Our favorite national pavilions at the Venice Biennale, Shirley Tse and Dana Berman Duff’s breathing moons, and Dean Millien’s aluminum-foil animal world.
“After New York, Aruba,” instructs a subway ad with a video showing waves softly crashing against the rocks of a tropical island. My immediate response is to Google where Aruba is.
Oh, yes, of course. It’s a small Caribbean island just 18 miles north of Venezuela and it’s said to belong to the Kingdom of the Netherlands, home to the original Prince of Orange.
We’ve been talking at the office about retiring the term “Golden Age” to describe the bloodiest peaks of Dutch colonialism. One land’s golden age is another’s inferno. The Netherlands shone brightest with gold that was never theirs.
Our own King of Orange has another island on his mind. It’s in the Persian Gulf and it sits on a sea of black gold. He thought the Iran war would be a quick in-and-out like Venezuela, but got his fat ass stuck in a narrow strait. He’s still trying to checkmate the Iranians. Someone should tell him that the term comes from the Farsi words Shah Mat, meaning: the king is dead.
Back at work, I run an interview that Chris Kraus did with artists Shirley Tse and Dana Berman Duff. They put up a show full of moons, but it’s really about us. People say that Kraus represents the apex of “90s cool.” I once gave her book I Love Dick to a girl in the hope that she’d love me. She read it and concluded that I was a dick. She ended up marrying me anyway.
I still have fond memories of Venice in May. Nothing beats starting the day with a couple of espressos and a sweet lemon soda that comes with a slice of actual lemon on top. I was telling someone yesterday how I teared up several times during this biennale when I was face-to-face with the power and beauty of solidarity. I wouldn’t mind going back for another tour of the show. If you ask me, there’s no better time to visit the biennale than the fall.
And after Venice, Aruba.
—Hakim Bishara, editor-in-chief
National Pavilions We Loved at the Venice Biennale
You’ve followed our on-the-ground reporting from the consequential 2026 Venice Biennale, running through November 22. You’ve read, I hope, our reviews of Koyo Kouoh’s posthumous main exhibition In Minor Keys, Alma Allen’s unmemorable United States pavilion, and Gabrielle Goliath’s Elegy — displayed at a church after being cancelled by the South African pavilion. You’ve engaged with our coverage of Dayanita Singh’s project at the State Archives of Venice; Arthur Jafa and Richard Prince’s hit-and-miss collaboration; an interview with Khaled Sabsabi, whose Australian pavilion was censored under pressure from pro-Israel groups and later reinstated; and much more from the international exhibition and its collateral events.
But we never got to tell you what we really thought of the national pavilions, and which ones you should visit or avoid. As the punishing heat waves of this summer taper off, this might be the perfect time to visit the biennale, if you haven’t already. Below is the first part of a conversation between Editor-at-Large Hrag Vartanian and critic Aruna D’Souza on which pavilions they liked, disliked, or remain torn about. They begin with a provocative argument in favor of national pavilions. Did they suddenly become nation-state stans? No, hold on, hear them out. — Hakim Bishara, editor-in-chief
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Dean Millien’s Aluminum-Foil Animal World
A highlight of “Greater New York” at MoMA PS1, the artist’s remarkable sculptures made from the humble household material continue a practice he began as a child in Brooklyn. | Bryan Martin
Read MoreThe Artist Mapping Knoxville’s Art Scene With Wood and Wire
Three years ago, Lauren Farkas sketched a plan to see exhibitions during the city’s monthly art walk. Now, she crafts eclectic maps for each event to make the art scene more accessible. | Steven Friedlander
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Pritzker-winner Wang Shu’s design for the Ningbo Historic Museum reconciles China’s nostalgia with its desire for a shiny, avant-garde future. | John Yau
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Read MoreInterviews
Shirley Tse and Dana Berman Duff’s Breathing Moons
The artist duo — who go by “Relational” — explore the unseen forces that bind us to the universe. | Chris Kraus
Read MoreBeer With a Painter: Rina Banerjee
“When you give up that power to the paint, it becomes your partner, helping you to make something beautiful,” said the Bengali-American artist at her studio in Dumbo. | Jennifer Samet
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