Isabel Nolan's secular saints take over Venice Biennale

The Irish pavilion at the Venice Biennale is a long way from the central exhibition, but the journey is worth it. Isabel Nolan, Ireland's artist at this year's Biennale, has filled the pavilion with works that steal religious imagery for secular celebrations of scientists and humanists, according to the Guardian's art critic.

Among the subjects of Nolan's veneration is an Italian punctuation master: the inventor of the semicolon, a figure whose contribution to European letters has rarely been honoured in such a setting. The artist's show also includes a portrait of Copernicus and, unexpectedly, Tony Soprano, the fictional mobster from the HBO series.

The exhibition, titled 'Sinner, Don't Let This Harvest Pass' in a nod to Schumann's enigmatic Ghost Variations, spirals outward from its musical source. Nolan's work at the Biennale — the world's most prestigious contemporary art exhibition — positions her as a singular voice in the Italian cultural calendar.