What to See in 48 Hours at the Venice Biennale

Day 1

“Foreigners Everywhere” at the Arsenale

Arsenale, Sestiere Castello, Campo Della Tana 2169/F

You can’t go to the Biennale and not go to the main exhibition, “Foreigners Everywhere,” curated by Adriano Pedrosa. While every art and culture publication on the planet has shared its take on the show (our review is here), you must go and see for yourself—but split it up, do the Arsenale one day, the Giardini the next (or vice versa). There are 331 artists’ works to take in, so don’t skip breakfast.

I suggest starting your day with the Arsenale—you could spend 30 minutes or three hours, depending on your appetite for reading wall labels and watching videos. An hour or so should be plenty.

You’ll immediately hit the mesmerizing sculptural installation Takapau (2022) by Mataaho Collective, a piece that was awarded the Golden Lion prize. My other highlights include the installation of 40 works mounted on Lina Bo Bardi’s glass easels, new paintings by Salman Toor, ceramics by Julia Isídrez, and video by Ana Segovia. And outside, down the road along the canal, be sure to see Lauren Halsey’s stately columns.

National pavilions at the Arsenale

Once you walk through to the end of “Foreigners Everywhere,” you’ll end up outside, in front of two separate parts of the Arsenale that host national pavilions—there’s also a café, a coffee stand, and restrooms.

Plan to take a brisk, 30-minute loop here and focus on just a few pavilions. Most of my favorites are located in the Giardini or across the city (more on those below), but some choice options here include:

• In the Corderie, the Beninese pavilion, featuring works by Chloé Quenum, Moufouli Bello, Ishola Akpo, Romuald Hazoumè; Alioune Diagne’s Senegalese pavilion; Mounira Al Solh’s Lebanese pavilion.
• In the Sale d’Armi, MADEYOULOOK’s South African pavilion and Erick Meyenberg’s Mexican pavilion.
• And way down at the end of the Arsenale (near the neon installation by Claire Fontaine that inspired the main exhibition’s title), you’ll find Massimo Bartolini’s Italian pavilion.

Trevor Yeung, “Courtyard of Attachments,” Hong Kong in Venice

Campo della Tana, Castello 2126

As soon as you exit the Arsenale, head just across the road from where you entered, for this collateral exhibition representing Hong Kong at the Biennale. Here, the esteemed young artist Trevor Yeung presents a series of installations of fishless aquariums that consider humans’ relationship with aquatic ecosystems. The works draw on the artist’s personal history as well as societal truths and subtly gesture to the climate crisis. It’s fresh work that’s exciting both conceptually and aesthetically.

Take a break & navigate to Dorsoduro

Time for lunch—I recommend Taverna Scalinetto, Campo Bandiera e Moro, 3803, 30122 Venezia—or maybe just an espresso. Then, get yourself to the Dorsoduro area, either by vaporetto or by foot.

Pierre Huyghe, “Liminal”

Punta della Dogana, Dorsoduro 2

Punta della Dogana, one of two venues of the Pinault Collection in Venice, is host to the very best museum show I saw in the city (and the Instagram consensus during preview week agreed with my assessment). The French conceptual artist Pierre Huyghe, arguably one of the most innovative conceptual artists living today, is renowned for dynamic installations that blur the boundaries between reality and fiction. This particular show, featuring old and new work, is an ever-changing experience, influenced in parts by AI or the presence of visitors. I don’t want to give away too much, but nearly the entire show is in semi-darkness, anchored by several compelling videos, sea creatures, and the particularly mesmerizing light and sound installation, Offspring (2018). A must-see.

Guglielmo Castelli, “Improving Songs for Anxious Children”

Palazzetto Tito, Fondazione Bevilacqua la Masa, Sestiere Dorsoduro, 2826

Head deeper into Dorsoduro, a 15–20 minute walk from Punta della Dogana, to find one of the best (if not the best) show of contemporary painting in the city—Guglielmo Castelli’s “Improving Songs for Anxious Children.” The rising Italian painter is known for works that tend to be dark and muted, both in tone and palette, considering human fragility and metaphysical concepts through strange but lovely human figures.

This new body of work—which includes sculpture and textile works in addition to painting—is inspired by a children’s book that warns against carelessness and immorality. Castelli was compelled to respond to “the age that was once common to everyone; of first times, of attempts, of knowledge of oneself and others…of inexorable failures and scraped knees.”

Nigerian pavilion, “Nigeria Imaginary”

Palazzo Canal, Rio Terà Canal, 3121

Just a minute or two away, the Nigerian pavilion presents the works of eight artists under the theme of “Nigeria Imaginary,” which envisions the history and potential of the nation. Curated by Aindrea Emelife, the featured works include Precious Okoyomon’s evocative earth and sound installation; Toyin Ojih Odutola’s tender drawings inspired by the 1960s Mbari Club, a nucleus for cultural and intellectual engagement during Nigeria’s early independence; and Tunji Adeniyi-Jones’s dazzling, dynamic ceiling painting that echoes both the grandeur of Venetian art and the vibrancy of Nigerian modernist traditions.

The centerpiece is Yinka Shonibare’s installation of terra-cotta recreations of artifacts looted during the 1897 Benin Expedition. Shonibare reimagines the lost treasures and history itself, affirming the strength and sophistication of Nigerian artistry.

While you’re in Dorsoduro

As you venture through Dorsduro you will bump into several more exhibitions. If you have more time, some others to consider include:

• “Ukraine: Dare to Dream,” Victor Pinchuk Foundation at Palazzo Contarini-Polignac, Dorsoduro 874
• “Ewa Juszkiewicz: Locks With Leaves And Swelling Buds,” Fundación Almine y Bernard Ruiz-Picasso, Palazzo Cavanis, Fondamenta Zattere Ai Gesuati, 920
• “Jean Cocteau: The Juggler’s Revenge,” Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Dorsoduro, 701–704
• “Willem de Kooning and Italy,” Gallerie dell’Accademia,Calle della Carità, 1050

And if you’re looking for some sustenance, some dining and drink recommendations are:

• For cicchetti: Cantine del Vino già Schiavi, Fondamenta Nani, 992
• For gelato: Gelateria lo Squero, Fondamenta Nani, 990
• For a fancy drink or a meal (reservations recommended): Ristorante Adriatica, Il Palazzo Experimental, Fondamenta Zattere Al Ponte Lungo, 1411

Day 2

National pavilions of the Giardini

Some of the largest pavilions are located in the Giardini right outside the second half of “Foreigners Everywhere”—there’s a lot of ground to cover.

Be sure to see:

• John Akomfrah’s British pavilion
• Julien Creuzet’s French pavilion
• Kapwani Kiwanga’s Canadian pavilion
• Jeffrey Gibson’s U.S. pavilion
• Sandra Gamarra Heshiki’s Spanish pavilion
• Archie Moore’s Australian pavilion (which won the Golden Lion for best national participation)

Near the Australian pavilion, cross the canal to get to a second round of pavilions. There, be sure to see:

• Glicéria Tupinambá’s Brazilian pavilion
• Open Group collective’s Polish pavilion
• Wael Shawky’s Egyptian pavilion

“Foreigners Everywhere” at the Giardini

Once you’re done with pavilions, you will likely need a break. But don’t go far: For the rest of “Foreigners Everywhere,” you’re heading into the Giardini’s central pavilion, which is covered with the mural of Brazilian Indigenous artist collective MAHKU. You can plan to spend 30 to 40 minutes or so here, depending on whether you’d like to sit and watch the handful of videos.

Many of my highlights were paintings, including a large suite of figurative works portraying queer everyday experiences by Louis Fratino; Evelyn Taocheng Wang’s smart riffs on Agnes Martin paintings; Aref el Rayess’s surreal, pastel-colored landscapes; and a large section dedicated to portraiture that counters the white Western canon.

Noteworthy, too, are Gabrielle Goliath’s striking video installation; drawings of the Amazonian rainforest by Indigenous elder Abel Rodríguez and his son, Aycoobo; Omar Mismar’s dynamic mosaic work; and Pablo Delano’s expansive The Museum of the Old Colony (2024), a conceptual installation examining the violent, enduring legacy of colonialism in Puerto Rico.

Head into Castello

Once you’re done, exit the Giardini and you’re in the neighborhood of Castello. If you haven’t had lunch yet, the nearby Via Giuseppe Garibaldi is filled with restaurants, including spots for spritzes and cicchetti.

Tesfaye Urgessa, Ethiopian pavilion

Palazzo Bollani, Castello 3647

A short walk into Castello will get you to Palazzo Bollani, where Ethiopia has situated its pavilion dedicated to the paintings of Tesfaye Urgessa. The Ethiopian artist, who was featured in The Artsy Vanguard 2023–2024, is presenting a series of hulking new figurative canvases that are rife with emotion, contending with the feelings and experiences of belonging. It’s well worth a stop.

Rick Lowe, “The Arch within the Arc”

Museo di Palazzo Grimani, Castello Ramo Grimani, 4858

A short walk away, you’ll find the stunning Museo di Palazzo Grimani, which is a must-see on its own—the room with 16th-century ceiling frescoes by Camillo Mantovano is a dream. However, this Rick Lowe show makes it particularly unmissable. The artist is represented by Gagosian, which is known to feature one of its artists in an impressive exhibition at this museum each Biennale. And Lowe certainly does impress, presenting a dazzling new body of acrylic and paper works, each one responding to the museum’s distinguished architecture, as well as Venice’s storied role in the international imagination. These sweeping, dynamic works channel the frenetic energy of moving through the city. One piece reimagines the map of Venice.

If you have more time:

Finish your day with one of these final highlights—no judgment if you can’t make them all.

Christoph Büchel, “Monte di Pietà”

Fondazione Prada, Calle Corner, 2215

Christoph Büchel is known for making noise in Venice—in 2015, his Icelandic pavilion transformed a church into a mosque and stirred up so much unrest it was closed; in 2019, his migrant ship installed in the Arsenale earned him accusations of exploiting tragedy.

His latest Venetian venture has left the rarefied Fondazione Prada in a state of total chaos. A series of immersive environments—a pawn shop, cluttered office spaces, bunker-like living quarters—form the artist’s sprawling manifesto on the corrosive power of debt. He draws on the building’s history as once the site of a loan-lending institution for impoverished citizens (Monte di Pietà), as well as Venice’s long commercial history, and timeless conceptions of wealth and value. This bizarre, beguiling show is not like anything else. There’s even a Titian hidden in plain sight.

Holy See pavilion

Casa di Reclusione Femminile Venezia, Calle de le Cape, 194

Unlike pretty much everything else I’ve mentioned, this is a visit you have to book in advance. Like Büchel’s show, this one is polarizing. I found it complicated yet undeniably moving.

Set in an active women’s prison, the highly anticipated pavilion—which garnered a visit from the Pope himself—brings together eight esteemed artists, each of whom is presenting work that relates to the setting. The show is only accessible as a guided tour through the grounds, led by inmates who generously share context and their own personal impressions. The tours are in Italian, but you don’t have to speak Italian to grasp it all.

A particularly poignant piece is Claire Tabouret’s wall of 23 framed paintings of children—these are depictions of the inmates as adolescents, or of their children and grandchildren, whom they don’t see on a regular basis. Notable, too, is Marco Perego’s short film capturing a woman, played by Hollywood actress Zoe Saldaña, as she leaves the prison, heavy with emotion; Sônia Gomes’s textile works that hang from the ceiling of a chapel, suspended much like the lives of the prisoners; and Maurizio Cattelan’s mural on the façade outside. It’s a jarring experience, yet certainly delivers on building empathy.

If, somehow, you have even more time