12 Mai 2026 |
Hong Kong-based artist Wallace Chan has participated in every edition of the Venice Biennale held over the past 38 years and his latest offering is intrinsically fused with the city’s heritage. Unveiled in collaboration with curator James Putnam to coincide with the 61st edition of the biennale, Wallace Chan: Vessels of Other Worlds is installed within the hallowed walls of the Chapel of Santa Maria della Pietà, overlooking the San Marco basin, and is the largest of two new Venice exhibitions from the artist.
Wallace Chan photographed in Venice by Giacomo Cosua.
Chan’s practice is the pursuit of innovation, and his works are the product of viewing years dedicated to craftsmanship and hard-earned creative expertise through a spiritual lens. Shimmering contemporary sculptures made possible thanks to the artist’s own groundbreaking material innovation are hung within centuries-old Venetian landmarks, challenging audiences to reconsider tactile and spatial philosophies by interpolating the historic architecture of the city with the artist’s unique creative language. Suspended between floor and ceiling, mirroring the narrow volume of the chapel with the vessel-like forms that define the work, the exhibition is anchored by three large-scale titanium sculptures that take inspiration from the three sacred oils — the “Olea Sancta” — used in the Catholic Church during blessing rituals.
Wallace Chan, ‘Vessels of other Worlds’. Exhibition view. Photographed by Federico Sutera.
In stark contrast to the notoriously frenzied, and this time hyper-political, energy of the biennale’s preview week, the hollow vessels at the heart of Chan’s new work serve as an invitation to become more open and invite the world in, but only once we have liberated ourselves from that which consumes us. In a moment of intentional detachment, they ask us to slow down and release in an attempt to find harmony in an often overwhelming world. He states, “Only when you are empty, you have the space to take in more.” Drawing inspiration from Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights, the three intricate column-like sculptures represent the three stages of life: birth, growth and rebirth.
Wallace Chan, ‘Mythos’. Photographed by Federico Sutera.
Throughout his career, Chan has operated outside the confines of formal academic art education and instead takes inspiration from his own lived experiences, as well as advances in technology and culture that he embraces with an open mind, free of the sometimes archaic restraints and principles of more traditional fine art structures.
The pursuit of innovation and his own path does not, however, replace the artist’s appreciation for classical artistic expression. Chan emphasises that throughout his almost four-decade relationship with Venice he has been in constant dialogue with its architecture, history and materiality. He admits that when he first arrived in Venice 38 years ago he only understood gemstone carving and had no idea what contemporary art meant. Spending time with the city has allowed him to appreciate what art represents there, and to find meaning in even the most minute details of texture and erosion of the bricks that built the city, viewing the physical spaces it offers as catalysts for his own creativity.
Wallace Chan, ‘Mythos’. Photographed by Federico Sutera.
Unveiled on the same day as Vessels of Other Worlds, and also curated by Putnam, Wallace Chan: Mythos occupies the 15th Century Scala Contarini del Bovolo; an architectural gem hidden among the narrow, maze-like streets Venice is known for. The site-specific project unfolds within the tower’s spiralling architecture and expands within the building as an immersive exhibition comprising sculpture and sound.
Chan reflects on the two complementary exhibitions, “These vessels are containers of memory, spirit, and transformation; sculpted and carved in the material closest to eternity, titanium. Like water, they hold what cannot be held — moments, emotions, the passage of time. By placing them in two distinct spaces, I hope to create a dialogue between distant places and between our inner and outer worlds, inviting viewers to contemplate the cycle of birth, growth, and death and to imagine that beyond these passages lie other worlds yet to be discovered.”
Santa Maria della Pietà, Venice. Photographed by Federico Sutera.
Wallace Chan: Vessels of Other Worlds is on view at the Chapel of Santa Maria della Pietà, in Venice, until 18 October 2026. A parallel exhibition will open at The Long Museum, Shanghai, on 18 July 2026.
Text MILLY BURROUGHS.
