{"id":1923452,"date":"2026-05-06T08:56:06","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T05:56:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1923452"},"modified":"2026-05-06T08:56:06","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T05:56:06","slug":"alma-allens-us-pavilion-at-the-2026-venice-biennale-falls-flat","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/?p=1923452","title":{"rendered":"Alma Allen\u2019s US Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale Falls Flat"},"content":{"rendered":"

[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/us-pavilion-1.jpg?w=1024″]<\/p>\n

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\n\tThe United States is in a sad state of affairs. That wouldn\u2019t come as a surprise to anyone who reads or watches the news, or even just scrolls social media and skims the headlines. But you would also know it if you happened to walk by the US Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale, where the American representative this year, Alma Allen, has installed five extremely unremarkable sculptures in front of the building, along with some 20 works inside.<\/p>\n

\n\tIt\u2019s a sharp turn from how the US Pavilion has looked the last couple of times around. The previous two artists to take over the pavilion, Simone Leigh (2022) and Jeffrey Gibson (2024), sought to radically transform the Palladian structure in the center of the Giardini, built in 1930. Despite their drastically different approaches, both artists sought to surface the history of colonialism and empire at the core of the United States\u2019 founding and present.<\/p>\n

\n\tThat isn\u2019t the case in 2026. As the US and international press have reported ad nauseam, the second Trump administration\u2019s call for proposals for the Venice Biennale said the American presentation should \u201creflect and promote American values\u201d and foster \u201cpeaceful relations between the United States and other nations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tSo how does that bear out in Allen\u2019s US Pavilion? Those looking for work that is explicitly pro-Trump won\u2019t find it here. But those looking for the most incisive art being produced in the US at the moment won\u2019t find that here either. What they will find is largely what Allen has shown for the past decade: works in bronze, wood, and various types of metamorphic rock, including Mexican marble and Guatemalan green quartzite.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe majority of these works carry the title Not Yet Titled<\/em>, a signature of Allen\u2019s that allows for open-ended interpretations in which viewers can impose whatever meaning they like. During my visit, I asked whether there was any introductory wall text, only to be told, in keeping with Allen\u2019s spirit, that I would find it in the final room of the exhibition as a way to privilege looking.<\/p>\n

\n\tAllen has often eschewed speaking about his work at length, an orientation that he acknowledged to ARTnews<\/em> recently has had unintended effects. \u201cI do see that I have maybe made a mistake in never engaging in that part of it because it\u2019s left open that the work is a certain kind of thing that\u2019s easy to do,\u201d he said. \u201cIt lets other people define what my work is.\u201d<\/p>\n

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A sculpture by Alma Allen in the US Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale. <\/span>Maximil\u00edano Dur\u00f3n\/ARTnews<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tAllen\u2019s exhibitions have often been accompanied by press releases that do heavy interpretive lifting, postulating formal qualities that don\u2019t always match what\u2019s on view. The release for his 2020 Kasmin exhibition\u2014Kasmin\u2019s successor gallery, Olney Gleason, dropped him ahead of the Biennale\u2014states that his materials \u201cemit a mysterious and ineffable lifeforce,\u201d such that \u201cbronze sculptures appear impossibly malleable, even liquid; wood grain patterns are accented to highlight their material history, and stones \u2026 vibrate with a sense of mysticism.\u201d Meanwhile, the release for his 2024 show, also at Kasmin, states that his latest sculptures, some of which are on view in the US Pavilion, show his \u201congoing experimentation into the ability of matter to embody contemplations on free will, consciousness, and the nature of time.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tArtists defying what their chosen materials can do\u2014or even leaving a work untitled\u2014is nothing new. These formal approaches are at the core of the history of modernism and continue to animate the practices of countless contemporary artists. The goal, then, of a successful work, in this critic\u2019s opinion, is to offer something new to that discourse. That is where Allen\u2019s work often falls short.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe most aesthetically pleasing of Allen\u2019s sculptures are those that use different stones, but that is simply because the stone itself is already beautiful. It would look just as good as a countertop or bench. Allen relies on these materials to carry meaning for him as an artist, but the works simply don\u2019t have much to say. They come off as decorative objects that a certain kind of interior designer might choose to add as a pop of color to an airy entry way in a McMansion. As I walked through the pavilion, I couldn\u2019t help but think of Martin Puryear, the US representative in 2019, during the first Trump administration. Puryear is also a sculptor whose dedication to craft, materials, and formal innovation is intimately felt in the beguiling sculptures he makes, which he often imbues with aspects of US history. With an example like Puryear, it\u2019s clear that abstract sculpture can posit new meaning and new ways of seeing for the viewer. <\/p>\n

\n\tThe art on view isn\u2019t the worst art I\u2019ve ever seen. But this, after all, is the Venice Biennale, where the very best is supposed to be on view. The bar shouldn\u2019t be in hell, even if the country is. I\u2019ve often heard, in the most neoliberal of circles, the refrain, when protesters advocating for change are criticized: What do they want? No museum at all? <\/em>In this case, it would be an empty pavilion. I think that would be preferable to an artist who is comfortable enough to say his art is apolitical while cozying up to a right-wing authoritarian government that seeks to bend the world to its will.<\/p>\n

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Sculpture by Alma Allen in the US Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale. <\/span>Maximil\u00edano Dur\u00f3n\/ARTnews<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

Shortly after I asked about the wall text,<\/strong> Allen\u2019s partner, Su Wu, asked whether I\u2019d like a walkthrough. Curious, I agreed. She began by detailing Allen\u2019s biography as a way of giving context to the show, which, given the artist\u2019s long-standing decision not to speak much about his work, I found surprising. Artists who aim to be as enigmatic as Allen often refrain from discussing their biographies, since doing so might impose an unwanted reading on the work.<\/p>\n

\n\tFrom what I jotted down, here\u2019s what Wu told me: He\u2019s the first entirely self-taught artist to be commissioned for the US Pavilion. He didn\u2019t finish high school, which, Wu said, represents 5 percent of Americans; he never attended college, which represents 40 percent of Americans. There was something hauntingly Trumpian about the way these statistics were deployed to insist on the pavilion\u2019s \u201cfirst\u201d-ness and on Allen\u2019s representativeness of the US citizenry. That\u2019s not to say the pavilion should only go to an artist with an MFA from one of the country\u2019s top art schools. There are countless self-taught US artists whose work, often only recently recognized by the mainstream art world, has opened up new ways of seeing or offered windows into their inner worlds.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs Wu walked me through the exhibition, she offered various interpretations of how the works might be read. Two of the outdoor bronzes might be seen as drawn weapons. Some are sea creatures, while others represent a ruin. Another could be an inflatable bag. Perhaps Not Yet Titled <\/em>(2016), made in Persian travertine, is the clearest illustration of my gripe with Allen\u2019s art. Wu said it could be seen as a mushroom cloud or even a gesture. To my eye, it looks not unlike a rock formation in Utah, Allen\u2019s home state. Sure, it was crafted this way, and multiple readings can be gleaned from it, but what else does it actually say?<\/p>\n

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Alma Allen, Not Yet Titled<\/em>, 2016. <\/span>Maximil\u00edano Dur\u00f3n\/ARTnews<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tThe exhibition ends with the wall text, though if you entered through this door, it would actually be the first thing you saw. In it, curator Jeffrey Uslip provides a statement not unlike the press releases from Allen\u2019s earlier gallery shows. It reads: \u201cAlma Allen\u2019s biomorphic sculptures evoke the visceral realities of contemporary life and reveal the fragility and resilience of the human condition. The expansive environments and landscapes in which Allen has lived and worked have shaped his points of view, developed his sculptural vocabulary, and informed how he moves through the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tBelow that is an artist statement in which Wu briefly interviews Allen, asking him, \u201cWhat is it?\u201d To which Allen responds that the work \u201cis as stubborn as I am, I cannot tell you.\u201d He adds later, \u201cHere is cancellation deployed as a physical act and in moral justification, and here is a repair. There are those who watch you and those who refuse to see you.\u201d That passage is almost certainly a way to head off negative reviews of the pavilion, as well as a response to the controversy surrounding Allen\u2019s selection, including the pavilion\u2019s commissioner, the American Arts Conservancy, a year-old nonprofit headed by someone with no museum experience. (The wall text also includes a list of financial supporters of the US Pavilion, including John Phelan, a major art collector and the recently fired Navy secretary, and his wife, Amy; Richard R. Rogers, the recently deceased cofounder of Mary Kay; and Carlos Rivera, the founder of Artrank, an AI-powered software company that at one point in history\u2019s told subscribers whether they should buy, sell, or liquidate a work of art.)<\/p>\n

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Alma Allen\u2019s Not Yet Titled<\/em> (2026) in the rotunda. <\/span>Maximil\u00edano Dur\u00f3n\/ARTnews<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tOn Tuesday morning, I overheard Uslip defending the selection process, citing the selection of Ed Ruscha in 2005 by a consortium of museum directors. There is more than one way\u2014via a proposal from an accredited museum\u2014for an artist to be selected for the US Pavilion, he said. But it\u2019s worth mentioning that Ruscha\u2019s 2005 pavilion was titled \u201cCourse of Empire\u201d and came two years after the Bush administration invaded Iraq. In Artforum,<\/em> Benjamin H. D. Buchloh observedat the time, \u201cRuscha has clearly also tabulated the tasks of an artist representing his country\u2019s culture at a moment of the incessant deterioration of its liberal-democratic public sphere.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe deterioration of this country has only accelerated in the past 18 months, since Trump\u2019s reelection as president. An artist willing to take on the Biennale, as Ruscha once did and as countless others have done in the US Pavilion and other national pavilions, would examine the nation\u2019s condition and offer commentary\u2014any commentary at all\u2014on it. To be apolitical or neutral, especially at an event organized by national pavilions and in which countries can officially participate only if they are recognized by Italy, is a political statement after all\u2014even if you don\u2019t want it to be.<\/p>\n

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A sculpture by Alma Allen in the US Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale. <\/span>Maximil\u00edano Dur\u00f3n\/ARTnews<\/cite><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

\n\tMost people with access to the Biennale on the Tuesday preview day didn\u2019t seem interested in Allen\u2019s pavilion. The talk around Venice that day was just how empty the US Pavilion was. (After publication, a representative for the pavilion denied this, saying that Allen\u2019s show received more visitors than prior US shows in Venice during the press days.) Given the prominent role the US plays in contemporary art and the pavilion\u2019s central place within the Giardini, it is often among the most-visited national pavilions in a given year. During my visit, people came and went\u2014not in throngs, but in ones and twos, dipping in and out quickly. They seemed to come out of sheer curiosity, but found nothing that made them stay. An attendant posted near the entrance had a clicker to count visitors. I\u2019d be interested to see how those numbers, if they are reported accurately, compare with those of past US pavilions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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[analyse_image type=”featured” src=”https:\/\/www.artnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/us-pavilion-1.jpg?w=1024″] The United States is in a sad state of affairs. That wouldn\u2019t come as a surprise to anyone who reads or watches the news, or even just scrolls social media and skims the headlines. But you would also know it if you happened to walk by the US Pavilion at the 2026 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[61,226],"class_list":["post-1923452","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-artnews-com","tag-crawlmanager"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1923452","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1923452"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1923452\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1923452"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1923452"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/analyse.optim.biz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1923452"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}