This year’s Venice Biennale, curated by Adriano Pedrosa, investigates the theme “Stranieri Ovunque – Foreigners Everywhere.” A trip to the storied festival would not be complete without visiting the following exhibits, featuring international viewpoints and reflecting on the complexities of today’s landscape. This year’s exhibitions offer a compelling look at the global art scene, from young artists’ Venice premiere to iconic retrospectives.
Martha Jungwirth: “Herz der Finsternis” at Thaddaeus Ropac
April 16–September 29
Martha Jungwirth Ohne Titel, aus der Serie “Porte Dorée,” 2023. Photo: Ulrich Ghezzi, © Martha Jungwirth/Bildrecht, Wien 2024. Courtesy of Thaddaeus Ropac gallery, London · Paris · Salzburg · Seoul.
Inspired by the classic Joseph Conrad novella Heart of Darkness, Martha Jungwirth’s exhibition of the same name takes an abstract approach to delve into themes of displacement and wildness. Known for her usual palette of “fleshy pinks and reds,” the Vienna-born painter shifts her focus toward the deep greens of the Central African rainforest. Jungwirth was struck by the idea of a “rioting invasion of soundless life” to craft the works. Curated by Luca Massimo Barbero, this collection highlights Jungwirth’s signature intuitive approach. “My art is like a diary, seismographic.”
Francesco Vezzoli: “Musei delle Lacrime” (Museum of Tears) at Museo Correr
April 17–November 24
Francesco Vezzoli “La nascita di American Gigolò (After Sandro Botticelli),” 2014. Courtesy of Museo Correr.
The Venice International Foundation (VIF) has invited a contemporary artist to reimagine an iconic Venice venue for the first time. However, it’s not the first time the Biennale has selected Francesco Vezzoli’s work. Curated by Donatien Grau, head of contemporary programs at the Louvre, “Museum of Tears” calls into question ideas of masculinity and expression in the context of classical art. For the work, the artist and filmmaker crafts a subversive allegory to dissect art history’s relationship with vulnerability.
The work is a culmination of three decades of work. Vezzoli has spent 30 years embroidering tears onto images of classic, recognizable masterpieces, resulting in his own “Museum of Tears.” In doing so, he challenges the audience’s true comfort level with the feeling that great art should reckon with: vulnerability. “Art can be intimate, Vezzoli says. “Like my gesture of embroidery, it can change our lives.”
Robert Indiana: “The Sweet Mystery” with Yorkshire Sculpture Park at Procuratie Vecchie
April 17–November 24
Installation view at Yorkshire Sculpture Park, 2022. Photo: © Jonty Wilde, courtesy of Yorkshire Sculpture Park. Artwork: © 2024 Morgan Art Foundation Ltd./ Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.
Presented as a Collateral Event, the retrospective of Robert Indiana’s six-decade career offers a fresh perspective on the iconic Pop art figure. Curated by Matthew Lyons, the collection showcases works spanning Indiana’s career, ranging from his most celebrated pieces to rarely-seen gems. With a thematic focus on spirituality and queer identity, the exhibition invites viewers to rediscover Indiana’s subversive brilliance that transcends generations.
The venue at Procuratie Vecchie, recently restored by Pritzker Prize-winning architect David Chipperfield, provides an apt backdrop for this presentation of Indiana’s oeuvre, marking the most comprehensive showcase of his work ever displayed in Italy. Organized by the Robert Indiana Legacy Initiative, this exhibition promises to be a testament to the enduring heritage of one of the most influential artists of the 20th century.
Trevor Yeung: Hong Kong in Venice with M+
April 20–November 24
Trevor Yeung and Olivia Chow. Photo by South Ho. Courtesy of M+, Hong Kong.
Presented with Hong Kong’s M+ gallery, Trevor Yeung’s mesmerizing mixed-media works will travel to Venice. M+ Gallery selected Yeung to represent his hometown at the Biennale. His collection is one of only thirty of the festival’s Collateral Events.
Curated by Olivia Chow, Yeung’s exhibition invites viewers to contemplate the delicate balance between the natural world and human intervention. Through meticulously staged compositions featuring objects, animals, and plants, Yeung crafts a narrative that transcends geographical boundaries, inviting his audience to ponder our relationship with the environment.
Willem de Kooning “e l’Italia” at Gallerie dell’Accademia
April 17–September 15
Willem de Kooning Untitled #12, 1969 bronze 7 ½ x 9 ¼ x 5 ¾ inches (19.1 x 23.5 x 14.6 cm). Raymond and Patsy Nasher Collection, Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas © 2023 The Willem de Kooning Foundation, SIAE
This landmark exhibition, curated by Mario Codognato and Gary Garrels, traces Dutch-American artist Willem de Kooning’s transformative visits to Italy. His trips– the first in 1959 and the second ten years later– had a major influence on his work. As the artist reminisced in an archival interview: “I remember everything half-suspended or projected into space; the paintings look right from whatever angle you choose to look at them. The whole secret is to free yourself from gravity.”
The collection will revisit de Kooning’s seminal works and early pieces, honoring their original presentations while also reinvigorating them. The exhibition reunites two pivotal paintings in diptych, “Red Man with Moustache” and “Man Accabonac,” echoing their original display configuration back in 1972. The collection also includes the vibrant “Abstract Parkway” paintings and the evocative landscapes of Naples and Villa Borghese. Through a selection of paintings, sculptures, and drawings, viewers are invited to immerse themselves in the artist’s expansive body of work.
Yu Hong: “Another One Bites the Dust” with the Guggenheim Museum
April 20–November 24
Yu Hong 喻红 Walking through Life 走过生命 2019-22. Acrylic on canvas 布面丙烯 10 parts, overall/十联, 整体尺寸: 300 x 1200 x 10 cm © Yu Hong. Courtesy Lisson Gallery.
Organized by the Asian Art Initiative of New York’s Guggenheim Museum and curated by Dr. Alexandra Munroe, “Another One Bites the Dust” is named after the 1980 Queen ballad. Chinese artist Yu Hong presents works in Venice that contemplate the state of change in our imperfect world. Her large-scale pieces, grounded in realism, reckon with rapid transformation in the face of disaster.
War, climate change, and globalization are all themes with which her overwhelming pieces grapple. Yu was trained in the socialist realism style of Chinese art but also draws influence from classic European painting. She won early acclaim in her career for her storytelling and her ability to craft intimacies on canvas, even as her work delves into issues at global scales.
Rick Lowe: “The Arch within the Arc” at Museo di Palazzo Grimani
April 17–November 24
Rick Lowe “Untitled” 2023. Acrylic and paper collage on canvas. 121.9 x 121.9 cm © Rick Lowe Studio. Photo by Thomas Dubrock. Courtesy the artist and Gagosian.
Texas-based artist Rick Lowe’s inaugural solo exhibition in Italy, “The Arch within the Arc,” features evocative paintings and paper collages that breathe new life into the classical setting, a renewal that the museum’s director Valerie Finocchi embraces: “The Palazzo Grimani Museum once again confirms its role as a protagonist in the production of contemporary art exhibitions that find a relationship and inspiration in classicism.”
Lowe was inspired by the cyclical nature of existence and a game of dominos. The new paintings featured are studies in geometry, highlighting the form of an arc. “Everything has a life cycle,” Lowe says, “And within every cycle is an arc.” Acrylic paint merges with paper collage on canvas. Each artwork is a testament to artistic expression’s enduring beauty and the eternal flow of creation and destruction.
