Rendering 4. Painting.

            The article “Curators have mixed reactions to artist roster for Venice Biennale” was published by Gareth Harris in the Art Newspaper on March 15, 2013. It discussed the selection of artists by the curator Massimiliano Gioni for this year’s Venice Biennale and his activity.

            Speaking of his concept, it is inspired by the late artist Marino Auriti who, Gioni says, “on 16 November 1955, filed a design with the US Patent Office depicting his Encyclopedic Palace, an imaginary museum that was meant to house all worldly knowledge, bringing together the greatest discoveries of the human race, from the wheel to the satellite”.

            Giving appraisal of the situation, it’s necessary to point out that the beautiful thing is that Gioni's selections for his larger group shows are always very diverse, they introduce young artists, bring older often forgotten artists back to our attention and he always throws in a few totally unknown or very surprising artists. He does please the art market, perhaps a necessity in regards to the funding he needs for his shows, but he always manages to make the selections very surprising.

            In addition, A leading European curator, who preferred to remain anonymous, underlines that the list is weighted towards European and American artists with only five South American artists featured: “Do the maths: non-European and American artists appear to number 21 out of 154 artists in total, which is about 14%… Gioni, however, has a keen eye and precise curatorial hand, so I am quite sure it will be a beautiful show.” In 2011, we reported that Curiger’s selection showed “a clear bias towards Western European artists with a lesser one towards those from the US.

            In conclusion, Gioni’s shows are always very close to the pulse of the latest development in the art world and at the same time they also look at larger and timeless question of the human condition.