derrick adams arrives in venice
A new public work by Derrick Adams has appeared in Venice, floating over the city’s network of canals in the heart of the Biennale. Titled Heavy is the head that wears the crown, the piece takes the form of a large-scale portrait of the late curator Koyo Kouoh, installed as a banner on the facade of the Palazzetto dello sport Giobatta Gianquinto in Castello. Facing the Rio della Tana, the image meets visitors as they move between the Arsenale and the surrounding streets.
The project, curated by Francesco Bonami, runs from May 4th through September 24th, 2026. Its placement is significant. The facade reads as a flat plane stretched across a busy edge condition, and Adams uses that surface as a support for an image that holds at distance. From across the canal, the composition resolves into a frontal figure with a concentrated gaze, framed by radiating bands of color.
Derrick Adams, Heavy is the head that wears the crown, 2026, installation view. © Derrick Adams Studio, photo: Andrea Avezzù, courtesy Gagosian
material language and surface
The source work is a collage depicting Koyo Kouoh built by Derrick Adams from acrylic and fabric on paper, later translated into a monumental print. The artist keeps the edges crisp and the palette controlled. Skin tones are constructed through faceted geometry, shifting from warm browns to muted ochres. The background carries a field of green that leans toward gold, catching light in a way that reads clearly even under the diffuse conditions of Venice.
At the center, the word JOY sits as a crown above Koyo Kouoh’s head. The letters are rounded and inflated, edged with lighter tones that give them volume. From this point, linear elements extend outward, creating a directional rhythm that organizes the entire surface. Up close, the layering of fabric and paint holds attention. From a distance, the late curator‘s likeness remains legible, which is essential for a work positioned across water.
Derrick Adams, Heavy is the head that wears the crown, 2026. © Derrick Adams Studio, photo: John Berens, courtesy the artist and Gagosian
a public tribute to koyo Kouoh
Koyo Kouoh’s role as curator of the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia frames the project by Derrick Adams with added weight. She passed away in May 2025, and this installation enters the city as a form of acknowledgment placed directly within the Biennale’s spatial network . The decision to work at the scale of a building shifts the portrait from an object into an encounter that unfolds through movement.
There is a practical intelligence to how Derrick Adams approaches this. The composition holds a frontal pose that echoes devotional imagery, while the flattened forms and gold-toned palette connect loosely to Venice’s Byzantine references. These choices are handled with restraint. The work reads clearly without leaning on ornament.
Derrick Adams. photo: © LUXURY Magazine, Seoul
framing joy as structure
The emphasis on joy sits at the center of the piece. Adams has long worked with images of leisure and self-possession, and here that focus is directed toward a single figure whose influence extended across institutions and geographies. The crown becomes a structural device within the image, carrying both the phrase in the title and the visual weight of the composition.
In Venice, where facades often carry memory through material rather than image, this installation introduces a different kind of surface. It is temporary, yet it holds the eye in a direct way. As people move along the water’s edge, the portrait of Koyo Kouoh remains fixed, scaled to the city and tuned to be read in passing as well as in pause.
project info:
name: Heavy is the head that wears the crown
artist: Derrick Adams | @derrickadamsny
location: Palazzetto dello sport Giobatta Gianquinto, Castello, Venice
dates: May 4th — September 24th, 2026
The post monumental portrait of koyo kouoh by derrick adams appears amid venice biennale appeared first on designboom | architecture & design magazine.
