Congratulations to Professor Krista Thompson, who has been named the Bahamian Pavilion Curator at the 61st Venice Biennale.
October 27, 2025
"The Bahamas in Venice Committee proudly announces The Bahamas’ participation in the 61st Venice Biennale, having appointed as the Pavilion Curator the distinguished Bahamian art historian, Dr. Krista Thompson, the Mary Jane Crowe Professor of Art History at Northwestern University and the author of seminal Caribbean art texts including An Eye for the Tropics (2006) and Shine: The Visual Economy of Light in African Diasporic Aesthetic Practice (2015). This historic achievement marks only the second time The Bahamas will participate in the biennale — a significant milestone in the nation’s cultural history.
Under Dr Thompson’s curatorial vision, the Bahamian Pavilion will present the work of the revered Bahamian artist John Beadle (1964–2024) and critically acclaimed contemporary visual artist Lavar Munroe (b 1982), with a posthumous collaboration between the late and the living artist. Both Beadle’s and Munroe’s work is deeply rooted in Bahamian artistic and social practices, like Junkanoo, the national processional festival that continues to inspire generations of Bahamian creativity. Their dialogue—grounded in the culture of The Bahamas and addressing pressing issues faced in many parts of the world—forms the conceptual and visual foundation of the Pavilion.
Resonating with the Biennale’s overarching theme, In Minor Keys, envisioned by the late Koyo Kouoh, which celebrates “artists who work at the boundaries of form and whose practices can be thought of as intricate melodies to be heard both collectively and on their own terms,” Dr. Thompson’s curatorial approach offers a distinctly Bahamian interpretation of this sentiment. The Pavilion will highlight Beadle's and Munroe's use of discarded materials and processes of artistic collaboration to call attention to the hidden, the undervalued, “the minor notes,” in society and in the art world."