Reid Shier to Curate Canada Pavilion at 2022 Venice Biennale

Reid Shier, director of the Polygon Gallery in North Vancouver, has been appointed curator of the Canada Pavilion at the 59th Venice Biennale in 2022, which will feature artist Stan Douglas. The announcement comes as the Biennale schedule shifts due to the pandemic: the Architecture Biennale, originally set for May 2020, will now run from May 22 to November 21, 2021, while the Art Biennale is postponed to April 23–November 27, 2022, under the direction of Cecilia Alemani. Shier, who previously served as chief curator at the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto and director/curator at the Or Gallery in Vancouver, has a long history with Douglas. In 1996, Douglas participated in Shier's first curated group show, "Rough Bush," and in 2002, Shier organized Douglas's first solo exhibition, "Journey into Fear." Douglas, represented by David Zwirner and Victoria Miro, lives between Vancouver and Los Angeles and has exhibited at documenta IX, X, and XI (1992, 1997, 2002) and four previous Venice Biennales (1990, 2001, 2005, 2019). The Canada Pavilion commission is organized by the National Gallery of Canada in Ontario.