Vanity Fair: This Summer’s Must-See Contemporary Art Exhibits

From Rashid Johnson’s bronze sculptures to François Pinault’s personal collection, the art on view is well worth traveling for.

–BY NATE FREEMAN

JULY 19, 2022

This summer, ambitious contemporary art programming is finally, truly back. Most prominent is the Venice Biennale, a year overdue when it opened in April. The Arsenale and Giardini della Biennale house the main exhibition and national pavilions, while other city venues feature Stanley Whitney at the Palazzo Tiepolo Passi, Mary Weatherford at the Museo di Palazzo Grimani, and, perhaps biggest of all, Anselm Kiefer at the Palazzo Ducale on St. Mark’s Square. (And don’t miss “Fountain of Exhaustion. Acqua Alta” by Pavlo Makov at the Ukrainian Pavilion.) Most are up through November.

But wait, there’s more! In Minorca, Spain, Rashid Johnson has put up a series of bronze sculptures as well as subtle paintings that “relate to collective experiences of the last months,” he says. And in Paris, more from billionaire François Pinault’s personal collection is on display at his Bourse de Commerce. The theme? “Eternity.” New York City hosts a retrospective of Robert Colescott, whose paintings often depict Black Americans in revisionist historical settings (George Washington Carver crossing the Delaware), while in Cleveland, a triennial founded in 2018—which brought $31 million to the local economy—is back for its second round.

FRONT TRIENNIAL Cleveland

This year’s Midwestern hotbed of bleeding-edge contemporary art will include contributions from artists as disparate as Jacolby Satterwhite (work pictured) and the Japanese juggernaut Yoshitomo Nara.