Well, no it isn’t. But that doesn’t mean that the question’s not worth asking. It first came to my mind last week, somewhere between doing the early morning Met Gala shift from my sofa and sailing across the Venetian lagoon on a boat taxi to the opening of the Venice Biennale. The theme of fashion’s fundraiser was, as I’m sure you know, “Fashion is Art”, but I couldn’t help but wonder, in a world where everyone’s busy trying to prove that fashion is art, might the inverse also be true?
Of course, there were bigger fish to fry at this year’s Biennale opening. Often allegorised as “the Olympics of the art world”, the 2026 edition (or at least the art presented at it) has been somewhat overcast by the geopolitical landscape in which it’s taking place. Still, this is a layered conversation. Of course, there’s the longstanding history of brand patronage of art, whether through exhibition sponsorships, brand-owned or affiliated foundations and institutions, or more direct commissions (e.g. Prada’s recent Jordan Wolfson campaign). Last week in Venice, some of the hottest extra-Biennale tickets were for shows at the Fondazione Prada and the Pinault Collection – private institutions that, while not directly fashion-associated, are owned and funded by people who are. And then, within the Biennale, this year saw the very first branded pavilion within the hallowed grounds of the Giardini, with Bulgari – the exclusive partner of this year’s exhibition – presenting an exhibition by New York-based artist Lotus L. Kang. You can read more about that below.
Art as a pillar of a brand’s cultural marketing strategy is old hat at this point – and a luxury brand’s patronage of an exhibition, artist or institution does not, of course, make the resulting art fashion. Still, the art world’s reliance on fashion and luxury for infrastructural support gestures towards a more nuanced point about the content and conceptual parameters of some truly brilliant work out there, which often pastiches the slick mechanics of fashion communication to advance – or even anchor – its point.
Now, what I’m not talking about here is work slapped with the rather derisory term “fashion art” – work that, whatever its medium, does little to prompt engagement beyond its often very attractive, stylised surface. I’m talking about art that deploys seductive means of presentation and communication that feels native to fashion to hook the spectator, often using artifice or affectation to lure you into deeper critical matrices.
“Seaworld Venice” by Florentina Holzinger, Austrian Pavilion, 2026 Venice Biennale. MARCO BERTORELLO/Getty Images
“Things to Come” by Maja Malou Lyse, Danish Pavilion, 2026 Venice Biennale. MARCO BERTORELLO/Getty Images
