"Its 61st edition was exhilarating, exhausting, and overwhelming: 20,000-plus steps every single day last week. There was art everywhere, receptions in 500-year-old palazzos, and headline-grabbing protests. Everyone seemed to be in town from far-flung locales, dashing from one party after another, drinking spritzes into the wee hours. Simply put, the opening week of the biennale is the fullest expression of being together in the art world-a global block party. No wonder people come religiously every two years."
"Chance meetings abounded. Former Museum of Modern Art director Glenn Lowry offered me vaporetto directions from the brilliant Michael Armitage survey at the Palazzo Grassi to the quiet Matthew Wong exhibition across the Grand Canal. Volunteering to snap a photo of a group of Japanese folks late one night, I met Banjo Yamauchi, the fifth-generation Nintendo heir and collector who helped fund Japan's pavilion. I shared a water taxi to a party at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection with Jewel, the American singer-songwriter who has sold 30 million albums, on the eve of the opening of "Matriclysm: An Archaeology of Connections Lost," her big coming-out-as-a-visual-artist show."
"Hotel Metropole on the Riva degli Schiavoni was one center of gravity. There, you could spot fashion icon Michèle Lamy with an entourage in the garden and New York art dealers Andrew Kreps and Stefania Bortolami in the lobby on their phones, presumably drumming up sales for their artists showing in Venice. Israeli-French artist Bracha Ettinger and uber-curator Carolyn Christov-Bakargiev gave interviews around the clock about their exhibition in a small room on the ground floor, where Sigmund Freud allegedly wrote part of The Interpretation of Dreams between 1895 and 1899."
"The Perrotin gallery threw a party there for artist Alma Allen's presentation in the U.S. pavilion (the Guggenheim"
The Venice Biennale opening week brings together large numbers of people, with art displayed throughout the city and frequent receptions in historic palazzos. The schedule is exhausting, filled with parties, spritzes, and headline-grabbing protests, creating a sense of a global block party. Chance encounters connect major figures across institutions and markets, including museum leadership, artists, collectors, and curators. Conversations and meetings occur while moving between venues by vaporetto and water taxi, linking exhibitions across the Grand Canal. Hotel Metropole functions as a hub where fashion icons, art dealers, and curators gather, while interviews and gallery events unfold alongside exhibitions tied to notable historical associations.
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