From Bottega Veneta to Louis Vuitton, all the way to Zegna and Bvlgari, explore all the unmissable projects on view in Venice.

The opening of the 61st International Art Exhibition confirms Venice as the premier observatory for analyzing the evolving relationship between the luxury industry and contemporary culture. While in the past, the presence of major brands was limited to collateral events, the 2026 Venice Biennale marks a shift in direction. The fashion houses act as full-fledged cultural institutions, integrating their production identities with long-term curatorial projects that span the lagoon's iconic locations.
The range of initiatives is vast and touches the city's vital nerve centers. Bottega Veneta is strengthening its ties with the Pinault Collection by supporting Lorna Simpson's solo exhibition at Punta della Dogana, while the Prada Foundation is supporting a raw exploration of American visual culture at Ca' Corner della Regina through the works of Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince. On the national front, the Zegna Group is positioning itself as the main sponsor of the Italian Pavilion, linking its "green thinking" to Chiara Camoni's material research. New foundations are also present, such as Dries Van Noten, which debuts at Palazzo Pisani Moretta with an interdisciplinary exhibition that unites craftsmanship and experimentation. From the Biblioteca Marciana, where the Bvlgari Foundation reflects on historical memory with the winners of its art prize, to Jordan Roth's performances, fashion at Venice 2026 is not seeking visibility, but intellectual substance, positioning itself as the guarantor of a savoir-faire that is, intrinsically, an act of cultural resistance.

Bottega Veneta supports "Lorna Simpson. Third Person" at Punta della Dogana

Portrait of Lorna Simpson by Jeff Henrikson.

For Bottega Veneta, Venice has never been a mere backdrop. It is a defining element of identity, a return to roots nourished by a broad cultural vision, capable of looking beyond the product to embrace the intellect. This is confirmed by the latest, prestigious initiative from the maison, led by the creative direction of Louise Trotter: the exclusive sponsorship of "Lorna Simpson. Third Person," the monumental solo exhibition opening on March 29, at Punta della Dogana. Curated by Emma Lavigne, architect of the Pinault Collection's visions, the exhibition marks the return to Europe, after more than a decade, of one of the most lucid and radical voices of contemporary American art. Lorna Simpson is an artist who has deconstructed image with the precision of a surgeon. If her '90s-era conceptual photography overturned the canons of representation, today, her painting becomes a territory of visceral investigation into collective memory and the instability of narrative.

For Bottega Veneta, this partnership is not an isolated occasion, but rather, the latest piece in a philanthropic mosaic that ties the brand to the&nbsp;Pinault Collection. A journey that has already struck a chord with Thomas Sch&uuml;tte, Pierre Huyghe, and Bruce Nauman, and which today finds perfect resonance in Simpson. That same attention to detail and urgency to reclaim a slow and conscious pace characterizes the maison's excellent craftsmanship.
The exhibition project, conceived in collaboration with the Metropolitan Museum of Art, is divided into three sections spanning twenty years of the brand's career, including monumental collages and paintings originally conceived for Okwui Enwezor's historic 2015 Biennale.
But Bottega Veneta's presence in the lagoon doesn't stop there. As part of its widespread patronage, the brand will also support "If All Time Is Eternally Present" at Campo Manin, while the Summer 2026 campaign, designed by Juergen Teller, celebrates the very essence of Venice. Between the Venice Residence and the Bottega for Bottegas project&mdash;which gives voice to local excellences like Paolo Olbi and Laguna~B&mdash;the maison demonstrates that modern luxury is no longer simply a question of possession, but of cultural belonging. In a world that is fast-paced, Bottega Veneta and Simpson ask us to pause, observe, and, finally, understand.

<h2 style="text-align: center;">Prada Foundation "Helter Skelter: Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince" at Ca' Corner della Regina</h2>

There are images that don't simply document reality, but seize it, chew it up, and return it as a true moment This is the sensation one experiences when crossing the threshold of Ca' Corner della Regina in Venice, where the exhibition "Helter Skelter: Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince" stages an elective dialogue between two of the most radical "scavengers" of American visual culture. Curated by Nancy Spector, the exhibition is not a simple double solo show, but an anatomical investigation into America's DNA, conducted through the lens of appropriation. Arthur Jafa (b. 1960) and Richard Prince (b. 1949), share that "artistic piracy" rooted in Duchamp's&nbsp;readymade . But where the French master appropriated the object, Jafa and Prince plunder the imagination: from YouTube videos to pulp novels, from celebrity memorabilia to the detritus of social media.

Over 50 works trace a specific and raw topography. On one side, Jafa, reflecting on Blackness with the urgency of someone who wants to re-establish the African-American aesthetic; on the other, Prince, oscillating between a critique of white masculinity and an irresistible attraction to the dark side of the American dream. The title itself, "Helter Skelter," evokes the chaos of amusement parks and the adrenaline rush of the Beatles, but carries with it the sinister shadow of Charles Manson and his prophecies of racial war. It is unruly and complex, perfectly reflecting the nature of this collaboration, sealed by a previously unpublished zine in which the two artists have collected the images exchanged during the project's genesis.
In this exhibition, America appears as a country of irreconcilable contradictions: between spirituality and slavery, between freedom of expression and voyeuristic perversions. Jafa and Prince don't ask permission; they take fragments of this reality and convert them into art, reminding us that, in an age of visual overload, the only true act of resistance is a critical gaze. A necessary exhibition during the 2026 Venice Biennale&mdash;open until November 23&mdash;transforms the Palazzo into a laboratory for sociological reflection, where the fashion of seeing is stripped of all frivolity to become pure, implacable denunciation.

<h2 style="text-align: center;">Zegna supports Chiara Camoni's "With You with Everything" project</h2>

For Zegna, this project isn't just patronage&mdash;it's a declaration of belonging. For the 61st Venice International Art Exhibition, the house is the main sponsor of the Italian Pavilion, supporting the project "Con te con tutto" (With You with Everything) by Chiara Camoni and curated by Cecilia Canziani, on display from May 24 to November 22.
For the label, the 2026 Venice Biennale isn't a debut, but rather, the culmination of an intellectual courtship that began over a decade ago with ZegnArt. The dialogue with Camoni and Canziani is a natural evolution of that "green thinking" rooted in the Zegna Oasis. The artist's practice, centered on matter, time, and transformation, draws inspiration from the wool mill's yarns, minerals, and plants harvested directly from the Biella landscape, transforming the pavilion into an ecosystem where craftsmanship meets the rituals of nature.

"For us, supporting the Italian Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Art Biennale means continuing a commitment that is part of our history. For over a century, we have invested in the local area, craftsmanship, and Italian culture, promoting an ongoing dialogue between business and art. Oasi Zegna is the most authentic expression of this: a project born from the Founder's vision that continues to generate value over time. We have shared a dialogue with Chiara Camoni that has lasted over ten years. Her work reflects this attention to materials, landscape, and evolving tradition. Seeing her as the protagonist of the Italian Pavilion today, alongside Cecilia Canziani, represents an important recognition of their journey and the coherence of their research, which we are proud to support," explains Gildo Zegna, Executive Chairman of the Ermenegildo Zegna Group.
And the connection is doubled: starting May 22, Oasi Zegna will host a solo exhibition of Camoni's work, curated by Ilaria Bonacossa. A circle that closes between the lagoon and the Alps, reaffirming that true luxury today is the ability to generate cultural value over time, protecting the know-how and soul of places.

<h2 style="text-align: center;">Espace Louis Vuitton and "The Evil Eye" Exhibition by Cl&eacute;ment Cogitore</h2>

A visual warning, icy and impeccable, on the human condition today. The Espace Louis Vuitton in Venice confirms its vocation for art by hosting "The Evil Eye" by Cl&eacute;ment Cogitore. Part of the "Hors-les-murs" program, the exhibition is not only a tribute to the Foundation's ability to circulate its treasures, but also a necessary investigation into the pathologies of the contemporary gaze. Cogitore, an artist who inhabits the boundary between ethnography and visual grammar, works on the persistence of ritual within the mutating body of globalization.
Winner of the 2018 Prix Marcel Duchamp,&nbsp;Cogitore's work on display dissects our dependence on images through the skillful use of found footage and overexposed settings. It is a scathing critique of the artificial happiness induced by consumerism, where the green screen becomes a metaphor for a fabricated identity. In a world that commodifies urban space and alienates the individual, Cogitore invites us to distrust representation, reminding us that identity is not a product, but a profound cultural process.

<h2 style="text-align: center;">Dries Van Noten Foundation "The Only True Protest is Beauty" Exhibition at Palazzo Pisani Moretta</h2>

According to Dries Van Noten, beauty does not accept the passivity of decorum, but rather, becomes a shock, a question, a vibration. On April 25, the&nbsp;Dries Van Noten Foundation opens a manifesto-exhibition with the programmatic title: "The Only True Protest is Beauty." The fashion designer and gardener, together with his life and visionary partner Patrick Vangheluwe, does not limit himself to exhibiting, but systematizes critical thinking, borrowing from Phil Ochs' verses: "in dark times, unexpected harmony is the only truly subversive gesture."
The setting is Palazzo Pisani Moretta, which sheds its museum-like rigidity to become a living organism for the occasio. Throughout the three levels of the Piano Nobile, Van Noten has personally curated an intuitive itinerary of 20 rooms where over 200 works dialogue with the stuccoes and history. A polyphonic conversation in which craftsmanship is celebrated as a universal language, capable of breaking down the barriers between fashion, jewelry, art, and material experimentation.
The ground-floor portego welcomes visitors with the dusty disquiet of a sculpture by Peter Buggenhout, a warning of impermanence that prepares the gaze for what will happen on the upper floors. Here, beneath the fresco of the Victory of Light over the Darkness of Guarana, a masterful short circuit unfolds: Steven Shearer's photographs meet Codognato's Memento Mori jewelry, while Christian Lacroix 's layered couture confronts Rei Kawakubo's sculptural abstractions for Comme des Gar&ccedil;ons.

Fashion, in this context, acts as a narrative glue and a method of investigation. Alongside the industry giants, the resilient voice of Palestinian artist&nbsp;Ayham Hassan stands out, whose raw materiality brings a poetics of necessary strength to the lagoon. It's a close dialogue between past and future: the traditional knowledge of Murano glass (from Ritsue Mishima to Wave Murano Glass) is reflected in Ann Carrington's metallic irreverence or Hubert Duprat's "insect-goldsmiths," who substitute gold for natural debris for their armor. An invitation to look deeper, beyond the surface, to rediscover the transformative power of a well-constructed emotion.

<h2 style="text-align: center;">Bvlgari Foundation at the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana in Venice</h2>

There's a subtle thread that links the fine craftsmanship of jewelry to the preservation of knowledge: the specific weight of legacy. This is a concept that the Bvlgari Foundation lays bare in Venice, inaugurating its first official exhibition project in a treasure trove of universal memory: the Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana. Under the aegis of Jean-Christophe Babin, the maison activates an intellectual process involving two voices in Italian art linked to the MAXXI Bvlgari Prize. In the Vestibule, Monia Ben Hamouda presents "Fragments of Fire Worship": neon sculptures that resemble luminous scars. The daughter of a calligrapher, the artist deconstructs the alphabet in an ancestral gesture where light, like fire in metalworking, is an ambivalent force of creation and destruction.

The beating heart of the exhibition is in the Salone Sansovino, where Lara Favaretto presents the final act of "Momentary Monument &ndash; ​​The Library." A monolithic shelving unites books not by rarity, but by documentary density, grafting images from her own archives onto each one. In the midst of the digital age, Favaretto restores physicality to knowledge, exposing it to the risk of circulation. Bvlgari, a partner of the Biennale until 2030, thus confirms a cultural vision rooted in aesthetic research. Meanwhile in Milan, the Bvlgari Hotel will host Ben Hamouda's sculpture. In Venice, the maison demonstrates that the true gem worth protecting is the human capacity to transform memory into a living organism.

<h2 style="text-align: center;">Jordan Roth's "Narrative Fashion Performance" at Palazzo dei Fiori</h2>

Venice, in the midst of the excitement of the 2026 Biennale, once again confirms itself as the elective stage where disciplines veer aside, intertwine, and generate new languages. On May 7, the historic halls of Palazzo dei Fiori&nbsp;become the perimeter of a radical aesthetic action: the debut of Jordan Roth's new work, presented by Performance Space New York. A seven-time Tony Award-winning theater producer and visionary collaborator with names such as Pierpaolo Piccioli, Daniel Roseberry, and Iris van Herpen, Roth has transformed his own body into a surface for experimentation. What he calls "Narrative Fashion Performance" finds a new, intense declination in Venice.

At the core of the performance beats the heart of a Renaissance ghost: Irene of Spilimbergo, a 16th-century painter and musician whose beauty and talent were crystallized in museum immortality after her early death. Roth retrieves her effigy, prints it on vinyl, and begins a ritual of deconstruction and reappropriation.
This is no simple staging: the artist engraves, fragments, and recomposes the woman's images on a sheet of glass set in a gilded frame, applying the edges to her own body. The collage ceases to be a two-dimensional technique and becomes a lived action. Roth does not wear the work, he becomes the work, merging his own identity with that of the muse in a process of self-fashioning that asserts the freedom of infinite being. As the action progresses under the expert production direction of Factioned, a camera lens captures the transformation in real time, displaying fragments of an archive of becoming on adjacent monitors. Roth demonstrates that true beauty lies not in the static image, but in the unstable space between seeing and being seen.

Fashion Loves Art: All of the Exhibitions to See at the 2026 Venice Biennale

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