Jenny Saville a Ca’ Pesaro

We’re proud to be a lead supporter of " Jenny Saville a Ca Pesaro " the first major exhibition of Jenny Saville’s work in Venice.

Bringing together nearly thirty paintings from the 1990s to the present, the exhibition aims to trace the development of Saville’s practice, while setting her monumental canvases in dialogue with the great Venetian artists of the past.

The exhibition opens on 28th March, and coincides with the 61st Biennale di Venezia.

About Jenny Saville

Born in 1970 in Cambridge, Saville attended the Glasgow School of Art from 1988 to 1992, spending a semester at the University of Cincinnati in 1991. Her figurative paintings developed to include contemporary debates surrounding the body with all their societal implications and taboos. It was also on this trip to America that she encountered the work of New York painters like Willem de Kooning and Cy Twombly. Alongside her dialogue with the old masters, ancient sculpture and modern European figurative painting, she became interested in the fundamentals of painting that abstract painters explored.

Generationally part of the group of painters and sculptors who made their mark between the late 1980s and early 1990s – often referred to as the Young British Artists (YBA’s), Saville revitalised contemporary figurative painting by re-engaging with the sensuousness of oil painting and its potential, raising questions about society’s perception of the body.

About Ca’ Pesaro

Ca’ Pesaro – International Gallery of Modern Art in Venice houses collections of painting and sculpture from the 19th and 20th centuries. The grand building, which now hosts the Gallery, was constructed in the second half of the 17th century at the behest of the Pesaro family, based on a design by the leading Venetian Baroque architect, Baldassarre Longhena, who was also responsible for the Chiesa della Salute and Ca’ Rezzonico.

The permanent collections of the International Gallery of Modern Art, constantly renewed and enriched with new critical ideas and unusual perspectives, are in ongoing dialogue with the temporary exhibitions displayed in the rooms on the second floor of Ca’ Pesaro.

Images

Jenny Saville, Hyphen, 1999. © Jenny Saville. All rights reserved, DACS 2026. Courtesy Gagosian.
Jenny Saville, Focus, 2022–24. © Jenny Saville. All rights reserved, DACS 2026. Photo: Prudence Cuming Associates Ltd Courtesy Gagosian.