Photo Elisabetta Villa/Getty Images
The US Department of State on Monday morning confirmed that Mexico-based artist Alma Allen will represent the United States at the 2026 Venice Biennale, which will open to the public next May. The news was first reported by ARTnews and the Baer Faxt newsletter earlier this month.
In a brief posting, the State Department confirmed that Jeffrey Uslip would serve as curator and that the commissioning institution is the American Arts Conservancy, with its executive director and founder Jenni Parido serving as the pavilion’s official commissioner. Uslip serves on the AAC’s advisory council.
The AAC was formed as a nonprofit in July and, per its website, “advances the legacy of American artists through preservation, education, and global cultural engagement.”
That this organization is the commissioning institution represents a break in tradition for the US Pavilion, which has historically been awarded to an artist and curator working with an accredited museum.
Allen himself is an unusual pick, as the pavilion is often taken over by artists with much longer CVs and who have strong institutional support. He has had just two museum solo shows in his three-decade career.
The pavilion has previously been done by Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha, Jenny Holzer, Jasper Johns, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Simone Leigh, and Jeffrey Gibson.
In an interview with the New York Times, Allen said that he had not applied to represent the US, but that Uslip called him in October to ask if he would accept the commission, having already been approved by the State Department. “They have been great so far and have given me total freedom in what I want to make,” he told the paper of the State Department.
Earlier this month, the Washington Post reported that a proposal by artist Robert Lazzarini and independent curator John Ravenal had first won the pavilion’s commission but that their pavilion eventually fell through after negotiations between the State Department and that proposal’s institutional partner, the University of South Florida’s Contemporary Art Museum.
The process to select the US’s representative at the Biennale was different this year from past cycles. Previously, the National Endowment for the Arts, working with the State Department, created a panel of experts to review proposals. But the NEA was not involved this year, with a spokesperson previously citing “current time constraints and staffing transitions at both agencies.” The 43-day government shutdown, which ended on November 12, further delayed the announcement.
Allen will present some 30 works, including some site-responsive ones outside the Pavilion’s entrance. He also told the Times that has long-time New York gallery Olney Gleason (formerly Kasmin) and Mendes Wood DM, which has spaces in São Paulo, Paris, Brussels, and New York, had told him not to take the commission; the Times reported that they no longer represent the artist.
Allen’s pavilion will be titled “Call Me the Breeze” and will present works “that highlight Allen’s alchemical transformation of matter and explore the concept of ‘elevation,’ both as a physical manifestation of form and as a symbol of collective optimism and self-realization, furthering the Trump Administration’s focus on showcasing American excellence,” according to the State Department’s release.