The world’s most prestigious contemporary art exhibition, the Venice Art Biennale, opened last week and runs until 24 November in two main locations, the Giardini and the Arsenale, as well as throughout Venice in museums, foundations, galleries, churches and palazzos. These “collateral events” are free and are mostly open through the fall. From stunning painting shows to sculptural installations, here are ten must-see exhibitions dotted throughout the city nicknamed "La Serenissima."
Jean Cocteau, ‘The Juggler’s Revenge’ At Peggy Guggenheim Collection Until September 16
The largest retrospective ever organized in Italy dedicated to Jean Cocteau (1889–1963), the enfant terrible of the French twentieth-century art scene highlights the artist’s versatility and the multiple juggling acts that distinguished his production, which often drew criticism from his contemporaries. It’s a chance to see works from private collections plus from the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Phoenix Art Museum, the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco, and the Musée Jean Cocteau, Collection Séverin Wunderman in Menton. Over 150 works on show include drawings, graphics, jewelry, tapestries, historical documents, books, magazines, photographs, documentaries, and films directed by Cocteau.
Wallace Chan, ‘Transcendence,’ Santa Maria Della Pietà, Until September 30
Escape from the tourist crowds and immerse yourself in a soothing, spiritual exhibition of stunning titanium sculptures created by a former Buddhist monk. Transcendence by Chinese jeweller and artist Wallace Chan is the artist’s third show at the Biennale. It also follows The Wheel of Time, a recent exhibition at Christie’s in London, the largest display of his 50 year career to date, encompassing carving, sculpture and jewellery. The installation in Venice includes four large-scale titanium sculptures suspended from the ceiling of the chapel and two small pieces on a table at the end of the room. As viewers move through the Chapel, the arrangement of hanging sculptures encourages a progressive transition from a state of conflict to one of peace and tranquillity. The final large piece is a tulip with its petals opening and on the table beyond the flower are two small sculptures of Buddha and Jesus. Inspired by both Christian and Buddhist ideas, Chan sees the universe as ultimately all-embracing. The exhibition is enhanced with a soundscape by pioneering musician and composer, Brian Eno.
Rick Lowe, ‘The Arch Within The Arc’ At Museo Di Palazzo Grimani Until November 24
American artist Rick Lowe’s first solo show in Italy was inspired by the historic architecture of the Palazzo it’s in, a rare example of Tuscan-Roman Renaissance architecture in Venice. The vibrant works, created with acrylic paint and paper collage on canvas, evoke infrastructure, mapping, and the experience of moving through Venice and across its waters. Without directly representing specific sites, these works are imbued with the spirit of the city and its unique cartography, their abstract shapes channeling relationships between its streets, canals, and bridges. They evoke the experience of getting lost, something that happens to all visitors to Venice.
Eva Jospin, ‘Selva’ At Museo Fortuny Until November 24
Shown on the ground floor of the glorious 15th-century Gothic Museo Fortuny, Eva Jospin's incredible immersive installation is made of cardboard, plant elements and fibres, metal parts, and fabric. Her works are mysterious, almost magical, recreating a world that is at the center of her interests: landscapes, trees, plants, branches, leaves, geological formations, pieces of vegetation, and architectural structures. The large installation in the portego of Museo Fortuny is an artificial “forest” that, once crossed, gives the sensation of losing all sense of time and space, of finding oneself in an undefined and disorienting “elsewhere.”
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‘From Ukraine: Dare To Dream’ At Palazzo Contarini Polignac, Until August 1
Presented by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation and the PinchukArtCentre in Kiev, 22 artists and collectives weave a tapestry of stories and hopes grown within the shadows of global conflicts: Kateryna Aliinyk, Allora & Calzadilla, Alex Baczyński-Jenkins, Fatma Bucak, David Claerbout, Shilpa Gupta, Oleg Holosiy, Nikita Kadan, Zhanna Kadyrova, Dana Kavelina, Nikolay Karabinovych, Lesia Khomenko, Yana Kononova, Kateryna Lysovenko, Otobong Nkanga, Wilfredo Prieto, Oleksiy Sai, Anton Saenko, Fedir Tetianych, Anna Zvyagintseva, Roman Khimei and Yarema Malashchuk, Daniil Revkovskiy and Andriy Rachinskiy. One of the most impactful pieces is an organ created by Zhanna Kadyrova from the fired missiles used by Russia to bomb Ukraine. The artist collected shells from the Kyiv region and affixed them to the instrument. Musicians will perform compositions of classical Russian music on this instrument during the exhibition.
Martha Jungwirth, ‘Herz Der Finsternis’ At Palazzo Cini, Until September 29
Austrian artist Martha Jungwirth takes Joseph Conrad’s 1899 novella Heart of Darkness, as the starting point for her recent body of work. The exhibition’s German title references Conrad’s book, which Jungwirth read as a young woman and explores the darkness and brutality of European colonialism in Africa. After visiting the Musée de l’histoire de l’immigration at the Palais de la Porte Dorée, a building constructed for the Paris Colonial Exposition of 1931, the tale found its way back into Jungwirth’s mind and these paintings are the result. Known for a palette that dwells in a corporeal and sensuous register of fleshy pinks and reds, the unexpected lush green and petrol tones of her latest works reference the dense green landscape of the Central African rainforest, which is described in vivid detail in Heart of Darkness.
Ydessa Hendeles, ‘Grand Hotel’ At Spazio Berlendis, Fondamente Nove, Until November 24
Venice’s Jewish ghetto is an apt setting for Grand Hotel, an installation by Canadian/ Polish artist Ydessa Hendeles who explores the themes of cultural identity, displacement, intergenerational trauma and loss, linking the past to the present. Born in Marburg, Germany, just after World War II, Ydessa Hendeles is the only child of Auschwitz survivors whose Jewish community in Zawiercie, Poland, was erased in the Holocaust. Her family history of persecution and migration is the basis of this powerful show that includes a VW car from 1953, the year the car was launched in Canada, and Louis Vuitton luggage, two brands with links to Nazi Germany.
Pierre Huyghe, ‘Liminal’ At Rhe Pinault Collection’s Punta Della Dogana, Until November 24
This deeply spooky show across the cavernous space of the Punta della Dogana extends the French artist’s longtime exploration of otherness, conceived here as the experience of reality in biological, chemical, and technological entities that are not human. His work careens between cybernetics, neuroscience, sci-fi, philosophy, and fantasy, at its best making the complex issues involved in all of them engagingly intelligible.
Willem De Kooning, At Gallerie Dell'Accademia, Until September 15
It’s a treat to see sculpture, paintings, drawings from Abstract Expressionist Willem de Kooning in the grand Accademia gallery as his work has been rarely exhibited in Italy since he was first showed at the Venice Biennale in 1950 as part of a group exhibition at the US Pavilion. Black-and-white drawings, made during a stay in Rome, influenced his paintings on his return to America. Three examples of these paintings are here: A Tree in Naples, Villa Borghese and Door to the River.
James Lee Byars And Seung-Taek Lee, ‘Invisible Questions That Fill The Air’ At Palazzo Loredan, Until August 25
A Korean artist who should be much better known to Westerners is Seung-taek Lee (b. 1932) who is shown alongside American artist James Lee Byars (1932-1997). Although the two artists didn’t ever meet, this exhibition in a stunning library near the Accademia bridge illustrates fascinating parallels in their work and it’s even sometimes difficult to determine who did what. Both artists share a deep curiosity for history and the arts of the past. It’s a gorgeous show featuring gleaming sculptures of gold, wood and rope.
The Venice Biennale is open daily except Mondays until Sunday November 24, 2024. Tickets: €30 or 3 days €40/weekly €50 Concessions € 20/€16. Off-site exhibitions throughout the city are free and most run through until the autumn but do check dates.
