New York Metropolis-born artist and provocateur Andres Serrano desires america Pavilion on the 2026 Venice Biennale to showcase his apparently uncritical show of greater than a thousand Trump memorabilia objects, together with a flattering, warm-hued portrait of the president he took in 2004 as a part of his collection America.
Serrano, who rose to notoriety within the late ’80s for “Piss Christ” (1987), {a photograph} of a crucifix that he plunged right into a receptacle of his personal urine on the Nationwide Endowment for the Arts’ dime, submitted his Trump-themed Venice proposal to the US Division of State forward of its deadline later this month. The artist calls his American flag-saturated imaginative and prescient The Sport: All Issues Trump, a reference to an underperforming board sport launched by Milton Bradley Firm in 1989.
The Trump administration’s new tips for Biennale proposals say that the designs might be evaluated primarily based on standards together with artists’ “ability to showcase American exceptionalism.”
Andres Serrano, “Donald Trump” (2004) and “Infamous (Jeffrey Epstein)” (2019)
Beneath the brand new stipulations, potential artists wishing to signify the US within the occasion are prohibited from “promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion” and utilizing award funds to assist the United Nations Aid and Works Company, which gives humanitarian support to Palestinians. The Division of State’s utility mandates that Biennale packages assume a “non-political character.”
When Hyperallergic requested Serrano if he believes his work complies with that standards, he replied by way of a publicist, “Of course, I’m not political. I don’t judge, I observe.”
Serrano’s pavilion proposal repurposes the title and objects of a 2019 Manhattan exhibition that offered $200,000 value of Trump relics amassed by the artist, together with a diploma from the defunct Trump College, an 11-foot signal spelling “EGO” from the shuttered Trump Taj Mahal On line casino in Atlantic Metropolis, autographed portraits, and presidential marketing campaign indicators. The proposal additionally contains Serrano’s controversial movie concerning the January 6 Capitol takeover, Revolt (2022), which critics described as sensational, missing context, and even pro-Trump.
In response to Hyperallergic‘s query about whether or not his pavilion design was meant to be ironic, Serrano stated, “My work is always open to interpretation, even my ideas are open to interpretation. Artists are not one way or another, they represent different things to different people.”
Serrano’s controversial “Piss Christ” (1987)
In 2024, Trump was photographed grinning whereas holding Serrano’s exhibition ebook and reportedly added it to his library at Mar-a-Lago. Serrano has described Trump’s obvious endorsement of the ebook as “comical,” however has additionally acknowledged within the context of the president that he’ll “never speak ill of people who’ve posed for [him].” The photographer additionally took a smiling portrait of kid intercourse offender Jeffrey Epstein in 2019, months earlier than the financier was discovered useless in his jail cell awaiting trial for fees of trafficking dozens of minors within the early 2000s. His images have additionally portrayed Snoop Canine, hooded members of the Ku Klux Klan, and morgue corpses.
Serrano may have quietly submitted his proposal to the Division of State, however stated he determined to publicly promote his mock-up pavilion with a particular aim.
