Jeremy Shaw, Quickeners (still), 2014. Courtesy Johann König, Berlin, and Macaulay & Co. Fine Art.
Geoffrey Farmer may be Canada’s most visible representation at this year’s Venice Biennale, with his work in the Canada Pavilion, but he’s far from the only Canadian artist at the event.
This morning, the list of the 120 artists participating within the main exhibition was released, and it includes three artists from Cape Dorset, Vancouver and Montreal.
The late Inuit sculptor and printmaker Kananginak Pootoogook; Vancouver-raised, Berlin-based artist Jeremy Shaw and Montreal-based multimedia artist Hajra Waheed have all been selected for inclusion.
Both Shaw and Waheed were finalists for the 2016 Sobey Art Award, with Shaw ultimately winning the $50,000 prize.
The three artists will be included in the “Viva Arte Viva” exhibition, organized by French curator Christine Macel. Macel is the chief curator of the Centre Pompidou.
Macel has stated that she plans for “Viva Arte Viva” to be “a Biennale designed with the artists, by the artists and for the artists,” offering “an expression of the passion for art and for the state of the artist.”
“In a world full of conflicts and jolts, in which humanism is being seriously jeopardized, art is the most precious part of the human being. It is the ideal place for reflection, individual expression, freedom and fundamental questions,” read Marcel’s description of the exhibition. “It is a ‘yes’ to life, although sometimes a ‘but’ lies behind. More than ever, the role, the voice and the responsibility of the artist are crucial in the framework of contemporary debates.”
“Viva Arte Viva” will be on view in the Arsenale and Central Pavilion, Giardini, from May 13 to November 26, 2017.
