With Trump-Allied Arts Group at Helm, US Artist for 2026 Venice Biennale Is Chosen
53Nov. 25, 2025
The US State Department on November 24 announced that Mexico-based American sculptorAlma Allenwill represent the United States at the Sixty-FirstVenice Biennale, to take place May 9–November 22, 2026. The pavilion is to be curated byJeffrey Uslip, onetime chief curator at the St. Louis Museum of Contemporary Art.
Allen, whose polished, rounded surfaces and biomorphic shapes evoke the work of Constantin Brançusi, was not the first artist chosen for this year’s honor. TheWashington Postreported that artist Robert Lazzarini was initially awarded the commission, with a project curated by John Ravenal, but the proposal was withdrawn after the collapse of a funding agreement between the State Department and the University of South Florida’s Contemporary Art Museum. Allen told theNew York Timeshe did not apply for the commission but was approached by Uslip, a board member of the recently formedAmerican Arts Conservancy, whose board appears to be stocked withaffiliates of President Donald Trump. AAC founder Jenni Parido, who formerly operated a pet-food store in Tampa, Florida, will serve as the pavilion’s commissioner.
Allen’s Biennale exhibition, titled “Call Me the Breeze,” will feature about thirty works, several of them new. Per a State Department press release, the selection will “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.”
Born in 1970 in Herber City, Utah, Allen is largely self-taught, having begun his artistic career by whittling figures and selling them from atop an ironing board on the streets of SoHo in New York. He is an atypical choice to represent the US at the Biennale, as the honor has historically gone to more widely recognized artists with international followings, among them Robert Rauschenberg, Ed Ruscha, and Jenny Holzer, Jasper Johns. Allen to date has had two solo institution shows, the most recent taking place in 2023 at Mexico City’s Museo Anahuacalli. He was a participant in the 2014 Whitney Biennial.
The National Endowment for the Arts, which usually has a hand in selecting the artist representing the US at the Biennale, sat this one out owing to “current time constraints and staffing transitions,” per a spokesperson. Allen told the Times that the State Department had already approved him before extending the invitation. “They have been great so far,” he said, “and have given me total freedom in what I want to make.”