This summer’s unmissable contemporary art exhibitions

This summer, an ambitious program of contemporary art is finally, truly back. The most important is the Venice Biennale, a year late when it opened in April. The Arsenale and Giardini della Biennale house the main exhibition and national pavilions, while other sites in the city feature Stanley Whitney at the Palazzo Tiepolo Passi, Mary Weatherford at the Museo di Palazzo Grimani and, perhaps most importantly of all, Anselm Kiefer at the Palazzo Ducale in Piazza San Marco. (And don’t miss Pavlo Makov’s “Fountain of Exhaustion. Acqua Alta” at the Ukrainian Pavilion.) Most last until November.

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

ROBERT COLESCOTT New Museum, New York

Spanning a 60-year career, “Art and Race Matters: The Career of Robert Colescott” brings to the Bowery an extensive survey of the pioneering black painter.

COURTESY OF ROBERT H. COLESCOTT SEPARATE PROPERTY TRUST/BLUM & POE, LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK/TOKYO.

BARBARA KRUGER MoMA, New York

Together with his exhibitions at LACMA and the Art Institute of Chicago, Kruger’s bold, aphoristic font Thinking of you. I mean me. I mean you. continues the conversation with a new site-specific installation.

COURTESY OF THE ARTIST.

TATIANA FOUND Center Pompidou, Paris

After its victory at the Prix Marcel Duchamp in 2007 and the accompanying exhibition at the Center Pompidou, Trouvou is back, this time occupying the 8,611 square feet of Galerie 3 with its installations, nourished by memories of real spaces and dreamed.

FLORIAN KLEINEFENN/ADAGP, PARIS.

William E. Bennett