Phyllida Barlow, Folly at the British Pavilion, via Art Observed

Spread out across the Giardini and the various storehouses and spaces inside the Arsenale, the Venice Biennale‘s annual invitations to various nations around the globe serves to offer a counterpoint to the sprawling main exhibition, Viva Arte Viva.  Presented by individual curators and supported by art institutions back home, the shows offer not only a selection of singular voices from around the globe, but equally a look at the various national discourses of each country’s artistic institutions and infrastructure, a point that equally sets it as a strong conversation piece against the curatorial discipline of the main exhibition’s lone organizer, in this case Centre Pompidou’s Christine Macel.

Jana Zelibska at the Czech Republic Pavilion, via Art Observed

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Anne Imhof’s Faust at the German Pavilion, via Art Observed

The Golden Lions have been announced for this year’s edition of the Venice Biennale, with Anne Imhof and Franz Erhard Walther taking top honors for their work in the German National Pavilion and Main Exhibition, respectively.  The full list of winners is included below.   (more…)

Lynette Yiadom-Boakye, The Secret Societies group show, courtesy Schirn Kunsthalle

At a ceremony held in Kiev, Ukraine, Lynette Yiadom-Boakye was announced winner of the Future Generation Art Prize, funded by Ukrainian collector Viktor Pinchuk’s foundation and worth $100,000. Yiadom-Boakye, born and working in London, was shortlisted for her portrait paintings of mainly black subjects, which through cultural context have taken on a political charge. Her work is urgent, sweeping, and dark. Yiadom-Boakye says each work takes her less than a day to complete, because “it’s about a certain kind of urgency and capturing that time frame.”

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