The Venice Art Biennale landed hot on the heels of Salone del Mobile this year. Caught in the country-wide whirlwind of art and design, I flew straight from Milan to discover what further delights the floating city might hold. From rugs, beads and glassware to amphorae and Egyptian revivalism, there was, it turned out, much to write home about.
Until 23 June, a converted mirror workshop will play host to Frutti di Mare, the latest Object & Thing exhibition, presented with D.H. office and F. Taylor Colantonio, an American artist with a penchant for conjuring fantastical geologies. His mixed techniques in particular are really rather interesting: papier-mâché, polished cartapesta, patinated and raw bronze and fused glass among them. His eleven sculptures featuring aquatic imagery take forms ranging from an ammonite to an amphora, including two sinuous floor lights that instantly caught my eye.
Set in the dramatic location of the Arsenale di Venezia, a series of columns and monuments reach skywards in forms imprinted with the symbols of ancient Egypt. These are the works of artist Lauren Halsey, whose practice reimagines the relationship between architecture and the community. Putting a twist on Revivalism, the pillars are in fact inspired by everyday life in South Central Los Angeles, the capitals carved with the likenesses of people from Halsey’s neighbourhood. It’s a daring fusion of the ancient and the contemporary – and also a powerful political statement, making monumental the history of the African-American diaspora.
Once inside the Arsenale proper, I was naturally drawn to the central section, ‘Nucleo Storico’, part of which is devoted to the works of Italian artists who travelled and lived abroad, developing their careers in Africa, Asia and Latin America, as well as in the USA and Europe (the Biennale’s theme at large this year is ‘Foreigners Everywhere’). Including contributions from Romualdo Locatelli, Nenne Sanguineti Poggi and Eliseu Visconti, the paintings are all hung on plexiglass stands in a display style reminiscent of Lina Bo Bardi, designed so visitors can ‘float’ around them.
It would be hard for visitors to the Giardini della Biennale not to be struck by the work of Jeffrey Gibson. The artist – who is of Cherokee and Choctaw descent – has transformed the American Pavilion using traditional indigenous crafts to contemporary, and highly psychedelic, effect. The result is a space alive with richly coloured murals, objects and human figures; the beadwork details, declaring the decorative bent of the exhibition, are especially marvellous.
The enchanted gardens of Palazzo Soranzo Cappello form the backdrop for Caspar Giorgio Williams’s second exhibition, entitled Here, I shall find, living and growing, the coloured expansions of my pleasures (Thoughts on Russell Page). Using the last chapter of Russell Page’s The Education of a Gardener as a starting point, the show unfurls Williams’s idea of an imagined garden. I particularly admired Page’s 1947 Still Life with Flowers, a rare example of the author’s work as a painter, which I learned preceded his career as a gardener. It stands among various other artistic blooms, including Fulco di Verdura’s Daffodils and three paintings by Dan McCleary depicting carnations, geraniums and peonies; my eye also lingered over a glass vessel by Miranda Keyes. The exhibition experience was topped off by the presence of a favourite artist of mine, Pol Anglada, whose work configures the garden as a place of identity-building and self-expression.
Once inhabited by Contessa Gozzi, the interiors of one glorious palazzo on the Fondamenta San Biagio had long been kept shuttered to the public. Biennale Art Week, however, saw those locked doors thrown open at last. The building, it was announced, would host a collaboration between interior designer Chahan Minassian and Fortuny, the luxury fabric maker whose headquarters, happily, were based just next door. The rooms of the palazzo have been decorated throughout with Chahan’s designs, from the chairs and bookcases to the modern art on the walls; the effect is an elegant blend of tradition and innovation, and a shining example of how contemporary design can complement and enhance historic spaces. ‘This collaboration celebrates the essence of Venice as a cultural hub,’ Chahan, who is now a local, told me. He’s right: Fortuny’s craftsmanship, honed in the city since 1921, integrated with Chahan’s curation feels perfectly of a piece with a place where art, design and culture collide.
Inspired by his passion for global craft traditions – those precious heirlooms that are passed down through the generations, from silversmithing to waxwork – Giberto Arrivabene decided in 2005 that it was time to launch his own collection. Now, his sculptures, frames, handcrafted objets and, most lately, glassware have finally found a physical space in his native Venice: a small shop on the Ponte di Rialto. It was a dazzling stroke of luck that secured this new home – shops on the Rialto bridge can’t be bought, but are rather tentatively passed down, just like the things he collects. Here, too, stands a far-reaching trade history – this time, of storekeepers, who have based here since the 16th century when the bridge was rebuilt. All in all, a fitting narrative backdrop to Arrivabene’s wares.
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Hidden down a narrow street, the newly opened Casa Yali is a secret well worth seeking out. The design studio’s charmingly dilapidated, fern-filled courtyard leads on to two rooms – one for the beautiful Murano glass objects available to buy, and the other for enjoying polenta cakes and a range of delicious teas. The perfect place for a pit stop, if not for an immaculate crystalline souvenir. Amplifying this convivial atmosphere, Casa Yali is currently hosting the aptly named Friendly, an inaugural exhibition curated by Martino Gamper and Marie-Rose Kahane, featuring tables and chairs by the respective curators, as well as a host of pieces by their friends, including ceramics by Maddalena Kind, jewellery by Karl Fritsch and sculptures by Francis Upritchard.
Seventy-five pieces by Willem de Kooning are on currently show at the Gallerie dell’Accademia until 15 September. It’s the first time that an exhibition on the American artist explores his sojourns in Italy in 1959 and 1969. Resulting in some of De Kooning’s most expressive works, the visits clearly had a profound impact on his practice. I was completely enchanted by the small bronze sculptures the artist made in Rome after a chance encounter with a sculptor friend.
Powered by Ben Brown Fine Arts, Planète Lalanne is one of the largest exhibitions by the French artist duo François-Xavier and Claude Lalanne. Fantastical sculptures, furniture and objets d’art by ‘Les Lalanne’ are scattered everywhere across the 17th-century Palazzo Rota Ivancich, manifesting the artists’ ambition to create otherworldly works to live with, rather just to behold as out-of-reach artefacts. Their surreal tables and chairs populate the living room, while the pair’s ‘Hippopotame’ tub, a piece that brings a mythical magic to the traditionally decorative, seems to have wandered into the bathroom. Also on display is ‘Choupatte’ (WoI Nov 2023), a Surrealist veined cabbage with chicken legs that I can’t help but adore.
As WoI readers may have discovered by now, I know my way around Venice’s ample accommodation options. This time, the place I made my base was the Violino D’Oro, a relatively new boutique hotel in the heart of Venice, where the atmosphere is cosy and the family-style service a welcome reprieve after days spent whizzing around. I noted that the sofa in my room was furnished with fabrics by Luke Edward Hall for Rubelli – a top-notch combination – and I loved having breakfast in the establishment’s restaurant surrounded by elegant white-plaster vines winding their three-dimensional way up the walls.
For more information about the Venice Art Biennale, visit labiennale.org
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