Louise Nevelson, Persistence (Installation View), via Art Observed

Operated during Venice Biennale as an official Collateral Event of the exhibition, and curated by Julia Bryan-Wilson, professor of modern and contemporary art at the University of California, Berkeley, the Procuratie Vecchie in Venice’s Piazza San Marco plays home to an expansive and expressive body of work by the American artist Louise Nevelson. Persistence, which marks the 60th anniversary of Nevelson’s representation of the United States in the American Pavilion at the Biennale Arte in 1962, it includes more than 60 works created by Nevelson between the 1950s and the 1980s.

Louise Nevelson, Persistence (Installation View), via Art Observed

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Anish Kapoor (Installation View), via Art Observed

Marking a major retrospective including recent and new works going on view in conjunction with the opening of the Venice Biennale, Anish Kapoor is the subject of a new show at the Gallerie dell’Accademia in the Dorsoduro neighborhood of the city. Curated by Taco Dibbits, General Director of the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the show focuses on the artist’s investigations of perception and the body, space and time, it features a range of works drawing on his recent work with the hyper-black pigment Vantablack in pursuit of new experiments with “the void” and human experience.  Read More »

Georg Baselitz at Palazzo Grimani, via Art Observed

On view as part of the broader offering of works surrounding the Venice Biennale this summer, painter Georg Baselitz has brought forth a body of new and recent works to bear on the halls of the Museo Palazzo Grimani, continuing a long and fruitful series of shows and projects in the city. Baselitz, who previously was the subject of a major retrospective at the Gallerie dell’Accademia during the last Biennale in 2019, here continues his recent adventures into bright colors, abstracted brushstrokes, and new iterations of his familiar formats and images.  Read More »

Gian Maria Tosatti at the Italian Pavilion

Spread between the Arsenale and Giardini, the second half the Venice Biennale’s usual run of exhibitions, the National Pavilions, have now opened, with a range of concepts and interests contending for viewers’ attention alongside the fair’s main show. Serving as a central draw in the exhibition, and a chance to elaborate and expand on the concepts and ideas of the Biennale itself, the National Pavilions offer a fresh series of perspectives to build on and elaborate the themes developed.

Zineb Sedira at the French Pavilion

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Sonia Boyce, Feeling Her Way (Installation View), via Art Observed

With the history-making announcement of the Golden Lions on Saturday, Sonia Boyce‘s work took center stage for the night in the art world, with her British Pavilion work Feeling Her Way earning the nod for best National Pavilion at this year’s Venice Biennale. The work, which draws on a series of shifting, evolving audio and video pieces, is a powerful meditation on expression and collective experience in an increasingly challenging era.

Sonia Boyce, Feeling Her Way (Installation View), via Art Observed

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Simone Leigh, Sovereignty (Installation View), via Art Observed

On view amidst the bustling landscape of the Venice Biennale’s Giardini pavilion, artist Simone Leigh has transformed the U.S. Pavilion, covering its surface with a thatched roof and situating one of her iconic sculptural arrangements outside. The show, which features a new body of work made for the show, continues her interest in performativity and affect, drawing on the artist’s expansive practice to explore the construction of Black femme subjectivity.

Simone Leigh, Sovereignty (Installation View), via Art Observed

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Stanley Whitney at Palazzo Tiepolo Passi, via Art Observed

Amid the bustle of the Biennale in Venice this week, artist Stanley Whitney brings a series of works made during the 1990’s in Italy, a tribute and ode to the country that here finds its voice spread across the Noble Floor of the sixteenth century Palazzo Tiepolo Passi, located along the central stretch of the Grand Canal.

Stanley Whitney at Palazzo Tiepolo Passi, via Art Observed

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Sonia Boyce, Feeling Her Way, featuring Errollyn Wallen, Jacqui Dankworth, Poppy Ajudha and Tanita Tikaram. Photo: Cristiano Corte © British Council

The awards for the 59th Edition of the Venice Biennale have been announced, with artist Sonia Boyce taking home the Golden Lion for the Best National Pavilion, while Simone Leigh took the Golden Lion for participation in the Main Exhibition. This is the first time in Biennale history that both of the top awards at the event were won by black women.  Read More »

Marguerite Humeau, all images via Art Observed

Spread between above the green lawns and trees of Venice’s Giardini, and the winding streets and canals of the Arsenale nearby, the Venice Biennale’s Central Pavilion has opened its doors for its Vernissage event, kicking off the 59th annual edition of the exhibition, and welcoming visitors to its first open viewings before it opens to the public this coming Saturday. Curated by Cecelia Alemani, Director & Chief Curator of High Line Art, the show draws on the book by surrealist Leonora Carrington, where “life is constantly re-envisioned through the prism of the imagination.” Here, Alemani invites a series of artists to imagine new worlds, visualize and pose them throughout the exhibition sites.

Katharina Fritsch

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Venice, via Art Observed

For the first time since 2019, the Venice Biennale will open amidst the waterways and winding streets of the lagoon city, with the 59th edition of the event returning to its position of prominence. The crown jewel of the art world’s circuit of international art exhibitions and curated projects, with over 100 years of history behind it, the return of the exhibition sees the Most Serene Republic filled with countless shows and projects alongside the main exhibitions at the Arsenale and Giardini.

Cecilia Alemani, via the curator Read More »