Venice Biennale titled ‘Foreigners Everywhere’ platforms LGBTQ+, outsider and Indigenous artists

By COLLEEN BARRY
Associated Press

VENICE, Italy (AP) — Outsider, queer and Indigenous artists are getting an overdue platform at the 60th Venice Biennale contemporary art exhibition. Titled “Foreigners Everywhere,” the exhibition opening Saturday was curated for the first time by a Latin American: Brazilian Adriano Pedrosa. Pedrosa’s main show, which accompanies 88 national pavilions for the monthslong run, is strong on figurative painting. A bulk of the artists are from the Global South, long overlooked by the mainstream art world circuits. Many are dead. Frida Kahlo, for example, is making her first appearance at the Venice Biennale. Pedrosa said there are fewer living artists in the exhibition, but their presence is larger. The vast majority are making their Venice Biennale debut.