Lion of God

Artists

Walton Ford

Press release

This year in Venice, Walton Ford will unveil a major site-specific exhibition featuring a new body of work conceived in response to the collection of the city’s historical institution Ateneo Veneto di Scienze, Lettere ed Arti. Lion of God will be Ford’s first solo exhibition in Italy, consisting of a series of monumental watercolor paintings that explore the historical, biological, and environmental resonance of the subjects of the library’s collection, particularly the figure of the lion in Tintoretto’s Apparizione della Vergine a San Girolamo (The Apparition of the Virgin to St. Jerome) (c. 1580). The presentation will span two rooms in the Ateneo—the Aula Magna on the ground floor, and the Sala Tommaseo hall where Tintoretto’s work will be moved into public view for the exhibition’s duration.

Curated by Udo Kittelmann, who worked with Ford on the artist’s 2010-11 traveling European retrospective Bestiarium, Lion of God will open during La Biennale di Venezia’s preview week and remain on view through September 2024. 

Curator: Udo Kittelmann.