David Černý - Artocalypsa Exhibition to open in Venice

● Czech sculptor David Černý unveils his first solo exhibition in Venice, coinciding with the 61st Venice Biennale

● Running from 6th May to 6th November 2026 at Il Teatro dell'Arte (NuoveFondamenta), Artocalypsa surveys three decades of Černý’s provocative practice.

● The exhibition will present works from across Černý’s career, exploring the antiauthoritarian
challenge inherent in his sculptural work, particularly in the depiction of weapons and military imagery.

David Černý, Entropa (2009)

Czech artist David Černý will present Artocalypsa, his first solo exhibition in Venice, from
May 6 – November 6, coinciding with the 61st Venice Biennale.

The exhibition takes place at the historic former theatre Il Teatro dell'Arte (NuoveFondamenta)
and spans three decades of Černý’s interrogation of power and politics, his lampooning of
authority, and society’s enduring and problematic fascination with weapons and military
iconography, a recurring theme in his work.

The exhibition revels in Černý’s capacity to surprise, unsettle, and provoke, compelling
audiences to confront uncomfortable political realities through irony and satire. A disruptive
force in contemporary European sculpture, his subversive practice often blurs the boundaries
between high-concept expression and biting social commentary.

His engagement with military iconography began in the early 1990s when, as an art student, he painted Prague’s Monument to Soviet Tank Crews, (1945) bright pink, and placed a raised
middle finger on its turret. The act established his reputation for bold, sometimes absurdist
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public interventions.

Highlights include Entropa, shown here in a smaller edition of the original kinetic sculpture
created for the Czech Republic’s EU presidency in 2009. Although initially presented as a
collaboration among artists from all of the 27 EU member states, Černý and three friends
instead developed fictional artists and created images of exaggerated national stereotypes,
from a representation of Denmark in Lego to Romania as Dracula’s castle and a France on strike.

When unveiled at the European Council, the work generated immediate controversy and
became well-known as an international artistic hoax. 

The early work Guns, (1993) examines the visual appeal of weapons. By enlarging handguns to monumental scale, Černý highlights the craftsmanship and design often used to sanitize the
reality of their purpose. The sculpture is presented alongside new work, Nuke Chair (2025), a
kinetic armchair made of hyper-realistic burnt skin, which appears to be breathing. Placed near a sculpture of an atomic mushroom cloud, it appears scorched by a nuclear explosion,
contrasting domestic comforts with catastrophic destruction, a satirical nod to the ever-present
threat of modern weaponry in contemporary life.

Works from Černý’s Inventors/Scientists series (2013–2016) are also on view, including
large-scale portraits in polymer assemblage of both Leonardo da Vinci, Wernher von Braun and Robert Oppenheimer. Famed for their inventions and scientific achievements, both contributed to the development of powerful weapons, from Leonardo’s schematics for an armored tank and steam-powered cannons to Oppenheimer’s creation of the atomic bomb. Černý invites viewers to reflect on the double-edged nature of innovation.

Artocalypsa will also feature a new video installation, featuring two opposing screens that
display continuous looped video sequences. One screen features an ape beating the ground
with a bone, - a symbol of the ‘first weapon’ directly referencing the opening scene of Stanley
Kubrick’s iconic film 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). The second screen shows an aircraft
carrier powering through the sea towards the viewer, representing the evolution of military
technology into the ‘largest weapon’.

In each of these artworks, familiar symbols and images are presented in unexpected ways.
Through dark humour and exaggeration, audiences are asked to reflect on how violence and
power are embedded into our everyday visual landscape.

David Černy said, “Weapons have accompanied me throughout my life as a central and unavoidable phenomenon. They stand at the very summit of human technological achievement, yet they embody the most destructive dimension of our existence. In today’s climate of political tension and collective anxiety, almost every global crisis carries within it the latent threat of armed conflict and violence. In my work, weapons are not merely objects, but mirrors reflecting power, fear, ambition, and the shifting state of humanity itself."