A Feminist Venice Biennale with an Important Latin American Representation

The Venice Biennale has named the 213 artists from 58 countries participating in its 2022 edition, which will be on view from April 23 to November 27 in Italy. The artists will be exhibited in “The Milk of Dreams,” the main exhibition of the Biennale, curated by Cecilia Alemani, director, and chief curator of High Line Art in New York.

Alemani has said the show will focus on three areas: “the representation of bodies and their metamorphoses; the relationship between individuals and technologies; the connection between bodies and the Earth.” The show will include more than 1,000 works by 213 artists; 180 have never been exhibited at the Venice Biennale. Additionally, more than three-quarters of the artists are female or gender nonconforming, and around a fifth of the list are artists associated with the 20th-century avant-garde.

In regard to including women artists, Alemani mentioned for an ArtNews interview: “With those capsules, I made a point of focusing on women artists because I wanted to try to bring to the surface those stories that have been considered by many to be minor. Surrealism, Futurism, all those movements—they all had female artists. But very few are able to actually mention a female Futurist artist or a female Bauhaus artist. I wanted to make the point of focusing on their stories because I felt I did not need to include Salvador Dalí or Marcel Duchamp or Max Ernst, who are very well-known. That was intentional, but in the rest of the show, quite honestly, it wasn’t. I didn’t put up any stats or hurdles in place.”

As Alemani defined this year’s Biennale, “a transhistoric exhibition, creating a dialogue between the present and past and creating a dialogue between stories of exclusion.” The selection from Latin America made up around 20% of the final selection, including:

1. Eileen Agar b. 1899, Buenos Aires, Argentina – 1991, London, UK

2. Belkis Ayón b. 1967 – 1999, Havana, Cuba

3. Firelei Báez b. 1981, Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic. Lives in New York City, USA

4. Felipe Baeza b. 1987, Guanajuato, Mexico. Lives in New York City, USA

5. Gabriel Chaile b. 1985, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina. Lives in Buenos Aires, Argentina and Lisbon, Portugal

6. Jaider Esbell b. 1979, Normandia, Brazil – 2021, São Sebastião, Brazil

7. Lenora de Barros b. 1953, São Paulo. Lives in São Paulo, Brazil

8. Leonor Fini b. 1907, Buenos Aires, Argentina – 1996, Paris, France

9. Linda Gazzera b. 1890, Rome, Italy – 1942, São Paulo, Brazil

10. Roberto Gil de Montes b. 1950, Guadalajara, Mexico. Lives in La Peñita de Jaltemba, Mexico

11. Sheroanawe Hakihiiwe b. 1971, Sheroana, Venezuela. Lives in Mahekototeri and Caracas, Venezuela

12. Delcy Morelos b. 1967, Tierralta, Colombia. Lives in Bogotá, Colombia

13. Violeta Parra b. 1917, San Fabián de Alico, Chile – 1967, Santiago, Chile

14. Rosana Paulino b. 1967, São Paulo. Lives in São Paulo, Brazil

15. Solange Pessoa b. 1961, Ferros, Brazil. Lives in Belo Horizonte, Brazil

16. Luiz Roque b. 1979, Cachoeira do Sul, Brazil. Lives in São Paulo, Brazil

17. Tecla Tofano b. 1927, Naples, Italy – 1995, Caracas, Venezuela

18. Sandra Vásquez de la Horra b. 1967, Viña del Mar, Chile. Lives in Berlin, Germany

19. Cecilia Vicuña b. 1948, Santiago, Chile. Lives in New York City, USA.