Alma Allen's sculptures in Call Me the Breeze, US Pavilion, Biennale Arte 2026

La Biennale di Venezia (Giardini & Arsenale) · Castello

US Pavilion: Call Me the Breeze – Alma Allen

正在展出2026年5月9日 – 2026年11月22日·€30

Alma Allen's biomorphic sculptures in walnut burl, volcanic rock, Yule marble and bronze explore elevation and transformation of matter, in the Giardini's US Pavilion.

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ARTnews's critic asked for the introductory wall text and was told it was in the final room. That's the plan here: you walk in and look first, and only at the exit does Alma Allen tell you the work "is as stubborn as I am, I cannot tell you."

Five sculptures stand in the forecourt and about 20 more inside, most called Not Yet Titled, in bronze, American walnut burl, Cantera verde volcanic rock and white Colorado Yule marble, the stone of the Lincoln Memorial. Allen is self-taught and shapes small forms with his fingers, without looking, then enlarges the ones he likes.

Critics were harsh. ARTnews called the pavilion "insistently apolitical" and the works decorative, though it granted that the stone pieces are beautiful. Hyperallergic said it "says nothing, does nothing, means nothing, and goes nowhere." It's in the middle of the Giardini and covered by the €30 Biennale ticket, open 10am to 6pm, closed Mondays, until 22 November.

看点

The Yule marble portal
Look for the white Colorado Yule marble piece shaped like a portal, cut from the Lincoln Memorial's stone; Hyperallergic's critic called it his favourite and the closest he got to a breeze.
The gold cactus in the rotunda
In the pavilion's rotunda stands a large gold-coated sculpture that looks like a cactus.
The forecourt bronzes
Out front, the pavilion's own guide reads two bronzes as drawn weapons, and Hyperallergic saw one sculpture as either a lamb or a pile of spaghetti.
Not Yet Titled (2016)
A Persian travertine form the pavilion's guide reads as a mushroom cloud; to ARTnews's critic it looked like a rock formation in Allen's home state of Utah.