WASHINGTON, April 7, 2006 - Felix Gonzalez-Torres, a Cuban-born American artist who died in 1996, has been chosen by the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs of the State Department to represent the United States at the next Venice Biennale, reports the New York Times.

Mr. Gonzalez-Torres, who died of AIDS at 38, produced graceful Conceptual works with political and personal messages. Using everyday materialsstacks of replenishable paper to represent the inevitability of death, strings of lights to represent dreams of a better worldhe transformed emotion into evocative installations, writes Carol Vogel.

According to the Times, it will be the first time in 20 years that a deceased artist has been selected to represent the United States in Venice, the last being Robert Smithson in 1982.

New York Times: For Venice Biennale: Felix Gonzalez-Torres