United States of America 2026

Title: Call Me the Breeze
Commissioner: Jenni Parido
Curator: Jeffrey Uslip
Exhibitor: Alma Allen

“Call Me the Breeze” presents abstract biomorphic sculptures by Alma Allen, an artist who has spent three decades developing a body of work rooted in the landscapes and geological formations of the Americas. Allen works exclusively in natural materials sourced from the region – American walnut burl, Cantera verde volcanic rock, and white Colorado Yule marble, a stone also used in the construction of the Lincoln Memorial and the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier — combining preindustrial methods of carving and handshaping with robotic sculpting technology.

The exhibition centres on the concept of “elevation,” both as a physical property of form and as a broader symbol of optimism and self-realisation. The works on view enact a transformation of matter: rough rock appears worn smooth by time, solid bronze appears liquid, and forms that are technically static read as caught in the act of movement or departure. Several new site-responsive sculptures have been created for the pavilion, including one for the outdoor forecourt. Allen describes his sculptures as always in the process of doing something – leaving, interacting with an invisible force, participating in a larger universe – and titles none of them definitively, keeping each in a conceptual state of becoming.