United States of America 2019

Title: “Martin Puryear: Liberty / Libertà”
Commissioner/Curator: Brooke Kamin Rapaport Deputy Director and Martin Friedman Senior Curator of Madison Square Park Conservancy
Artist: Martin Puryear

The exhibition features new sculpture and a monumental installation by Martin Puryear whose project for the U.S. Pavilion meditates on liberty as an essential human theme and continues the artist’s exploration of abstract forms collected from global sources. The works in the exhibition will engage with the neoclassical architecture of the Pavilion and will challenge expectations about how everyday forms found around the world can be elevated into highly resonant objects transforming perception, inspiring individuals, and questioning history.
“Martin Puryear: Liberty / Libertà” marks the first U.S. presentation at the Venice Art Biennale organised by an institution focused exclusively on public art, namely Madison Square Park Conservancy, which previously collaborated with the artist on the commission of the public art installation “Big Bling” in New York’s Madison Square Park in 2016.