Major exhibitions and events coincide with Venice Biennale. Here’s your guide to some events and museums to visit during the busiest time of the city.
Casa dei Tre Oci
“The Poetry of the Instant” by Sabine Weiss
March 11 – October 23

The Casa dei Tre Oci in Venice presents the largest retrospective ever held – and the first in Italy – dedicated to the Franco-Swiss photographer Sabine Weiss, who passed away at the age of 97 at her home in Paris on 28 December 2021, one of the greatest representatives of French humanist photography along with Robert Doisneau, Willy Ronis, Edouard Boubat, Brassaï, and Izis. The exhibition is curated by Virginie Chardin and is the first and most important tribute to Weiss’ career, with over 200 photographs.
https://www.treoci.org/en/exhibitions/ongoing-2/589-sabine-weiss-the-poetry-of-the-istant
Palazzo Grassi
“Open-End” by Marlene Dumas
Mach 27 – January 8, 2023

Collection, ‘Spring’, 2017, Private collection. Courtesy David Zwirner, ‘Amazon’, 2016, Private collection, Switzerland. Installation view, ‘Marlene Dumas. open-end’ at Palazzo Grassi, 2022. Ph. Marco
Cappelletti con Filippo Rossi © Palazzo Grassi © Marlene Dumas. Photo Palazzo Grassi website
Palazzo Grassi presents the solo show dedicated to Marlene Dumas (1953, Cape Town, South Africa), as part of the cycle of monographic shows dedicated to major contemporary artists, launched in 2012 and alternating with thematic exhibitions of the Pinault Collection.
The exhibition, entitled “open-end”, is curated by Caroline Bourgeois in collaboration with Marlene Dumas. It brings together over 100 works and focuses on her whole pictorial production, with a selection of paintings and drawings created between 1984 and today, including unseen works made in the last few years. Presented over the two floors of Palazzo Grassi, the works exhibited come from the Pinault Collection, as well as from international museums and private collections.
https://www.palazzograssi.it/en/exhibitions/current/open-end-marlene-dumas/
Palazzo Ducale
Anselm Kiefer
March 26 – October 29
Venezia, Doge’s Palace – Sala dello Scrutinio

The series of paintings produced specially for the Palazzo Ducale in 2020 and 2021 are arranged in the space and magnificent setting of the Sala dello Scrutinio, engaging closely with the thirty-three monumental paintings on the ceiling and with the heroic values expressed by the palace’s entire decorative scheme. The show underlines the role of contemporary art in reflecting on universal themes, transcending Venice and opening up to current philosophical perspectives.
Fondazione Berengo Art Space
BURNING FALLS – A solo exhibition by Koen Vanmechelen
SOTTOVETRO by Made in WonderGlass
April 8

SOTTOVETRO by Made in WonderGlass
Enriched by a number of previously unseen works, the Belgian artist’s exhibition-event from the Uffizi Gallery arrives in Murano for Homo Faber 2022 with the title Burning Falls. The Fondazione Berengo Art Space is also delighted to host SottoVetro, a group show “Made in WonderGlass” curated by Jean Blanchaert. The installations will be presented at the press conference.
Speakers:
Koen Vanmechelen – Artist
Adriano Berengo – President of Berengo Studio
Jean Blanchaert – Art critic and curator
Maurizio Mussati – Founder of WonderGlass
Peggy Guggenheim
Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity
Peggy Guggenheim Collection, April 9–September 26, 2022
Museum Barberini, Potsdam, October 22, 2022–January 29, 2023
Curated by Grazina Subelyte, Associate Curator, Peggy Guggenheim Collection.
Surrealism and Magic: Enchanted Modernity is a joint exhibition project between the Peggy Guggenheim Collection and the Museum Barberini. It is the first large-scale international loan exhibition that looks at the movement’s interest in magic and the occult. Presenting about 60 works, in the Venetian venue, from over 40 international museums and private collections, it offers a rich overview of the entire development of the Surrealist movement, exploring the myriad ways, in which magic and the occult informed its artistic trajectory, from the “metaphysical painting” of Giorgio de Chirico around 1915, through Max Ernst’s iconic painting Attirement of the Bride (1940), to the occult imagery that underpinned the late works of Leonora Carrington and Remedios Varo. In their works, Surrealist artists frequently drew on occult symbolism and cultivated the traditional image of the artist’s persona as a magician, seer, and alchemist, looking to magic as a poetic and deeply philosophical discourse, related to individual self-empowerment.
https://www.guggenheim-venice.it/en/whats-on/exhibitions/surrealism-and-magic-enchanted-modernity/
Ocean Space
The Soul Expanding Ocean #3: Dineo Seshee
Ocean! What if no change is your desperate mission?
April 9 – October 2

TBA21–Academy presents a solo exhibition dedicated to the artist Dineo Seshee Bopape at Ocean Space. The exhibition is part of a two-year curatorial cycle entitled The Soul Expanding Ocean by Ocean Space’s 2021 and 2022 curator Chus Martínez. Dineo Seshee Bopape’s work begins with a journey to the Solomon Islands, and from there she moves on to plantations on the Mississippi, to Jamaica, and then back home to South Africa. The commission is a further step in her practice towards the marriage of the earth and the memory of the Ocean.
The Soul Expanding Ocean #4: Diana Policarpo
Ciguatera
April 9 – October 2

For her newly commissioned work at Ocean Space, Diana Policarpo is developing a multimedia installation, using film and audio to enhance a certain sense of presence while capturing her own research process. Taking her point of departure from a research trip to the Portuguese administered Ilhas Selvagens (Savage Islands) in the North Atlantic Ocean, Policarpo creates a case study of mapping colonial histories through tracking natural biodiversity.
https://www.ocean-space.org/exhibitions/ciguatera-the-soul-expanding-ocean-4-diana-policarpo
Homo Faber Event
April 10 – May 1
Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice

An international exhibition championing artisanal talent, Homo Faber Event showcases an impressive variety of materials, techniques and skills through live demonstrations, immersive digital experiences and imaginative displays of handcrafted creations. From functional everyday objects to outstanding decorative pieces, the event highlights craft’s role in creating a more sustainable and inclusive future. This edition celebrates the ‘living treasures‘ of craftsmanship through 15 exceptional exhibitions which invite visitors to discover the connection between Europe and Japan. Imagined by a team of world-renowned curators and designers, the event transforms the magnificent spaces of the Fondazione Giorgio Cini, as well as offering visitors the chance to experience craftsmanship right across Venice.
https://www.homofaber.com/en/event
Jean Boghossian
Melencolia Contemporanea
April 18
Compagnia della Vela
San Marco, Giardinetti n°2 – Venezia 30124 (a few steps away from San Marco Square)

JEAN BOGHOSSIAN’s monumental sculpture ‘Melencolia Contemporanea’ will be unveiled at the Compagnia della Vela in Venice. Curated by Bruno Corà.
https://www.jeanboghossian.com/news/jean-boghossian-melencolia-contemporanea/
Ca’ Pesaro
Raqib Shaw: Palazzo della Memoria
April 22 – 25 September
Venice, Ca’ Pesaro – International Gallery of Modern Art Dom Pérignon rooms

Ca’ Pesaro – International Gallery of Modern Art presents, for the MUVE Contemporaneo programme presents Raqib Shaw: Palazzo della Memoria, with new paintings by the London-based artist originally from Kashmir, in an exhibition curated by Sir Norman Rosenthal. The works of Raqib Shaw are part of a site specific project conceived for Ca’ Pesaro’s galleries which draw influence from Italian and Venetian pictorial traditions and with inspirations from Tintoretto, Giorgione, Pannini and others. In collaboration with White Cube.
Info is extracted from the press releases of the museums.