Dana Awartani at the Venice Biennale 2026

Dana Awartani will represent Saudi Arabia at the 61st Venice Biennale, taking place from May 9 to November 22, 2026. The National Pavilion of Saudi Arabia at the Biennale Arte is commissioned by the Ministry of Culture’s Visual Arts Commission.

Antonia Carver, Director of Art Jameel, will curate the exhibition. Carver and assistant curator Hafsa Alkhudairi will work with the artist for the Biennale Arte 2026, held under the theme of "In Minor Keys", curated by Koyo Kouoh, whose vision for the project will be realized following her passing in May 2025.

Dana Awartani’s multi-faceted practice spans painting, sculpture, performance, and installation. Recurring themes in her work include the complexities of continuity of cultural heritage, craft, and artisanship—including sites and practices across the Arab world that are under threat.

Drawing on Islamic and Arab art-making traditions, Awartani combines innovation and experimentation with tradition and continuity, in terms of both material and concept. She often collaborates with master-craftspeople and artisans who, whether in place or displaced, carry deep knowledge integral to humanity, across generations and geographies.

Dana Awartani said: “I am deeply honored to be representing Saudi Arabia and its diverse cultural voices and communities at the Biennale Arte 2026, and I thank the Visual Arts Commission and the Ministry of Culture for this cherished opportunity. My practice is rooted in foregrounding Middle Eastern cultural histories through the revival of craft practices and the preservation of the region’s globally-important material heritage; working with my curatorial colleagues, I am thrilled to have the chance to develop a major new work for the Saudi Pavilion, in line with this theme and endeavor, and to be part of In Minor Keys.”

Antonia Carver said: “I am delighted to collaborate with Dana and working together as a team to highlight her deeply considered and timely work to a global audience. Dana’s practice explores cultural heritage and the inherent forces of preservation, recognition, and destruction within—a subject that has perhaps never been more crucial than now. I thank the Visual Arts Commission for inviting us to work together to present Dana’s vision, bringing together collaborative crafts practices and artisanal histories with highly innovative, imaginative contemporary art, on this most compelling of international platforms—this year conceptualized by the visionary Koyo Kouoh.”

Dina Amin, Chief Executive Officer of the Visual Arts Commission said: “We are immensely proud to present Dana Awartani as Saudi Arabia’s representative for our fifth national Biennale Arte participation. This representation highlights the diversity of artistic voices in the Kingdom, solidifying a lasting legacy in the arts on the global stage. Dana is the fourth woman to represent the Kingdom across our five participations, brilliantly underscoring the profound contributions of Saudi women in the visual arts. We celebrate this collective achievement and look forward to welcoming the world to our pavilion.”

This will mark Saudi Arabia’s fifth participation at the Venice Biennale and is the fourth National Pavilion of Saudi Arabia to showcase the work of a woman artist.

The concept and details of Dana Awartani’s exhibition will be announced in 2026.

About Dana Awartani
Dana Awartani engages in critical and contemporary reinterpretations of the forms, techniques, concepts, and spatial constructs that shape Middle Eastern culture. Steeped in a multitude of historical references, particularly drawn from Islamic and Arab art-making traditions, Awartani’s practice straddles continuity and innovation, aesthetic experimentation, and social relevance.

Spanning painting, sculpture, performance, and installation, her commitment to historically situated and locally sourced materials addresses the complexities of continuity of cultural heritage, craft, and artisanship – including sites and practices across the Arab world that are under threat. Consistent throughout her work is a philosophical elaboration of geometric patterns as an alternative genealogy of abstraction.

Dana Awartani was born, lives, and works in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and is of Saudi and Palestinian descent. She holds a BA in fine art from Central Saint Martins, London, and an MA in traditional arts from The King’s Foundation School of Traditional Arts, London.

Recent solo exhibitions have been presented at Arnolfini, Bristol (2025) and Samstag Museum of Art, Adelaide (2024). Her work has been exhibited internationally, most recently at the Bukhara Biennial (2025), the 60th Venice Biennale (2024), Sharjah Biennial 15 (2023), Lyon Biennale (2022) as well as at institutions across America, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East, including Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC (2022), British Museum, London (2021), and Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (2017), among others.

Awartani was shortlisted for the High Line Plinth commission, New York (2024), and the Richard Mille Art Prize, Louvre Abu Dhabi (2022). She received the National Cultural Award from the Ministry of Culture of Saudi Arabia (2021) and the Instituto Sacatar Residency Award, Sesc_Videobrasil (2020). She has been an artist in residence at NTU Centre for Contemporary Art Singapore (2020) and at Delfina Foundation, London (2015).

About Antonia Carver
Antonia Carver has been the director of Art Jameel since 2016, overseeing the organization’s work across learning and the arts, as well as opening and leading its institutions: Hayy Jameel, Jeddah’s home for the arts, and Jameel Arts Centre, Dubai’s hub for contemporary arts and ideas. Antonia was previously director of Art Dubai (2010–2016), an editor/curator at Bidoun (2003–2010), and in strategy and programming at Dubai International Film Festival (2004–2011), among other roles.

Alongside institutional roles, she has written extensively on Middle Eastern art and film, edited books and journals, and curated, programmed, and advised on exhibitions, commissions, film festivals, and publishing and educational initiatives.

Prior to moving to the Gulf in 2001, she was based in London, where she served as an editor at Phaidon Press, worked in development and projects at the Institute of International Visual Arts (iniva), and held a publishing role at G+B Arts International.

About Hafsa Alkhudairi
Hafsa Alkhudairi is a writer, curator, and researcher whose experiences have included the Royal Commission of AlUla and the Saudi Ministry of Culture.

Her independent curatorial projects focus on a practice that juxtaposes the written word and visual representation where she engages with intergenerational memory and pop culture. Since completing her MA in contemporary literature and culture at Birkbeck College, University of London, she has published papers on comic books and contemporary art, alongside short fiction and nonfiction writing.

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