Following Pope Leo XIV’s Encyclical, the Vatican Announces a New Art Triennial Celebrating Human Creativity and Empathy in the Age of A.I.

More than 100 artists will showcase their art on four continents as the Catholic Church continues to emphasize human creativity and relationships over artificial intelligence tools

Christian Thorsberg | Daily Correspondent

August 12, 2026 3:00 p.m.

Share

Copy linkEmailSMSFacebookXRedditLinkedInBlueskyPrint

Add as preferred source

The Vatican this week announced the creation of a new global art triennial that aims to uplift contemporary art and celebrate the ability of human creativity—not technology—to spark introspection and discussion about some of the world’s most urgent issues.

One of these, the rising role of artificial intelligence in society, is mentioned by name in the Vatican’s statement announcing the exhibition. Its title, “Exercises in Empathy,” is a direct reference to Pope Leo XIV’s Encyclical Letter, delivered this May, in which he urged humanity to use the technology responsibly and pointed out its moral and artistic limitations.

Artificial intelligences “may imitate language, behavior and analytical skills, or even simulate empathy and understanding, but they do not understand what they produce, for they lack the affective, relational and spiritual perspective through which human beings grow in wisdom,” the pope wrote.

The encyclical, which Notre Dame Law School professor Paolo Carozza called “profound and prophetic,” will “likely become a benchmark in the debate over A.I., a point of reference for policymakers, researchers and ordinary folk alike,” reported Nicole Winfield, Kaitlyn Huamani and Paolo Santalucia for the Associated Press.

The art world will soon see the document’s influence come to life. Beginning in August, the Catholic Church’s international exhibition will span seven countries, including the United States, and showcase works from more than 100 artists. Catholic universities in Rio de Janeiro; Bogotá, Columbia; Boston; Lisbon; Luanda, Angola; Milan; and Santiago, Chile, will stage individual shows lasting roughly two or three months each, while a finale will be held in Venice, Italy, sometime in 2027.

An initial lineup of participating artists hints at some of the artworks that may be on display around the world. Multidisciplinary artist Anna Maria Maiolino—the “grande dame of Brazilian contemporary art,” as described by Oliver Basciano for Art Basel in 2024—headlines the Rio de Janeiro outpost, which kicks off the first exhibition beginning August 27.

Nearly two dozen artists will feature their work in Santiago, including video and multimedia artist Korakrit Arunanondchai, whose internationally acclaimed installations address “issues of inbetweenness and dissolved identity with regard to generation, gender and nationality,” as described by Stockholm’s Moderna Museet in 2022. Joining these displays will be art by Josefina Guilisasti, who hails from Santiago and describes her work, many of them handcrafts, as “historical rescue” that engages with heritage, collective amnesia and accumulation.

Lisbon’s exhibition is the largest, staging art by William Eggleston, Taysir Batniji and Martha Rosler, among others.

And several artists will showcase their work at Boston College from mid-September until December. That lineup includes visual artists Bárbara Wagner and Benjamin de Burca, photographer Lisa Elmaleh, writer and filmmaker Manthia Diawara and the late Corita Kent, who spent years as part of the religious order Immaculate Heart of Mary and who used pop art as a medium for messaging about poverty, war and racism from the 1960s until her death in 1986.

“Art, with all the mystery that surrounds it, is an emotional experience through which we say things to one another that transcend times, cultures and geographies,” Nuno Crespo, the triennial’s chief curator, writes in a statement. “An essential form of speaking in times of intense and radical dissent, of impossible conversations and seemingly incompatible ways of life.”

The Vatican also identified the triennial as an opportunity for institutions of higher education to reflect on their roles in cultivating empathy, human creativity and relationships.

“At a time when many processes—informational, relational, and even emotional—are being delegated to algorithms, reaffirming the centrality of human empathy becomes an act of cultural awareness and, at the same time, an act of hope,” Cardinal José Tolentino de Mendonça, a Catholic Church leader for culture and education, says in a statement.

Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer and photographer from Chicago. His work, which often centers on freshwater issues, climate change and subsistence, has appeared in Circle of Blue, Sierra magazine, Discover magazine and Alaska Sporting Journal.