Berggruen Arts & Culture will present a major exhibition of works by the late British conceptual artist Ceal Floyer, opening at Palazzo Diedo in Venice from 4th May to 22nd November 2026. Titled Unfinished, the exhibition is curated by Ann Gallagher and Jonathan Watkins and marks one of the first major presentations of Floyer’s work following her death in December 2025.
Bringing together video, photography, sound, readymades and sculptural works, the exhibition highlights Floyer’s distinctive conceptual practice, known for its quiet humour and subtle shifts in perception. Across her work, everyday objects and familiar situations are reconfigured through puns, visual double-takes and unexpected juxtapositions that reveal both the absurdity and possibility embedded in ordinary life.
Born in Karachi in 1968, Floyer spent her early years between Sydney, Rabat and England, later studying at Goldsmiths College in London during the early 1990s. Emerging during the same period as the Young British Artists, she quickly gained the attention of critics and curators for the precision and wit of her conceptual approach.
The exhibition takes its title from Unfinished (1995), a looped video of someone rolling—or “twiddling”—their thumbs. First shown as part of the British Council’s landmark exhibition General Release at the 1995 Venice Biennale, the work returns to Venice more than thirty years later as a central point of reference for the show.
Among the works on view is ’Til I Get It Right (2005), a sound piece built around a looped fragment from Tammy Wynette’s country song of the same name, with the words “falling in love” deliberately removed. In Bucket (1999), a CD player emits the sound of a water drop falling at intervals, transforming a simple object into an exercise in anticipation and perception.
Several works explore repetition and accumulation. Again and Again (2012) consists of the artist repeatedly handwriting the word “again” until it becomes illegible, while Ink on Paper (2010) documents the slow draining of felt-tip pens left upright on blotting paper, producing pools of colour determined by the size of the pen set.
Floyer’s practice is often associated with monochrome aesthetics and subtle visual jokes. Monochrome Till Receipt (White) (1999) lists only white items purchased from a supermarket, collapsing the language of everyday commerce into an unlikely form of modernist abstraction. Meanwhile, Blind (1997) initially appears as a blank white projection before revealing itself as footage of a window blind moving up and down.
Wordplay runs throughout her work. Half Empty and Half Full (1999) presents two identical photographs of a glass partially filled with water, referencing the familiar expression used to distinguish optimism from pessimism. An earlier piece, Light Switch (1992), projects a life-sized image of a switch directly onto a wall, quietly collapsing representation and reality.
One of the most recent works in the exhibition, 644 (2025), shows sheep grazing across a hillside, each animal numbered sequentially from one to 644. The image recalls the childhood ritual of counting sheep while falling asleep, transforming a simple landscape into a meditation on repetition, memory and rest.
Across three decades of work, Floyer developed a distinctive conceptual language built from small gestures and subtle perceptual shifts. Unfinished brings these works together in Venice, returning one of her earliest Biennale pieces to the city while reflecting on a practice that continues to resonate for its clarity, humour and intellectual precision.
Ceal Floyer: Unfinished, 4th May – 22nd November 2026, Palazzo Diedo, Venice, berggruenarts.org
The exhibition is supported by Esther Schipper and Lisson Gallery.
