Whether you’re an artist or an appreciator of the arts, including art exhibitions in your summer travel plans is a must. Here are a few of the biggest and best art exhibitions happening around the world this summer.
Venice Biennale Arte 2022
The 59th Venice Biennale Arte is titled “Milk of Dreams” and runs from April 23rd-November 27th, 2022. The exhibition is titled after the book by Leonora Carrington and it has three main themes, “the representation of bodies and their metamorphoses; the relationship between individuals and technologies; and the connection between bodies and the earth.” The exhibit was curated by Cecilia Alemani, who has experience organizing exhibitions for contemporary artists. Alemani is currently the Director and Chief Curator of High Line Art and was previously the curator for the Italian Pavilion at the Biennale Arte 2017. The 2022 Venice Biennale Arte will take place in the Central Pavilion (Giardini) and in the Arsenale and will include 213 artists from 58 countries, 180 of which are participating in the exhibition for the first time. There will also be a total of 1,433 works and objects on display, 80 of which will be new projects specifically created for the event.
Exhibition artist Cecilia Alemani was inspired by Leonora Carrington’s book which describes a magical world where life is constantly re-envisioned or transformed using imagination. The Milk of Dreams exhibition takes Carrington’s creatures, along with other figures of transformation, and uses them to highlight the metamorphosis of the human body. Biennale Arte has also pledged to work sustainably, hoping to extend their “carbon neutrality” certification that they achieved in 2021 for the 78th Venice International Film Festival.
Whitney Biennial 2022
The Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept is being held at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City from April 6th-September 5th. The Whitney Biennial has worked to survey the landscape of American art and cultural conversation since its inception in 1932. The 2022 exhibition features a ground of 63 intergenerational and interdisciplinary artists and collectives whose works reflect the challenges and possibilities of the modern American experience.
The spaces curated in this exhibit are dynamic and contrasting, representing the polarity of modern society. For example, one floor is a dark labyrinth of containment while another floor is a clearing, open and filled with light. Rather than a unified theme, the 2022 Whitney Biennial instead involves a series of ideas and questions surrounding the way personal narratives interact with social frameworks and how art can address the meaning of “American” by addressing the country’s social and physical boundaries. The 80th Biennial continues to act as an ongoing institutional experiment meant to push artists to reflect on their enigmas and the things that perplex them.
Berlin Biennale 2022
The 12th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art takes place from June 11th-September 18, 2022. The art exhibition is curated by Kader Attia, who uses the exhibit to reflect on two decades of decolonial engagement. As an artist and activist, Attia has utilizes the theme of repair— physical injuries, objects, and societal/individual traumas. His work focuses on how repair can be a form of cultural resistance and agency. The exhibit uses this form of agency in hopes of starting critical conversations about finding ways to care about the now or present. Not only does this exhibit include works from artists around the world, but it also contains historical documents, including political and activist publications from the Archiv der Avantgarden– Egidio Marzona (AdA).
