The 58th Venice Biennale Exhibition

This year’s prestigious Venice Biennale’s centerpiece exhibition, its 58th, has been curated by Ralph Rugoff, an American art critic who became director of London’s Hayward Gallery. Seeking to assemble artists he felt somehow captured our turbulent, many would say perilous zeitgeist, Rugoff wryly titled the show “May You Live In Interesting Times.” He explains why in this video, shot on-site during the festival’s opening week, and takes us on a tour of a few of the show’s highlights. - Michael Kurcfeld

Included in this 58th edition of the Biennale is Anthony Hernandez. The photographic work of Anthony Hernandez is hard and unsentimental. For the past three decades a prevalent question has troubled the photographer: how to picture the contemporary ruins of the city and the harsh impact of urban life on its less advantaged citizens? Hernandez has approached this question by focusing on what the photographer Lewis Baltz has called “the landscapes of the defeated” – homeless camps, unemployment offices, auto-wrecking yards, bus shelters, and other neglected spaces found at the outskirts of the city. Neither romantic nor nostalgic, Hernandez’s work has detailed the sites and spaces where capitalism’s promise of happiness has soured.

The 58th International Venice Bienniale is on view through November 24, 2019.