The National Gallery of Canada (NGC) announced today that Kapwani Kiwanga will represent Canada at the 60th International Venice Biennale from April 20 to November 24, 2024. Kiwanga is recognized as one of the country’s most acclaimed contemporary artists whose research-driven work is instigated by marginalized or forgotten histories, and articulated across a range of mediums including sculpture, installation, video, and performance. Her presentation in Venice will be curated by Gaëtane Verna, Executive Director, Wexner Center for the Arts.
Angela Cassie, Interim Director & CEO of the National Gallery of Canada, commissioner of the Canada Pavilion in Venice, said: “The NGC is proud to present Kapwani Kiwanga’s work for Canada at the 60th International Venice Biennale. Widely recognized for her singular approach, Kiwanga’s work presents rigorous research in imaginative ways to enable historically excluded narratives to flourish. I would like to congratulate our national jury members in choosing such a timely and provocative voice to represent the vital role and place of Canada in international contemporary art.”
The artist was selected by experts in contemporary Canadian art comprised of Daisy Desrosiers, Director and Chief Curator, Gund Gallery at Kenyon College; Heather Igloliorte, Concordia University Research Chair and Co-Director, Indigenous Futures Research Centre; Michelle Jacques, Head of Exhibitions and Collections/Chief Curator, Remai Modern; Adelina Vlas, Head of Curatorial Affairs, The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery; and Tania Willard, Assistant Professor of Creative Studies and Visual Arts, University of British Columbia, Okanagan.
The co-chairs for this year’s artist selection committee—NGC’s Michelle LaVallee, Director, Indigenous Ways and Decolonization, and Jonathan Shaughnessy, Director, Curatorial Initiatives—said: “Kiwanga’s interdisciplinary approach to art making has received international attention for its eye-opening investigations into the structures, systems, and narratives underlying today’s power asymmetries. The treatment of space for Kiwanga is an artistic gesture. Working across sculpture, mixed-media installation and performance, her projects often pay close attention to the sites in and on which they are exhibited.”
Canada Pavilion Curator Gaëtane Verna, Executive Director, Wexner Center for the Arts, added: “Kapwani Kiwanga delves into the archives of the world and conducts in-depth research that is weaved elegantly throughout her artworks. She is interested in the role of art as a catalyst for revealing and addressing alternative and often silenced, marginalized socio-political narratives that are part of our shared histories. It is an honour for me to have been invited to curate the Canadian Pavilion, in continuous conversation with Kiwanga, and I look forward to supporting her in every aspect of this momentous project in which she will undoubtedly transcend the materials that she will choose to use to transform our own understandings of the world.”
The Venice Biennale is the largest and most prestigious contemporary art exhibition in the world with more than 80 participating countries. The exhibitions on view at the Canada Pavilion are commissioned by the National Gallery of Canada and produced in partnership with the Canada Council for the Arts. The Canadian representation in 2024 is made possible through the National Gallery of Canada Foundation.
For more than 60 years, the Canada Pavilion has featured the work of the most accomplished Canadian artists.
Media enquiries
Within Canada: Josée-Britanie Mallet, bmallet@gallery.ca, National Gallery of Canada
International: Rosanna Hawkins, rosanna@reesandco.com
Megan Miller, megan.miller@reesandco.com
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About Kapwani Kiwanga
Kapwani Kiwanga (b. 1978, Canada) is a Canadian and French artist based in Paris. Kiwanga studied Anthropology and Comparative Religion at McGill University in Montreal, Art at l’école des Beaux-Arts de Paris and at Le Fresnoy—Studio national des arts contemporains in Tourcoing. In 2022, Kiwanga received the Zurich Art Prize. She was also the winner of the Marcel Duchamp Prize (France) in 2020, Frieze Artist Award (US) and the Sobey Art Award (Canada) in 2018. Solo exhibitions include Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich; New Museum, New York (US); State of Concept, Athens; Moody Center for the Arts, Houston (US); Haus der Kunst, Munich (DE); Kunsthaus Pasquart, Biel/Bienne (Switzerland); MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge (US); Esker Foundation, Calgary (Canada); Power Plant, Toronto (Canada); Logan Center for the Arts, Chicago; South London Gallery, London and Jeu de Paume, Paris among others.
About the National Gallery of Canada
The National Gallery of Canada is dedicated to amplifying voices through art and extending the reach and breadth of its collection, exhibitions program, and public activities to represent all Canadians, while centring Indigenous ways of knowing and being. Ankosé—an Anishinaabemowin word that means Everything is Connected—reflects the Gallery’s mission to create dynamic experiences that open hearts and minds, and allow for new ways of seeing ourselves, one another, and our diverse histories, through the visual arts. The NGC is home to a rich contemporary Indigenous international art collection, as well as important collections of historical and contemporary Canadian and European Art from the 14th to 21st centuries. Founded in 1880, the National Gallery of Canada has played a key role in Canadian culture for more than 140 years. Find out more at gallery.ca
About the National Gallery of Canada Foundation
The National Gallery of Canada Foundation is dedicated to supporting the National Gallery of Canada in fulfilling its mandate. By fostering strong philanthropic partnerships, the Foundation provides the Gallery with the additional financial support required to lead Canada’s visual arts community locally, nationally and internationally. The blend of public support and private philanthropy empowers the Gallery to preserve and interpret Canada’s visual arts heritage. The Foundation welcomes present and deferred gifts for special projects and endowments. Find out more at ngcfoundation.ca.
About the Canada Council for the Arts
The Canada Council for the Arts is Canada’s public arts funder. The mandate of the Canada Council is to “foster and promote the study and enjoyment of, and the production of works in, the arts.” The investments made by the Canada Council contribute to greater engagement in the arts among international audiences and within Canada.
