Brazilian Adriano Pedrosa will curate the 2024 Venice Biennale

Brazilian Adriano Pedrosa (Rio de Janeiro, 1965) will curate the 60th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale to be held in 2024. Pedrosa’s name was announced today after the Biennale’s Board of Directors met this morning and, at the proposal of President Roberto Cicutto, resolved to appoint Adriano Pedrosa as Director of the Visual Arts Sector, with the specific task of curating the LX International Art Exhibition. Pedrosa succeeds Cecilia Alemani, curator of the Biennale 2022, and is the first Latin American to obtain the position.

Adriano Pedrosa holds a law degree from the Univesidade Estadual of Rio de Janeiro and a master’s degree in Art and Critical Writing from the California Institute of the Arts. He has been the Artistic Director of the Museu de Arte de São Paulo Assis Chateaubriand - MASP since 2014. He was assistant curator of the XXIV Bienal de São Paulo (1998), curator in charge of exhibitions and collections at the Museu de Arte da Pampulha, Belo Horizonte (2000-2003), co-curator of the XXVII Bienal de São Paulo (2006), curator of InSite_05 (San Diego Museum of Art, Centro Cultural Tijuana, 2005), artistic director of the II Trienal de San Juan (2009), curator of the XXXI Panorama da Arte Brasileira-Mamõyaguara opá mamõ pupé (Museu de Arte Moderna, São Paulo, 2009), co-curator of the XII Istanbul Biennial, curator of the São Paulo Pavilion at the IX Shanghai Biennial (2012).

At MASP Pedrosa has curated numerous exhibitions, including solo shows dedicated to the work of Tarsila do Amaral, Anna Bella Geiger, Ione Saldanha, Maria Auxiliadora, Gertrudes Altschul, Beatriz Milhazes, Wanda Pimentel and Hélio Oiticia, as well as the series of exhibitions dedicated to Different Stories: Histories of Childhood (2016), Histories of Sexuality (2017), Afro Atlantic Histories (2018), Women’s Histories, Feminist Histories (2019), Histories of Dance (2020), Brazilian Histories (2022).

Pedrosa was awarded the 2023 Audrey Irmas Award for Curatorial Excellence, given to him by the Central for Curatorial Studies at Bard College in New York. His writings have been published in, among others, Arte y Parte (Santander), Artforum (New York), Art Nexus (Bogotá), Bomb (New York), Exit (Madrid), Flash Art (Milan), Frieze (London), Lapiz (Madrid), Manifesta Journal (Amsterdam), Mousse (Milan), Parkett (Zurich), and The Exhibitionist (Berlin).

“The choice of Adriano Pedrosa as curator of the 60th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale,” says President Cicutto, “is the result of a process that started from the experience gained with the work done by Cecilia Alemani. I think it is essential to start from what emerges from the previous Exhibition (it also happened with the appointment of Lesley Lokko, after the International Architecture Exhibition curated by Hashim Sarkis) to guide us in the next choice. Pedrosa, esteemed curator and director of the important Museo de Arte de São Paulo in Brazil (built by Italian architect Lina Bo Bardi), is known for his expertise and originality in conceiving his exhibitions with a keen eye for the contemporary, moving from a point of observation of the world that cannot disregard the nature of its place of origin. This, rather than narrowing his vision, extends it to a comparison that is indispensable so that today more and more the Biennale will deal with contemporary art not to make it a catalog of the existing but to give shape to contradictions, dialogues, and semblances without which art would remain an enclave devoid of sap. I thank the entire Board of Directors of the Biennale for accompanying me in this choice.”

“I am honored and grateful for this prestigious appointment, especially as the first Latin American to curate the Venice Biennale’s International Art Exhibition, and in fact the first to reside in the southern hemisphere,” Pedrosa says. “The Biennale is definitely the most important platform for contemporary art in the world, and it is an exciting challenge and responsibility for me to undertake this project. I look forward to bringing artists to Venice and realizing their projects, as well as working with the great team at the Biennale. For this unique opportunity, I am grateful to the President of the Biennale, Roberto Cicutto, and the Board of Directors of the institution.”

Brazilian Adriano Pedrosa will curate the 2024 Venice Biennale

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