Venice Biennale review: full of the usual silliness, but with a sense of purpose
The 59th festival of contemporary art signals an ‘epochal shift in attitudes’

“With all the horror emerging from Ukraine, a festival of contemporary art may seem, more than ever, an irrelevant indulgence,” said Alastair Sooke in The Daily Telegraph. Yet for better or for worse, the Venice Biennale is “carrying on regardless”. Delayed by a year due to Covid-19, the 59th iteration follows the usual script: as usual, it involves a massive main exhibition – entitled The Milk of Dreams on this occasion – as well as no fewer than 80 different national pavilions, in which the nations of the world battle it out for the coveted Golden Lion award.
This year, the winner of the national competition was the UK’s Sonia Boyce, marking the first time a black British artist has ever been awarded the top honour. The Biennale also involves countless collateral events, from a huge Anish Kapoor show to a hastily erected “Ukrainian piazza” outside the central display. This Biennale is full of the usual silliness: “indecipherable imagery projected onto suspended pink udders; a risibly schlocky set-up inside the Danish pavilion, featuring a suicidal centaur”, but there is also an unusual sense of purpose to it.
The 59th Biennale signals an “epochal shift in attitudes”, said Laura Cumming in The Observer. For one thing, the normally conspicuous Russians have stayed away: the country’s pavilion lies empty, and the oligarchs’ super-yachts are nowhere to be seen. More significantly, it represents the first time that women artists have outnumbered men at the event: in the main show, just 21 of the 213 exhibiting artists are male, while the best of the national pavilions are all designed by women.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
A “wildfire hit” is France’s Zineb Sedira, whose show – a mixture of film and “walk-in” stage sets based on memories of her childhood as the daughter of Algerian immigrants – is “a living enchantment”. Malgorzata Mirga-Tas covers Poland’s pavilion with a “colossal frieze” made entirely in appliqué, while Simone Leigh has transformed the neoclassical American pavilion into “a traditional west African building” full of large sculptures – the best of them, such as a “monumental” bell-shaped figure, “stonewall the viewer with their sheer material force”.
Boyce’s British pavilion is a real highlight, said Jackie Wullschläger in the FT. She has filled the UK space with “films of black women singing jazz, folk music and blues-infused a cappella” in an installation that champions values of “collaboration and play”. It’s the most “joyful, vibrant” British effort this century, and a deserving winner. The main exhibition, The Milk of Dreams, is less impressive: by choosing almost exclusively women, the curators have “paid a severe price in terms of quality”.
Nevertheless, there are some marvellous moments in the show. A room of Paula Rego paintings and sculptures is simply “magnificent”: her triptych Oratorio, depicting “abandoned babies and traumatised mothers”, is a truly “shocking” work that exposes the academic stiffness of much else here. A “few excellent male painters manage to scrape through”: the most “unforgettable” pieces here are from Noah Davis, one of the leading American painters of his generation before his death at the age of 32 in 2015. Full of “black figures in eerie settings”, his canvases are mournful and “ethereal”. Ultimately, though, this is a “fun” Biennale which has “galvanised” its artists to reach new heights.
Various locations, Venice (labiennale.org/en). Until 27 November
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
Why Nepal wants to see the return of the king
Under the Radar Frustration is growing with 'corrupt' and impoverished republic, and many pin their hopes on Gyanendra – who gave up the throne 17 years ago
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Today's political cartoons - March 16, 2025
Cartoons Sunday's cartoons - head games, skyfall, and more
By The Week US Published
-
5 explosively funny cartoons about Musk's faulty spacecrafts
Cartoons Artists take on trading up, blowing up, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Ningaloo: Australia's other great reef
The Week Recommends Get up close and personal with whale sharks in an incredible underwater experience
By The Week UK Published
-
Sweet date and sour tamarind sea bass recipe
The Week Recommends Combination of flavours makes a perfect lunch
By The Week UK Published
-
Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300-1350 – an 'intense and betwitching' show
The Week Recommends 'Blockbuster' National Gallery exhibition explores whether Siena was truly 'the birthplace of the Renaissance'
By The Week UK Published
-
6 spacious homes for multi-generational families
Feature Featuring a 1900 Jacobean-style mansion in Massachusetts and a 22.5-acre compound in California
By The Week US Last updated
-
The Seagull: Cate Blanchett leads 'powerhouse ensemble' in Chekhov classic
The Week Recommends Modern reboot has 'blown away the dust' from 1895 drama
By The Week UK Published
-
Black Bag: Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett star in 'punchy' thriller
The Week Recommends All-star Steven Soderbergh spy film is 'cool and confident'
By The Week UK Published
-
Get Millie Black: a gritty Jamaica-set police procedural
Scripted by Booker Prize-winner Marlon James, the series touches upon the homophobia still prevalent in Jamaica
By The Week UK Published
-
Road trip: New England’s maple syrup season
Feature New England is serving up maple syrup in delicious and unexpected ways
By The Week US Published