Pelenakeke Brown
Pelenakeke Brown
Pelenakeke Brown (Gataivai, Siutu-Salailua) is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice explores the intersections between disability theory and Sāmoan concepts. Working across visual art, text, and performance, Brown is a Sāmoan-Pākehā crip artist from Aotearoa whose work is informed by the Sāmoan concept of vā, relationships across time and space, and the notion of crip time.
Her practice investigates sites where these frameworks meet, often moving fluidly between poetry, visual art, and choreographic score. Brown has presented performances, exhibitions, residencies, and published writing internationally, including in New York, California, Berlin, Hamburg, London, and Aotearoa.
She has worked with institutions including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gibney Dance Center, and The New York Public Library for the Performing Arts. Her work has been featured in publications including The New York Times, Art in America, Art Agenda, and The Art Paper. In 2020, she received a Creative New Zealand Pacific Toa Award.
Project Summary
In Minor Keys | 61st Venice Biennale | Venice, Italy
In 2026, Pelenakeke Brown will participate in In Minor Keys, the posthumous exhibition curated by the late Koyo Kouoh and presented as part of the 61st Venice Biennale. Invited through her longstanding relationship with Denniston Hill Residency as an alum, Brown will exhibit alongside fellow residency artists within a project produced and supported by Denniston Hill.
For Brown, inclusion in Kouoh’s final curatorial vision carries particular significance. The exhibition considers “minor keys” as worlds that exist within larger political, ecological, and cultural structures, a concept that resonates deeply with her experience as an artist from Moana communities often positioned as small within global art discourse.
Attending the Biennale opening week will allow Brown to engage directly with international artists, curators, institutions, and audiences while contributing to conversations surrounding one of the world’s most significant contemporary art events. The opportunity will further support her ongoing practice at the intersection of disability theory, Sāmoan concepts, and global contemporary art.