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Alma Allen Debuts “Call Me the Breeze” at Venice Biennale

5/8/2026

Summary

Alma Allen Opens

Alma Allen opened “Call Me the Breeze” at the U.S. pavilion of the Venice Biennale.
Jeffrey Uslip curated the show, Jenni Parido acted as commissioner after the department dropped the open-call, excluded the National Endowment for the Arts and scrapped Robert Lazzarini’s proposal.
Donors John Phelan and Tommy Hilfiger back Allen’s untitled series of biomorphic sculptures in bronze, wood, stone and marble, with the pavilion open through November 22, 2026.

Summary

State Officials Decry

State officials called the 2011 Allora & Calzadilla overturned-tank piece “smart power” propaganda.
Walter Leighton Clark founded the U.S. pavilion in 1922 and hired Delano and Aldrich for its Palladian design.
MoMA bought the pavilion in 1954 and staged shows funded by the Rockefeller brothers and the Central Intelligence Agency.
After a 1960s scandal, the United States Information Agency took control under the 1961 Fulbright-Hays Act.

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Alma Allen Opens

Alma Allen opened “Call Me the Breeze” at the U.S. pavilion of the Venice Biennale.
Jeffrey Uslip curated the show, Jenni Parido acted as commissioner after the department dropped the open-call, excluded the National Endowment for the Arts and scrapped Robert Lazzarini’s proposal.
Donors John Phelan and Tommy Hilfiger back Allen’s untitled series of biomorphic sculptures in bronze, wood, stone and marble, with the pavilion open through November 22, 2026.

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