Confirming earlier stories that his choice had been delayed by the 43-day United States authorities shutdown, the US State Division on Monday (24 November) confirmed that the Utah-born, Mexico-based sculptor Alma Allen will symbolize the US on the 2026 Venice Biennale. Allen’s US Pavilion exhibition, Alma Allen: Name Me the Breeze (9 Could-22 November 2026), is being organised by Jenni Pardo, the pavilion’s commissioner and the founding father of the organisation American Arts Conservancy, and the impartial curator Jeffrey Uslip.
A state division announcement makes clear that Allen’s exhibition will align with US president Donald Trump’s “America first” ideology, stating: “It can current artworks that spotlight Allen’s alchemical transformation of matter and discover the idea of ‘elevation’, each as a bodily manifestation of type and as a logo of collective optimism and self-realization, furthering the Trump Administration’s give attention to showcasing American excellence.”
Alma Allen, Not But Titled, 2023, bronze Courtesy the artist
The artist’s exhibition might be anchored by his trademark large-scale sculptures, through which supplies like wooden, marble, volcanic rock and bronze are handled via numerous age-old and cutting-edge processes to evoke contrasting supplies. “The sculptures are sometimes within the act of doing one thing: they’re going away, or leaving or interacting with one thing invisible,” Allen mentioned in an announcement. “Though they appear static as objects, they aren’t static in my thoughts. In my thoughts, they’re a part of a a lot bigger universe.”
The exhibition will characteristic round 30 sculptures, together with a sequence of latest site-specific works Allen will create, one in all which might be put in open air within the forecourt of the US Pavilion.
Artist Alma Allen engaged on a sculpture Courtesy the artist
“Alma Allen’s signature sculptural vocabulary brings the artwork historic legacies of biomorphism into our current; Allen’s work features as sculptural ciphers: every sculpture, decisively Not But Titled, is in a conceptual state of changing into,” Uslip mentioned in an announcement (emphasis his). “Alma Allen has spent the final 30 years creating varieties which might be sculpturally charming and materially grounded within the panorama of the Americas.”
Parido added, in an announcement: “Alma Allen embodies the qualities of America’s greatest and brightest; he’s a self-taught American success story.”
The 2026 Venice Biennale will coincide with celebrations marking the 250th anniversary of the founding of the US on 4 July 1776, which have been a spotlight of the Trump administration because it has sought to slash federal arts funding and redirect grant monies towards associated initiatives just like the “Backyard of American Heroes”.
Alma Allen, Not But Titled, 2014, walnut Courtesy the artist
Allen, who is predicated in Tepoztlán, Mexico, was beforehand represented by Kasmin, although since that gallery has closed he doesn’t seem to at the moment have formal illustration. Olney Gleason, the gallery shaped by some alumni of Kasmin, doesn’t embrace him on its roster. He informed The New York Instances that he had beforehand been represented by Olney Gleason and the Brazilian gallery Mendes Wooden DM, however that each dropped him after he accepted the US Pavilion invitation.
Previous to his choice to symbolize the US in Venice (after a earlier proposal involving the sculptor Robert Lazzarini reportedly collapsed), Allen had a high-profile public artwork set up alongside Park Avenue in Manhattan final spring. He was featured within the 2014 Whitney Biennial and has proven on the Aldrich Up to date Artwork Museum in Connecticut and the Museo Anahuacalli in Mexico Metropolis. His works are within the everlasting collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Artwork and the Palm Springs Artwork Museum.
The US Pavilion has offered a platform for among the nation’s best-known modern artists, together with Jeffrey Gibson (2024), Simone Leigh (2022), Martin Puryear (2019), Mark Bradford (2017), Joan Jonas (2015), Sarah Sze (2013), Allora & Calzadilla (2011), Bruce Nauman (2009), Félix González-Torres (2007), Ed Ruscha (2005) and Fred Wilson (2003).
