Four WashU alumni to exhibit at 2026 Venice Biennale

Michel Joo, BFA ’89, is a conceptual artist whose work is rooted in an examination of perception — he is more interested in the way we perceive than what it is we are looking at. His multidisciplinary practice draws on scientific research, ontology, epistemology, and entropy, and combines techniques from sculpture, painting, photography, and printmaking. He has exhibited work across the world and previously participated in the 49th Venice Biennale at the Korean Pavilion.

Ron Laboray, MFA ’00, is participating in the inaugural national pavilion for Nauru. He shared that his installation, “Disappearance as Perceptual Inquiry,” brings together two large-scale drawings and a continuous program of animation, forming a three-wall environment. The drawings develop layered symbolic systems to examine how meaning is constructed and eroded under conditions of extraction and globalization.

Lavar Munroe, MFA ’13, is participating in the Biennale for the second time in his career, representing the Bahamas. He is creating a site-specific sculpture that draws on his collaboration with artist John Beadle, who passed away in 2024. Munroe will respond to Beadle’s sketches, incorporating materials Beadle left behind. Both artists’ work emphasizes research and an interest in the Bahamian tradition of Junkanoo, a national processional festival. He was awarded a Guggenheim Fellowship in 2023 and among this year’s Sam Fox School Awards for Distinction honorees.

Ebony G. Patterson, MFA ’06, is a multidisciplinary artist who creates densely layered, highly textured works pose questions about race, class, gender, power, care, life, and death. Her invitation to the Biennale follows other recent significant achievements such as being named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow and her role as co-director of the Prospect.6 Triennial in New Orleans.