Thania Petersen, Khaled Sabsabi and Anya Petersen in Venice

2 May 2026

The 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia – In Minor Keys by Koyo Kouoh – will run from Saturday 9 May to Sunday 22 November 2026 at the Giardini and the Arsenale venues, and in various locations around Venice.

Thania Petersen and Khaled Sabsabi are participating in the main exhibition In Minor Keys and their work will feature in the Arsenale. Sabsabi is also presenting a site-specific installation titled conference of one’s self at the Australian Pavilion curated by Michael Dagostino.

Thania Petersen (b.1980, South Africa) seeks to retell and reclaim histories and cultural memory through textiles, multi-sensory performance, and installations. As a direct descendant of Tuan Guru — an Indonesian prince exiled to South Africa in the 1700s by the Dutch — she delves into personal and collective histories. Her work examines the legacies of African and Asian colonial imperialism, contemporary consumer culture, and the myths of Sufi Islamic religious ceremonies. Across her work, Petersen strives to restore histories that have been erased, reclaiming lost legacies and healing the wounds of the past.

Marking the first time an Australian artist is presenting simultaneously in the Australian Pavilion and the main exhibition, Khaled Sabsabi (b. 1975) is an acclaimed, award-winning Australian multidisciplinary artist whose work explores human collectiveness, the complexities of identity politics, and the impact of ideology through a continual transfer between the material and the philosophical. Khaled Sabsabi’s process involves working across art mediums, geographical borders and cultures to create immersive and engaging art experiences.

Concurrently, Anya Paintsil’s work is part of The Message is in the Pattern, the third Post-National Digital Pavilion presented by Iniva in collaboration with the British Council at the 61st Venice Biennale which runs through 30 November 2026.

Anya Paintsil (b. 1993, Wales, UK) is a Welsh and Ghanaian textile artist who lives and works in London and Glyn Ceiriog. Drawing inspiration from her childhood in North Wales, and her ancestral, Fante tradition of figurative textiles, Paintsil combines craft practices she was taught as a young child; rug making, appliqué and hand embroidery with afro hairstyling techniques to create large scale portraits. Paintsils’ figures explore the possibilities and politics of non-representative depictions of the Black figure. Often mistaken as subversion of ‘primitivism’, Paintsil deliberately and consciously refuses to root her work in the European Fine Art Canon, Paintsil’s visual language finds its basis in traditional West African Crafts and Art – carvings, wood sculptures, masks – exchanging the hard materials for soft, in an interrogation of gendered labour, particularly the labour of working class women.

Images:

Portrait of Thania Petersen; Portrait of Khaled Sabsabi with Australian Pavilion curator Michael Dagostino. Photo: Anna Kucera; Portrait of Anya Paintsil