Gagosian-Rep Michael Craig-Martin Designs Set for Beckett World Premiere in Venice
On June 22, 2026, Gagosian announced that Michael Craig-Martin has created the set design for the world premiere of Samuel Beckett's "How It Is" at Palazzo Diedo–Berggruen Arts & Culture in Venice. The production, which ran June 7–21, 2026, was directed by Judy Hegarty Lovett of the Irish theater company Gare St Lazare Ireland, who invited Craig-Martin to realize a site-specific installation within the eighteenth-century Venetian palazzo. The set design is intended to evoke the novel's imagery of a solitary figure in mud and darkness, dragging a sack of tins and a can opener while repeating voices. Beckett's novel was originally published in 1961 and is written in short, punctuation-free paragraphs.
The Signal
The collaboration marks a rare intersection of visual art and theater for Craig-Martin, a conceptual artist known for his bold, minimalist works and his influence on the Young British Artists generation. For collectors and curators, the project signals the artist's continued willingness to extend his practice beyond the gallery into site-specific, performative contexts—a move that may enhance the cachet of his existing works on paper and paintings. The choice of Beckett's dense, avant-garde text also reinforces Craig-Martin's intellectual lineage and his alignment with experimental, language-driven art, potentially increasing interest from institutions focused on interdisciplinary practice.
- Artists: Michael Craig-Martin
- People: Judy Hegarty Lovett, Samuel Beckett
- Galleries: Gagosian
- Museums: Berggruen Arts & Culture
- Locations: Venice
The Morning Signal · Daily
Get stories like this in your inbox
The art world in one daily email — auctions, openings, and acquisitions from 90+ primary sources, distilled into a five-minute read. Independent — no marketplace, no gallery ads.
Join collectors, dealers & curators
No spam · free every morning · unsubscribe anytime
The Jobs Digest · Weekly
New art-world jobs, every Monday
The Jobs Digest rounds up the week’s new museum, gallery, and auction-house openings — with salary when disclosed. One email a week, unsubscribe anytime.
