Alma Allen Skips ArtReview Questionnaire, Defends Outsider Artists for US Pavilion

Alma Allen, representing the United States at the 61st Venice Biennale (9 May–22 November 2026), refused to answer several questions from ArtReview's pre-Biennale questionnaire, including what she plans to exhibit and the role of national pavilions amid rising nationalism. In her few responses, she linked her work to the Biennale theme 'In Minor Keys' through 'the frequency of lament and in the refusal of bombast.' She called outsider artists—those working without institutional validation—the most important American artists, and described the US as 'built on foolhardiness and grift.' Allen stated she had never been to the Venice Biennale and dismissed the questionnaire, preferring to communicate 'through all portals of improvisation to the elsewhere and the otherwise,' a phrase borrowed from curator Koyo Kouoh. Her US Pavilion presentation is in the Giardini. The questionnaire series is published daily by ArtReview in partnership with Versace.