The 53rd Venice Biennale, which opened this week, is the most diverse fair yet, with a record 77 nationalities represented among 90 artists. This sampling, for example, includes artists from a new presence at the Biennale — the United Arab Emirates. (Lamya Gargash, Tarek Al-Ghoussein, and Huda Saeed Saif upturn the cliché of the stuffy, money-worshiping UAE art scene.) But it wouldn’t be a world art fair without the pioneers and the “It†artists: The American Pavilion won the Biennale’s highest accolade, the Golden Lion award, this weekend for its retrospective of conceptual artist and sculptor Bruce Nauman. The British video artist Steve McQueen, meanwhile, has stirred controversy with Giardini, a 40-minute silent film of the gardens the Biennale occupies every other year, shot in the dead of winter when it was occupied by wildlife and melting snow — along with a few amorous gay men. See a teaser in our slideshow.
Related: Saltz: Highlights of the Venice Biennale; Plus Worst In Show
Aleksandra Mir; 2009, conceptual: 1 million postcards for free distribution.
Raffi Lavie, Israel; 2005, painting.
Jan Hafstrom, Sweden; 2003, painting.
Huda Saeed Saif, United Arab Emirates; 2006, video.
Tarek Al-Ghoussein, United Arab Emirates; 2002-2003, photography.
Miwa Yinagi, Japan; 2009, photography.
Miwa Yinagi, Japan; 2009, photography.
Francis Upritchard, New Zealand; 2009, sculpture and installation.
Francis Upritchard, New Zealand; 2009, sculpture and installation.
Steve McQueen, Britain; 2009, video still.
Steve McQueen, Britain; 2009, video still.
Nathalie Djurberg, Sweden; 2009, installation, clay animation, digital video and mixed media.
Illya Chichkan and Mihara Yasuhiro, Ukraine; 2009, color photographs.
Ragnar Kjartansson, Iceland; 2009, performance installation.
Bruce Nauman, USA; 1985, installation.
Bruce Nauman, USA; 2005, installation.
Lamya Gargash, United Arab Emirates; 2009, photography.
Lamya Gargash, United Arab Emirates; 2009, photography.
Gayane Khachaturian, Armenia; 1976, painting.
Liam Gillick, British, representing Germany; 2009, installation
Full title: How are you going to behave: a kitchen cat speaks. An animatronic cat perched on a cabinet gives a running commentary of the work and the happenings inside the pavilion.
Matteo Basile, Italy; 2009, photography.
Masbedo, Italy; 2009, video installation on two backlit screens.
Shaun Gladwell, Australia; 2007-2009, video still.
Shaun Gladwell, Australia; 2009, video still.
