How Geographically Diverse Is the 2015 Venice Biennale?

The artist list for the main show at the 2015 Venice Biennale, “All the World’s Futures,” curated by Okwui Enwezor, is out, including more than 136 artists from around the world. Just how global is the show? As the above graphs indicate, there are strong contingents from every continent, though European artists are the largest group—about one-third were born in Europe and nearly 44 percent currently live and work there. North America and Asia follow in the number two and three spots for current location, accounting for about 22 percent and 15 percent respectively.

African artists are also a major presence—about 14 percent of artists in the show were born on the continent, which is roughly in line with the continent’s portion of the world’s population. As The Art Newspaper noted yesterday, the show also has a record number of Australians—seven. Of course, continental breakdowns can only reveal so much, since each continent includes countless regional differences, and there’s no way to yet know exactly what role individual artists will play in the show. That will have to wait for the opening on May 9.

A note on methodology: Each artist was counted only once in each section, with each person in a collaborative group counted individually. Collectives listed without the names of their artists, were counted once. In the case of artists who work in multiple cities, each city was assigned a fractional weighting. One group—Gulf Labor—was listed as an international group. Fractions have been rounded.