The Venice Biennale is widely regarded as the world's pre-eminent showcase for international art. Wales will be represented at the 2011 festival by Swansea artist Tim Davies. It will be the fifth time that Wales has staged an exhibition at the Biennale.
Tim Davies is the head of fine art at Swansea Metropolitan University. He was chosen to represent Wales at the 54th Venice Biennale in 2011 by the Arts Council of Wales from a shortlist of around 30 possible contributors.
Tom Rowlands will curate the project and lead the team who will support the artist with his exhibition. He has previously collaborated with Davies on projects and has featured the artist's work in London gallery showings in recent years.
Davies is already an established international artist. He won the Fine Art Gold Medal at the National Eisteddfod in 2003 and was selected for Artes Mundi 1 in 2004. In 2008 he received a Major Creative Wales Award from the Arts Council of Wales.
Read more about Tim Davies in the BBC Wales Arts blog.
One of the most influential musicians ever to have come from Wales, John Cale represented Wales at the Venice Biennale of Art 2009.
After just six months of intensive work and preparation, the former Velvet Underground front man unveiled a specially commissioned audio-visual installation at the Ex-Birreria (a former brewery building on the island of Giudecca).
The film and sound installation, entitled Dyddiau Du/Dark Days, was a reflection of Cale's personal relationship with Wales, the Welsh language and wider issue of communication, and the uniqueness of the bardic tradition of his home nation.
Previous artists to have represented Wales at the Venice Biennale include Richard Deacon, Merlin James, and Heather and Ivan Morison (2007); Peter Finnemore (2005); Bethan Huws and Cerith Wynn Evans (2003).
