Artist Says He Pulled His Work From Venice Biennale Installation Over Israel Stance

Eric Rasmussen has said he removed his contribution from a group installation at the Venice Biennale, one of the world's largest contemporary art exhibitions. He gave his reasons in an opinion piece published by the Jewish Journal, a US-based Jewish news outlet. ARTnews reported the account on 10 November 2026.

The installation is called Chimera (2026). It is an "exquisite corpse" style work, a collaborative format in which each person adds to a section of an image they cannot fully see. It was made by dozens of past residents of Denniston Hill, an artists' residency, and it sits in the Giardini, the park in Venice that holds many of the Biennale's national pavilions. The exhibition is the 61st International Art Exhibition and is led by Koyo Kouoh.

Rasmussen was a resident at Denniston Hill in 2019 through the DPAA Workshop. His piece combined two childhood drawings of Adolf Hitler made by his mother, transferred onto an acetate panel, a clear plastic sheet. ARTnews reported that installation photographs showed the drawing on view when the Biennale opened in May.

Rasmussen said he took the work down after mid-May. He pointed to an email from Denniston Hill that said the residency was among more than 70 Biennale participants who had signed an open letter objecting to the exhibition's claims of political neutrality. According to Rasmussen, the same email said Denniston Hill was aligning with ANGA, the Art Not Genocide Alliance, a group that has protested Israel's presence at the Biennale. Rasmussen said that, in his view, the residency appeared to support the "eradication" of Israel, and that is why he withdrew.

Neither the Biennale nor Denniston Hill has been quoted in the reporting responding to Rasmussen's account. The coverage does not say whether the work will be reinstated or whether the group installation has changed.

The Biennale's art section has its own events ahead. According to La Biennale di Venezia, it will hold performances, lectures, discussions and roundtables at the Arsenale, the historic shipyard complex in Venice, from 13 to 22 November.

For artists who take part in group projects, the case shows how one contributor's decision can change a shared piece. In a work built from many hands, each person's section is part of a whole that others made. Pulling one part raises questions about what happens to the rest.