Since it started in 1895, the Venice Biennale has been an every-other-year barometer of the global art world. As such, the release of its artist list with each iteration provides not only a glimpse into which artistic styles might be coming to the fore, but also more recently has prompted a discussion about the demographics of those artists. Cecilia Alemani, artistic director of the 2022 edition of the Biennale, which is set to open in April, released her artist list last week, and the statistics, with regard to non-male and female-identifying artists are highly encouraging if not historic: Of the 213 artists in the Biennale, just 21 artists-or just under ten percent-are (or, in the case of the deceased, were) male-identifying. Of those male artists, just 15 are living. To put this into context: there has never even been, in the history of the Biennale's curated exhibition, an edition that is majority-female.
