Lubaina Himid, an artist who quickly became one of the most celebrated British artists working today following her Turner Prize win in 2017, will represent the United Kingdom at the 2026 Venice Biennale.
Himid is best known for installations that allude to forms of Black liberation, sometimes with a focus specifically on women. Within England, she is also known for curating exhibitions of Black art, with an Institute of Contemporary Arts London survey this summer set to reflect on the legacy of shows such as 1985’s “The Thin Black Line,” which spotlighted Black women artists.
A key figure of the British Black Arts Movement of the 1980s, she was born in Zanzibar and is today based in Preston, England. She is currently the subject of an exhibition at the UCCA Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, where she is presenting some of her more recent paintings, in which clusters of figures in imagined spaces act as allegories for rebuilding in a world wracked by colonialism and climate change.
“I laughed out loud with both disbelief and pleasure when I found out about this wonderful invitation to represent Britain at the Venice Biennale in 2026,” Himid said in a statement. “It is such a great honour and at the same time a brilliant and exciting opportunity to make something particularly special, which resonates with multiple audiences, communicates with complex histories and looks to a more collaborative future.”
She is only the second Black woman ever to do the Venice Biennale’s British Pavilion. The first, Sonia Boyce, took the Golden Lion for her British Pavilion in 2022.
Details about Himid’s British Pavilion, including a curator and a concept, were not revealed in today’s announcement.
The British Pavilion is one of around a dozen that have so far been revealed for the 2026 Venice Biennale, an art festival that is still over a year away. Koyo Kouoh will organize the Biennale’s main exhibition, which is not connected to the national pavilions around it.
