“Liminal” by Pierre Huyghe
Where: Punta della Dogana
When: March 17 - November 24, 2024
Why It’s Worth a Look: Punta della Dogana has been transformed into a dynamic, transitory space inhabited by human and non-human creatures alike. By investigating what is perceptible, Pierre Huyghe challenges what might be possible.
Know Before You Go: Across the various gallery spaces, monkeys wearing human masks, body parts warped by years underwater, and other human-animal encounters blur established boundaries between civilization and the wild.
“Sarah Sze”
Where: Victoria Miro
When: April 16 – June 16, 2024
Why It’s Worth a Look: Step inside Sze’s New York studio with this new installation from the artist, who has transported her typical surroundings to Venice for the presentation. A suite of projections and paintings investigate the process by which memories are formed. Viewers are invited to carve their own path through the space, ensuring no visitor’s audio-visual journey will be the same.
Know Before You Go: This marks a return to Venice for Sze, who previously represented the United States at the 2013 Venice Biennale, and showed at the 1999 and 2015 editions as well.
“Claire, Grass and Water” by Alex Katz
Where: Fondazione Giorgio Cini
When: April 17 – September 29, 2024
Why It’s Worth a Look: Alex Katz has long held an affinity for the refined imaginings of American fashion designer Claire McCardell. On offer here is a series of his paintings inspired by her work, accompanied by landscape compositions that reflect a similar palette and affect.
Know Before You Go: The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog that features a conversation between Katz and art historian Luca Massimo Barbero, as well as an essay exploring his fashion paintings.
“Beatriz Milhazes”
Where: Applied Arts Pavilion in the Arsenale
When: April 20 – November 24, 2024
Why It’s Worth a Look: Milhazes has mounted a special project to commemorate the 60th edition of the International Art Exhibition, which will occupy the Applied Arts Pavilion in the Arsenale. The project is in collaboration with London’s Victoria & Albert museum, and curated by Adriano Pedrosa.
Know Before You Go: Milhazes’s highly colorful paintings, collages, and sculptures pull heavily from the aesthetics of her native Rio de Janeiro, where she continues to live and work.
“Ensemble” by Julie Mehretu
Where: Palazzo Grassi
When: March 17, 2024 – January 6, 2025
Why It’s Worth a Look: This latest exhibition from the artist was jointly curated by Mehretu and Pinault Collection Chief Curator Caroline Bourgeois. The pair brought together more than fifty paintings and prints by Mehretu, produced over the last 25 years, as well as a number of pieces from her circle of friends.
Know Before You Go: Among the other artists on view are Nairy Baghramian, Huma Bhabha, Robin Coste Lewis, Tacita Dean, David Hammons, Paul Pfeiffer, and Jessica Rankin.
“Starting Again” by Frank Auerbach
Where: Palazzo da Mosto
When: April 18 – June 28, 2024
Why It’s Worth a Look: This show offers an intimate look at the life and work of Auerbach by returning to his most favored subjects—including the sitter Julia Yardly Briggs Mills, a friend Auerbach met in art school who posed for the painter twice a week, every week, for over four decades—as well as the places and people regularly viewed from his studio window overlooking London.
Know Before You Go: The exhibition marks the painter’s first return to Venice since winning the Biennale’s Golden Lion with his 1986 presentation.
“Unapologetic WomXn: The Dream is the Truth”
Where: Palazzo Bembo
When: April 18 – November 24, 2024
Why It’s Worth a Look: In this exhibition, curated by Destinee Ross-Sutton, 33 women artists from ages 25 to 89 examine their own sexuality and movement through the world. The group showing comes at a time when reproductive rights and bodily autonomy are particularly fraught, and collects a diverse range of perspectives for a particularly well-rounded vision of modern womanhood.
Know Before You Go: Artists on view include such names as Rita Mawuena Benissan, Deborah Roberts, Rune Mields, Vanessa Raw, Reihaneh Hosseini, Caitlin Cherry, and more.
“Peter Hujar: Portraits in Life and Death”
Where: Santa Maria della Pietà
When: April 20 – November 24, 2024
Why It’s Worth a Look: This is the first European exhibition of Peter Hujar’s landmark “Portraits in Life and Death,” a series of intimate snapshots of the 1970s New York avant-garde. The artist’s friend, Susan Sontag, penned the introduction to the resulting monograph, the only publication Hujar produced during his lifetime.
Know Before You Go: Hujar was well-known for the vulnerability he was able to wrangle out of his subjects, likely due to being himself embedded in the downtown New York scene of the 1970s and ‘80s.
“The Arch within the Arc” by Rick Lowe
Where: Museo di Palazzo Grimani
When: April 17 – November 24, 2024
Why It’s Worth a Look: Rick Lowe examines the spatial, temporal, and social dynamics of Venice itself in this new collection of acrylic paintings and paper collages on canvas. His technique of construction and deconstruction takes a closer look at the city’s long-standing architectural touchpoints.
Know Before You Go: The exhibition is presented in collaboration with Gagosian and deepens Lowe’s already keen interest in linking his visual work to his intellectual exploration of civic practices.
“Janus”
Where: Palazzo Diedo
When: April 19 – October 31
Why It’s Worth a Look: "Janus" is the inaugural exhibition of Berggruen Arts & Culture at Palazzo Diedo, a venue that aims to connect contemporary art movements to its historical locale, as well as blend Eastern and Western sensibilities.
Know Before You Go: The artists on view in this far-reaching debut include Urs Fischer, Piero Golia, Carsten Höller, Ibrahim Mahama, Mariko Mori, Sterling Ruby, Jim Shaw, Hiroshi Sugimoto, Aya Takano, Lee Ufan, and Liu Wei.
