Lorna Simpson and Paulo Nazareth at Punta della Dogana

Pinault Collection presents two major solo exhibitions at Punta della Dogana, featuring Lorna Simpson and Paulo Nazareth. The showcase explores the intersections of memory, racial identity, and the ‘unhealed fractures’ of history, transforming the former customs house into a space for investigating both personal and collective narratives.

Lorna Simpson’s exhibition marks her most significant European presentation in over a decade, focusing on her evolution from conceptual photography to painting. Spanning twenty years of work, including new pieces created for Venice, the exhibition features fifty works including her emblematic Ice and Special Characters series. Using a vast visual archive of collages and a palette of ‘nocturnal blues,’ Simpson examines the instability of memory and the mechanisms of racial stereotyping and erasure.

On the upper floor, Brazilian artist Paulo Nazareth presents ‘Algebra,’ a title derived from the Arabic term for ‘the setting of broken bones.’ Drawing from over twenty years of practice, Nazareth uses his experience of walking across the Americas and Africa to confront the ‘structural racial and colonial violence’ of borders. A central feature is a thick line of salt that runs through the galleries, tracing the ghostly architecture of a tumbeiro (slave ship) to symbolize healing, corrosion, and the Atlantic crossing.