The US Department of State confirmed that Mexico-based artist Alma Allen will represent the United States at the 2026 Venice Biennale, opening next May. Jeffrey Uslip will serve as curator, and the commissioning institution is the American Arts Conservancy (AAC), with its executive director Jenni Parido as official commissioner. Allen, who has had only two museum solo shows in three decades, was approached directly by Uslip in October after the State Department had already approved him. The selection process broke from tradition: the National Endowment for the Arts was not involved due to time constraints and staffing transitions, and a prior proposal by artist Robert Lazzarini and curator John Ravenal fell through after negotiations with the University of South Florida’s Contemporary Art Museum collapsed. Allen’s pavilion, titled "Call Me the Breeze," will feature about 30 works exploring elevation and transformation, framed by the State Department as furthering the Trump Administration’s focus on American excellence.
This announcement matters because it marks a significant departure from the US Pavilion’s usual practice of partnering with accredited museums and selecting artists with extensive institutional support. The involvement of a newly formed nonprofit, the AAC, and the absence of the NEA’s traditional review panel raise questions about transparency and political influence in the selection process. Allen’s unconventional profile—a self-taught sculptor with a relatively sparse exhibition history—also signals a shift toward more independent or outsider voices, though the State Department’s explicit alignment of the pavilion with Trump-era messaging has drawn scrutiny. The controversy over the earlier rejected proposal and the artist’s own disclosure that his longtime galleries advised him against accepting the commission add layers of intrigue to an already unusual Biennale cycle.