There’s More to Art in Venice Than the Biennale Galleries and foundations across the lagoon city offer a diverse range of works.

The Venice Biennale is normally a trekking tour-de-force as people try to view the works on display in the national pavilions at the Giardini, in the sprawling spaces of the Arsenale and at scattered venues across the city center. But it’s a good idea to reserve energy for some of the other exhibitions here, which have been timed to coincide with the normally busy Biennale, which opens April 23.

Monumental Paintings

In 2019, Gabriella Belli, the director of the Foundation for the Municipal Museums of Venice, asked the German artist Anselm Kiefer to create a series of monumental paintings for the Sala dello Scrutinio in one of Venice’s most iconic landmarks, the Doge’s Palace. His installation — immense floor-to-ceiling paintings that cover all four walls, and another large painting in the entrance hall — is titled “These writings, when burned, will finally cast a little light,” after the works of the 20th-century Venetian philosopher Andrea Emo.