumental suspended sculpture will anchor the Arsenale, flanked by two free-standing works. The installation highlights Yanko’s innovative use of paint skins—a material created by pouring gallons of paint onto a flat surface that is then shaped and positioned on meticulously-crafted metal armatures. The central sculpture, The bond between matter and heaven, 2025, celebrates the color blue, exploring not its visual power, but also its psychological resonances. Its body, formed from a shipping container that was ripped and torn into individual pieces, is hand-painted and enmeshed with soft folds of paint skins against hard metal. Striations of yellow, blue, and pink paint applied by Yanko to jagged steel exist in dialogue and harmony with the monochrome blue paint skins. Despite the conspicuous solidity of her materials, Yanko’s sculptures and installations often appear weightless—as if on the verge of taking flight. Together, these works serve as an ode and an invocation, offering a portal that opens up to the sky.
Yinka Shonibare’s Guest Artists Space (G.A.S.) Foundation’s inclusion in the Biennale Arte 2026 reflects its ongoing commitment to bringing together artists and thinkers, fostering cultural dialogue, care, and exchange across local and international contexts. Kouoh’s invitation to be part of the Main Exhibition recognises the residency not simply as a support structure, but as a practice in its own right, and a site of research, and sustained engagement that generates meaning through dialogue and shared inquiry.
Among the many contributors represented are: Alberta Whittle, Ayomide Fasedu, Bisila Noha, Catherine Bardi, Damilola Akin-Olasupo, Emma Prempeh, E.N. Mirembe, Gideon Gomo, Jonn Gale, Ofem Ubi, Olayinka Eno Babalola, Olufela Omokeko, Portia Zvavahera, Raqs Media Collective, Raymond Pinto, Solá Olulòde, Tobi Onabolu and Umar Rashid.
Since its inception in 2019 by Yinka Shonibare, G.A.S. has been dedicated to facilitating international cultural exchange and supporting creative practices through residencies, collaboration and educational initiatives. Its programs operate across two sites in Nigeria; a purpose-built creative space in Lagos and another on a sustainable and regenerative-focused farm with an artist’s house and studio in Ikise, Ogun state. Together these spaces offer distinct yet interconnected contexts for research, critical thinking, experimentation, and sustained artistic development.