UNITED STATES OF AMERICA<\/strong> The United States Pavilion at the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia presents \u201cCall Me the Breeze,\u201d an expansive solo presentation by acclaimed American artist Alma Allen<\/strong>, curated by Jeffrey Uslip<\/strong>, and commissioned by the American Arts Conservancy<\/strong> in cooperation with the U.S. Department of State\u2019s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA)<\/strong>, with support from the Guggenheim Foundation<\/strong>. Widely regarded as one of the most influential recurring exhibitions in the world, La Biennale di Venezia convenes leading artists, curators, scholars, institutions, collectors, and international audiences from across the globe. The United States Pavilion remains among its most prominent and\u00a0closely watched national presentations.<\/p>\n In Venice this year, Allen will transform the historic pavilion through a sweeping corpus of sculpture made of cast bronze, shaped American walnut burl, and a variety of carved stone including of Mexican onyx, Guatemalan green quartzite, Mexican black marble, and Persian travertine, as well as Colorado Yule marble, a luminous white stone that has been used to construct several of our nation\u2019s historic monuments, including the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.<\/p>\n Celebrated for a practice that merges natural form with architectural precision, Allen\u2019s work feels at once ancient, contemporary, elemental, and deeply human.<\/p>\n The exhibition will position the Pavilion as a contemplative environment, championing art that favors deep time and eschews finite positions. Conceived specifically for Venice, the presentation invites audiences into a dialogue between permanence and transformation, intimacy and monumentality, trauma and rehabilitation, landscape and memory. Taken as a whole, \u201cCall Me the Breeze\u201d is a proposal to be our future selves in the present and explores the concept of elevation, both as a physical manifestation of form and as a symbol of self-realization.<\/p>\n Reflecting on the honor of being selected to represent the United States at the Biennale, Allen said the works invite viewers to participate in the act of communication and making meaning: \u201cI see communication as one individual at a time engaging with the work while simultaneously experiencing their own moment of creation,\u201d he reflected. \u201cI feel like this combination happens each time a person offers their attention \u2013 and is willing to feel and decide for themselves what the work means.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAlma Allen\u2019s biomorphic sculptures evoke the visceral realities of contemporary life and reveal the fragility and resilience of the human condition,\u201d added Jeffrey Uslip<\/strong>, Curator of the 2026 U.S. Pavilion. \u201cThe 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. This exhibition will offer an immersive encounter with an artist whose practice speaks to timeless questions of beauty, space, memory, and our relationship to the natural world.\u201d<\/p>\n When asked how he hopes visitors might respond to his work at the Pavilion, Alma noted that he does not see the works as individual objects, but in relationship to one another and to other worlds and universes. \u201cI work with my hands over and over and over again until I find the thing that I\u2019m making in<\/em> the thing. I\u2019m often surprised by it, and I hope the visitors to the U.S. Pavilion can approach them with the same openness. I want them to have a shift where something new happens in the encounter itself.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAlma is one of the most singular artistic voices working today,\u201d said Jenni Parido<\/strong>, Commissioner of the U.S. Pavilion and President of the American Arts Conservancy. \u201cHis work reflects extraordinary discipline, imagination, and sensitivity to material. We are proud to support this ambitious presentation and honored to bring an artist of this caliber to represent the United States in Venice.\u201d<\/p>\n The exhibition will open to the public on May 9, 2026 and remain on view through November 22, 2026.<\/p>\n Alma Allen is an American artist internationally recognized for sculptural works that unite gestural immediacy, refined craftsmanship, and material innovation. Working across bronze, marble, wood, stone, and cast materials, Allen\u2019s practice has been exhibited widely in museums, institutions, and major collections worldwide. Allen is the first self-taught artist to represent the U.S. Pavilion at the Venice Biennale.<\/p>\n Jeffrey Uslip, the U.S. Pavilion curator, has organized solo exhibitions with some of the most innovative and challenging artists of our time. Uslip is a curator and museum leader known for organizing courageous and critically acclaimed exhibitions and advancing artist-centered programming across contemporary art institutions in the United States for more than three decades. Uslip\u2019s landmark exhibition Hurvin Anderson: Backdrop traveled to the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, where it was shortlisted for the prestigious 2017 Turner Prize.<\/p>\n The American Arts Conservancy is a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving, promoting, and advancing the visual arts of the United States. Through cultural diplomacy, educational outreach, and stewardship, it supports the legacy of American artists at home and abroad while fostering dialogue across communities and generations.<\/p>\n The U.S. Department of State\u2019s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) builds relationships between the people of the United States and other countries through academic, cultural, professional, and artistic exchange. Through international partnerships and public diplomacy initiatives, ECA advances mutual understanding and global collaboration.<\/p>\n Statement issued by the company (Announcement) The U.S. Pavilion will host an opening event on Wednesday, May 6 at 11 a.m., during the Biennale\u2019s official opening week in Venice, inaugurating […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198164071,"featured_media":48434,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[125518],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222732","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-globenewswire-en"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\nCall Me the Breeze<\/em><\/strong>
\nCommissioner: Jenni Parido; Curator: Jeffrey Uslip; Exhibitor: Alma Allen<\/strong>
\nVenue: Giardini<\/strong><\/p>\nABOUT ALMA ALLEN<\/h3>\n
ABOUT JEFFREY USLIP<\/h3>\n
ABOUT THE AMERICAN ARTS CONSERVANCY<\/h3>\n
ABOUT THE U.S. DEPARTMENT OF STATE\u2019S BUREAU OF EDUCATIONAL & CULTURAL AFFAIRS<\/h3>\n
MEDIA CONTACT<\/strong>\r\n\r\nU.S. Media Relations, American Arts Conservancy \r\nMadeline Michaelson: (616) 617-7800\r\nBrian Hyland: (201) 410-4563\r\npress@americanartsconservancy.org<\/u><\/a><\/pre>\n
AGENCIA EFE S.A.U.,S.M.E. shall not be liable for any information contained in this message and assumes no responsibility towards third parties in relation to its contents, being expressly exempt from any liability that the author may have in relation to the information in question. Agencia EFE reserves the right to distribute the press release on the news wire, or to publish it on EFE Comunica.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"