Southern Art on the International Stage

Often referred to as the “Olympics of the art world,” the Biennale Arte has been held every two years since 1895. Originally slated for 2021, the 59th International Art Exhibition was postponed until this spring due to COVID-19. The much-anticipated main exhibition will highlight objects by 213 artists from 58 countries. For the first time in the Biennale Arte’s history, women—many of color—make up 90% of the artist list, a striking divergence from the traditionally male-dominated roster. What emerges, Alemani believes, is a historical narrative rooted in “solidarity and sisterhood.” Working in the mid twentieth century, Loïs Jones confronted both gender and racial discrimination, obstacles she termed “the double handicap: being a woman and being a woman of color.”

Works by other female artists represented in The Johnson Collection were also showcased in the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia: Ruth Asawa, Minnie Evans, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Augusta Savage, and Laura Waring. In addition to the main exhibition installed at the Central Pavilion of the Giardini della Biennale, 80 participating nations hosted separate exhibitions in the additional pavilions in the Giardini and in the Arsenale, as well as other venues throughout Venice. An array of diverse collateral events—performing and fine arts, educational, and philanthropic—took place over the Biennale Arte’s duration.

“It’s the most momentous biennale in living memory. I have never seen anything like it. (…) It is an epochal shift in attitudes. For the very first time, there are many more women than men, everywhere from the Giardini to the Arsenale and specifically in the main group exhibition that takes place in both. A whole cast who have been waiting in the wings for far too long are now playing front of stage. The 59th edition will go down in history as the women’s biennale.”

― Laura Cumming, “59th Venice Biennale review,” The Observer

“With a total of over 800,000 tickets sold – plus the 22,498 people who attended the preview – the number of visitors marked a 35% increase over the 197 days of the exhibition compared to the 173 days of the 2019 edition. Even considering the greater length of the Exhibition, the increase remains substantial, particularly given the restrictions on travel imposed by the pandemic: this is the highest visitor attendance in the 127-year history of the Biennale Arte.”

―La Biennale di Venezia

Born in Boston, Loïs Mailou Jones studied at the acclaimed School of the Museum of Fine Arts in her hometown. Denied a teaching position at her alma mater because of her race, Jones soon thereafter joined the art faculty of Howard University in Washington, DC, where she taught for 47 years. In addition to her responsibilities at Howard, Jones pursued her own creative explorations, which included painting and illustration.

Her deep interest in ancestral legacy informs Africa, a canvas depicting three sharply defined figures with chiseled features. Executed in vibrant jewel-like hues, the trio’s symmetrical, elongated features and expressionless eyes recall similar visages found in African masks, a recurrent aesthetic component in Jones’s oeuvre. In both subject and style, Africa is a powerful elucidation of one of The Milk of Dreams’ three thematic inquiries: “the representation of bodies and their metamorphosis.”

213 artists invited to the Exhibition
58 countries of origin of the artists
180 first participations at the Biennale
1500+ artworks
80 National Participations
27 National Participations in the historical Pavilions of Giardini
26 National Participations in the Arsenale (including Italy)
27 National Participations around the city of Venice
5 +3 National Participations participating for the first time
30 Collateral Events
Over 800,000 tickets sold
4,062 average visitors per day