CalArts alumni Tuan Andrew Nguyen (Art MFA 04) and Gala Porras-Kim (Art MFA 09) are among the artists from around the world participating in the central exhibition of the 61st Venice Biennale, one of the most closely watched events in contemporary art, opening Saturday, May 9, in Venice, Italy.
Often described as the “Olympics of the art world,” the Venice Biennale brings together a central exhibition, national pavilions, and presentations across the city.
The central exhibition, In Minor Keys, was conceived by curator Koyo Kouoh and is being realized by a team of collaborators following her passing in 2025. The exhibition includes 110 invited participants—individual artists, duos, collectives, and artist-led organizations—from across geographies, selected with attention to affinities and resonances across practices.
Nguyen, whose 25-foot sandstone sculpture The Light That Shines Through the Universe was unveiled at The High Line in New York City last month, is one of the invited artists. His work often explores the power of storytelling through video and sculpture, drawing on extensive research and community engagement, often reworking dominant, and at times colonial, histories into speculative narratives.
According to an Instagram post by his representatives at James Cohan Gallery, Nguyen will debut Ñi Demoon Ñoo Dellusi (Those Who Left Are Those Who Return), a two-channel video installation that weaves together interviews, spoken narratives, and archival material centered on Bouba Chinois, a notorious figure in West African history.
Porras-Kim makes work about the social and political contexts that shape how intangible forms—such as language and sound—are framed through disciplines including linguistics, history, and conservation. She was selected by Kouoh for the Applied Arts Pavilion in the Arsenale, developed in collaboration with the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Participating out of competition, her work examines the relationships between cultural artifacts, museums, and the institutional frameworks that shape how they are interpreted and preserved.
The 61st International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale, In Minor Keys, runs from Saturday, May 9, to Sunday, Nov. 22, at the Giardini, the Arsenale, and locations throughout Venice.
