The British Council presents a brand new body of work by artist Cathy Wilkes for the British Pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia – open 11 May until 24 November 2019. 

Cathy Wilkes’ exhibition for the Biennale Arte 2019 is bathed in natural Venetian daylight. The unadorned architecture of the British Pavilion provides the setting for an interconnected series of floor-bound sculptural installations, paintings and prints.

Through the measured process of creating her works, Wilkes experiments with all kinds of media and materials, and collects treasures and ingredients. Production – or what we see in the end – is the accumulation of all of these constituent parts. Her work recalls inchoate visions of interiors and places of loss, and meditates on the nature of love and the coexistence of life and death.

Her work also shows the disappearance and dematerialisation of life and the absence and anonymity of the author. Her works, which are all Untitled, render us all non-initiates; together we have equal capacity.

The exhibition is curated by Dr Zoé Whitley, Senior Curator at Hayward Gallery, Southbank Centre. Dr Whitley is the first open-call curator to be selected by the British Council to work alongside the artist on a British Pavilion exhibition, presenting a significant international opportunity for mid-career curators.

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Commissioned by the British Council for the 58th International Art Exhibition – La Biennale di Venezia, 2019. This presentation has been made possible through collaboration with the Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow.

Explore the Exhibition

Cathy Wilkes | Untitled, 2019 (detail) | Mixed Media | Dimensions variable | Installation view, Cathy Wilkes, British Pavilion, Biennale Arte, Venice, 2019. ©

British Council. Courtesy of the Artist, The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow and Xavier Hufkens, Brussels.

Cathy Wilkes Untitled, 2019 (detail) Mixed Media Dimensions variable | Photo: Cristiano Corte ©

British Council. Courtesy of the Artist, The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow and Xavier Hufkens, Brussels.

Cathy Wilkes Untitled, 2019 (detail) | Egg tempera on linen | 122 x 244 x 2.3 cm 48 x 96.1 x 0.9 in | Photo: Cristiano Corte ©

British Council. Courtesy of the Artist, The Modern Institute/Toby Webster Ltd, Glasgow and Xavier Hufkens, Brussels.

Selection Committee

The British Council appoints a committee of leading arts professionals from across the UK to select the British representation for the Biennale Arte every two years. The British Pavilion selection committee for 2019:

  • David A. Bailey, Director, International Curators Forum
  • Anne Barlow, Artistic Director, Tate St Ives 
  • Fiona Bradley, Director, Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh
  • Katy Freer, Exhibitions Officer, Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea
  • Martin Herbert, Writer and Critic
  • Melanie Keen, Director, Iniva
  • Hugh Mulholland, Senior Curator, The Mac, Belfast
  • Sarah Munro, Director, BALTIC Centre of Contemporary Art, Gateshead
  • Joe Scotland, Director, Studio Voltaire, London

See also