The world's preeminent international art exhibition, the Venice Biennale--now in its 53rd edition--is a chance to see work by the greatest living artists in one of the world's most romantic cities (although waiting in endless lines for the Biennale's events may drain some of that romance). Explore a sampling of Venice's must-see offerings below, and be sure to keep checking in with ArtWeLove this month for dispatches from the exhibition.

• "Fare Mondi // Making Worlds" @ the Biennale
• "Bruce Nauman: Topological Gardens" at the U.S. pavilion @ the Biennale
• Jorge Otero-Pailos's "The Ethics of Dust" at the Arsenale @ the Biennale
• Swoon's "The Swimming Cities of Serenissima" at the Venetian Lagoon @ the Biennale
• "Robert Rauschenberg: "Gluts" @ the Peggy Guggenheim Collection
• "Mapping the Studio: Artists from the Francois Pinault Collection" @ Palazzo Grassi and the Punta della Dogana

After Venice, the next stop on June's grand tour is Art Basel, where dealers, collectors, and artists from around the globe gather for the year's most highbrow art fair. And that's only part of the fun--there's also the SCOPE, VOLTA, and LISTE fairs, showcasing more affordable works by emerging artists, as well as Hans Ulrich Obrist's "Il Tempo del Postino," an ambitious performance event featuring 15-minute-long presentations by some of today's most challenging artists. If you're heading to the fairs, become an ArtWeLove member to get free passes to VOLTA and SCOPE, our partners in Basel. For everyone else, be sure to visit our site for on-the-scene reports of the festivities.

• Art Basel
• "Il Tempo del Postino" @ Art Basel
• SCOPE Basel
• VOLTA Basel
• LISTE: The Young Art Fair

Summer is traditionally a slow time for art in New York, but a spate of major museum shows opening this month are enough to keep any art-lover occupied. At the top of the list are retrospectives of seminal postmodern sculptor Dan Graham, Nigerian artist-cum-clothier Yinka Shonibare, and ghoulish Belgian pre-Expressionist James Ensor. Then feel free to do some sophisticated ogling at MoMA's show of erotic Surrealist sculpture, or tour a survey of the Guggenheim's earliest acquisitions.

• "Dan Graham: Beyond" @ the Whitney
• "Yinka Shonibare MBE" @ the Brooklyn Museum
• "James Ensor" @ MoMA
• "The Erotic Object: Surrealist Sculpture from the Collection" @ MoMA
• "The Sweeney Decade: Acquisitions at the 1959 Inaugural" @ the Guggenheim

As usual, this month galleries will begin putting on their summer group shows--which are always great ways to learn about unfamiliar artists, even if they can be a bit chaotic. Then, in the spirit of getting outside for some (free!) culture, be sure to visit the High Line when it opens mid-June, the 31st Annual Museum Mile Festival along Fifth Avenue, and the Brooklyn Museum's "Target First Saturday." Finally, at the end of the month, P.S. 1 will debut its beloved summer booze-music-and-art "Warm-Up" series with the opening of its latest outdoor installation, aptly titled "Afterparty." See--staying in the city isn't so bad after all!

• "Signs Taken for Wonders" @ Jack Shainman Gallery
• "Snooze" @ Scaramouche
• "Forces of Nature" @ Danese
• The High Line
• The 31st Annual Museum Mile Festival
• "Target First Saturdays" @ the Brooklyn Museum
• "Afterparty" and "Warm-Up" @ P.S. 1