Sculptor Alma Allen will represent the U.S. at the Venice Biennale

Sculptor Alma Allen has been selected to represent the United States at the 2026 Venice Biennale, with Jeffrey Uslip as commissioning curator, the State Department announced on Monday.

Showing at the Venice Biennale, often dubbed the Olympics of the art world, represents a crowning achievement for a living artist, and especially so in 2026, as the opportunity to represent the U.S. on the world stage coincides with the 250th anniversary of the nation.

Allen’s exhibition, “Alma Allen: Call Me the Breeze,” will be composed of several site-responsive sculptures that show the artist’s “alchemical transformation of matter and explore the concept of ‘elevation,’ both as a physical manifestation of form and as a symbol of collective optimism and self-realization, furthering the Trump Administration’s focus on showcasing American excellence,” the State Department wrote in its release.

Allen’s selection follows a prolonged period of uncertainty around the U.S. Pavilion. Earlier this year, Trump proposed eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts, which had historically taken the lead in the Venice Biennale selection process, and the agency saw a mass exodus of senior staff members. When the call for Venice submissions posted some six months belatedly, language about diversity and equity had been replaced with a statement that the winning exhibition must “reflect and promote American values.”

Earlier this month, The Washington Post reported that the State Department originally selected artist Robert Lazzarini for the U.S. Pavilion, but the commission fell apart during negotiations with an institutional partner. More than two dozen countries have already announced their artist for the Biennale, which opens to VIPs in late April and to the public in early May.

The State Department notes that the exhibition was organized by Commissioner Jenni Parido, founder of the American Arts Conservancy, a newly created arts organization composed of several Trump supporters and donors, some of whom do not seem to have deep ties to the art industry. Parido’s social media profiles show that she is a philanthropist who is involved in a nonprofit against child-trafficking, and she has previously run a pet supply store in Florida. President Frank Bardonaro is the CEO of an industrial specialty construction service company. Uslip is on the group’s advisory council and was a co-curator on the Malta Pavilion at the 2022 Biennale.

Allen has a lower profile than prior Biennale exhibitors, which have typically included artists such as Simone Leigh, Martin Puryear, Ed Ruscha and Mark Bradford.

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