DENNISTON HILL AT THE 2026 VENICE BIENNALE

Denniston Hill is an artist residency and laboratory founded by artists Julie Mehretu, Paul Pfeiffer, and Lawrence Chua. Since 2004, the program has welcomed over 400 artists from around the world to its campus in upstate New York. What began as a site for risk and experimentation remains, two decades on, a refuge for artists to attune to the entanglement of friendship, diaspora, stewardship, and fugitive study.

For "In Minor Keys," curated by the late Koyo Kouoh at the 61st International Art Exhibition, Denniston Hill debuts Chimera (2026), a large-scale multidisciplinary installation inspired by the Surrealist parlor game Exquisite Corpse. Reimagined as a mythical creature, whose many heads, torsos, legs, and tails are formed from sculpture, drawing, video, sound, painting, and photography, the work brings together contributions from 153 alumni and collaborators into a single room-sized group portrait. The installation stands as a collective celebration of the artists, collaborations, and encounters that have shaped Denniston Hill's history over the past twenty years.

During the opening week, LYRA founder Tanya Eves joined Denniston Hill founders Julie Mehretu, Paul Pfeiffer, and Lawrence Chua, alongside Director Megan Steinman, for a conversation reflecting on the importance of creating the conditions for artists to reflect, take risks, and experiment. Built by artists, for artists, Denniston Hill embodies this commitment through twenty years of providing the time, space, and resources artists need to sustain and develop their practice. Evenings like this underscore the value of bringing voices together around a shared commitment to supporting artists – particularly in Venice, where each edition of the Biennale captures a defining moment in contemporary culture and becomes part of its ongoing history.

The evening also featured a performance by musician and performance artist San Cha, an artist-in-residence at Denniston Hill in February 2025, where she completed her opera Inebria Me. Her practice moves fluidly across opera, storytelling, performance art, and scenography, weaving these disciplines into a singular and immersive form of expression. LYRA extends our thanks to San Cha for sharing her work, and to Performance Space New York.