Sailing to Byzantium. 6 New York Artists in Venice

Donald Baechler, Ross Bleckner, Peter Halley, Vik Muniz, Peter Nagy, Walter Robinson

Curated by Richard Milazzo

Artistic direction by Giovanni Tiboni

Palazzetto Tito, Venice

December 5, 2025 – January 11, 2026

From December 4, 2025, to January 11, 2026, the Istituzione Fondazione Bevilacqua La Masa in Venice will host the exhibition “Sailing to Byzantium. 6 New York Artists in Venice,” curated by Richard Milazzo, Giovanni Tiboni, artistic director.

The exhibition will be set up in the rooms of Palazzetto Tito.

A project that makes Venice a gateway to the East, as Milazzo states, not "of another metaphysics," but of "a revolution in the properties of symbolic systems," an investigation of difference that aims for synthesis. The journey to Byzantium is above all symbolic: Yeats's poem of the same name—"Sailing to Byzantium"—serves as the poetic and organizational framework for the exhibition; a transmigration from the sensible to the transcendent, honoring the eternalizing function of art, but also reversing Yeats's own words, merging the senses and the intellect. The choice of the number of artists is not left to chance: there are six, in fact, the six sestieri of Venice, six the prongs on the prow of the gondola.

Print represents a further field of experimentation; it is not just a technique, but the medium that best transfigures the artists' intentions, "a cultural medium and archive of ideas and history," says the curator.

Sculpture, photography, and the performing arts are considered primary forms of expression. Here, we demonstrate how graphic art is also a primary form of expression, far from being secondary or ancillary, and can create a highly impactful exhibition.

Richard Milazzo

Baechler's deep, textured engravings, Bleckner's atmospheric etchings, Halley's metallic reliefs, Muniz's perceptive virtuosity, Nagy's semiotic games, and the direct force of Robinson's pop imagery. While almost all the artists share a revisitation of previous images, Halley is an exception. He is the only one who doesn't explicitly draw from past works, but only implicitly from their grammar, where grids play a key role.

Prints by Donald Baechler, Ross Bleckner, Peter Halley, Vik Muniz, Peter Nagy, and Walter Robinson come together to take us on a journey from the New York scene to the lagoon atmosphere suspended in the “artifice of eternity.”

Information:

Palazzetto Tito – Dorsoduro 2826, Venice

Dates: December 4, 2025 – January 11, 2026

Opening hours: Wednesday to Sunday 10:30 am - 5:30 pm

Closed: December 25, 2025, January 1, 2026

Entrance: free

Info at www.comune.venezia.it