After years of covering the art market, I finally made it to the opening of the Venice Biennale . Its 61st edition was exhilarating, exhausting, and overwhelming: 20,000-plus steps every single day last week. There was art everywhere , receptions in 500-year-old palazzos, and headline-grabbing protests. Everyone seemed to be in town from far-flung locales, dashing from one party after another, drinking spritzes into the wee hours. Simply put, the opening week of the biennale is the fullest expression of being together in the art world—a global block party. No wonder people come religiously every two years. Chance meetings abounded. Former Museum of Modern Art director Glenn Lowry offered me vaporetto directions from the brilliant Michael Armitage survey at the Palazzo Grassi to the quiet Matthew Wong exhibition across the Grand Canal.…