Artists and curators participating in the main exhibition at this year’s Venice Biennale have issued an “urgent” open letter protesting the inclusion of Israel, Russia, and the United States in the global art event.

The letter follows on a similar call to exclude Israel from the Biennale that was published earlier this month by activist group Art Not Genocide Alliance (ANGA), but it expands the call to include all “current regimes committing war crimes,” including Russia and the U.S. It has been signed by 70 artists, including Alfredo Jaar, Tabita Rezaire, Pio Abad, Zoe Leonard, and Galas Porras-Kim. It has also been signed by Rasha Salti, Gabe Beckhurst Feijoo, and Rory Tsapayi, three of five curators chosen by Koyo Kouoh to carry out her vision for the main exhibition “In Minor Keys.”

The question of whether the U.S. should be excluded from the Venice Biennale alongside Russia and Israel has been gaining momentum. One high-profile voice to weigh in was New York art critic Jerry Saltz, who suggested in a social media post from March 29 that “the United States should be banned, as well.”

The latest letter’s central objection remains the Biennale’s decision to accommodate an Israeli national pavilion in the Arsenale venue, where it will be represented by the Romanian-born, Haifa-based artist Belu-Simion Fainaru. This will allow Israel to take part while its permanent pavilion in the Giardini is reportedly being renovated. The letter states that its signatories formally requested that the Biennale revoke this decision on March 13.

Belu-Simion Fainaru is representing Israel at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026. Photo: Roland Vaczi.

The Biennale did not respond to a request for comment. It has so far resisted all calls to exclude any nation from participating in its 61st edition, which opens in May. In a statement published this month, the Biennale emphasized that it is a place of “artistic freedom” that “rejects any form of exclusion or censorship in culture and art.”

The writers of the letter have questioned the Biennale’s stance of “neutrality,” claiming that “allowing governments that are actively committing war crimes, atrocities, and genocide to participate is not neutral.”

“A community of nations can only exist if states are sanctioned when they egregiously violate international law and human rights,” the letter states. It added that the insertion of the Israel pavilion into the Arsenale, which also houses the main exhibition, “intrudes upon and goes directly against Kouoh’s curatorial vision.” It noted “conditions of violence and fear” that will be imposed by the police presence required to protect the Israel pavilion.

The Biennale has remained steadfast in its position amid a wave of backlash triggered by its decision to allow Russia to return to the event this year. This has included a threat by the E.U. to withdraw €2 million ($2.3 million) in funding as well as criticism from within Italian government.

Russia withdrew from the Venice Biennale ahead of its 59th edition in 2022, just days after its invasion of Ukraine on February 24. On March 4, the Biennale issued a statement saying it “rejects any form of collaboration with those who… have carried out or supported” an act of aggression like war, “and will therefore not accept the presence at any of its events of official delegations, institutions, or persons tied in any capacity to the Russian government.”

Alma Allen is representing the U.S. at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026. Photo: Luis Garvan, courtesy of Perrotin.

This statement is quoted in the latest open letter, which says: “We believe these principles hold true today, that they apply to Israel, Russia, and the United States.”

The U.S. will be represented at the Biennale this year by the Utah-born sculptor Alma Allen. Russia is returning with a group exhibition featuring more than 50 young musicians, poets, and philosophers from Russia and other countries.

Several of the letter’s 73 signatories chose to stay anonymous. Others are not individual artists, such as the collective fierce pussy and the artist-run organizations Denniston Hill, in the U.S., and Lugar a Dudas, in Colombia. The Nancy Brooks Brody Estate also signed.

Fainaru did not immediately respond to a request for comment. In January he told ARTnews that “art is a place for dialogue, not for exclusion.” He added: “It’s one of the main places to overcome politics and try to express the voice of people freely, without any borders.”