Taryn Simon, presented at the Guggenheim New York from September 18, 2026 through March 14, 2027, marks a major moment in the artist’s career with the debut of an ambitious new body of work. Occupying the museum’s iconic Rotunda in its entirety, the exhibition unfolds as an immersive environment that combines photography, text, video, and sculptural elements into a single, continuously evolving installation. Rather than offering a fixed sequence, the project invites visitors to navigate the space according to their own curiosity, creating a personal encounter with Simon’s layered narrative world.
Known for her rigorous investigations into systems of power, control, and belief, Simon has long focused on what operates quietly beneath the surface of public life. Her work draws attention to hidden archives, suppressed histories, and fragile structures that influence political, social, and cultural realities. In this new project, those concerns expand into a vast visual constellation, one that reflects on how information circulates, fractures, and recombines over time. Images appear not as isolated statements, but as interconnected signals that echo, contradict, and reinforce one another as they spiral through the Rotunda.
Presented during the 250th anniversary of the United States, the exhibition resonates with questions of national identity, memory, and authorship. Simon’s approach avoids linear storytelling, favoring instead a sense of accumulation and disorientation that mirrors contemporary experience. Viewers are asked to slow down, to look closely, and to consider how meaning is constructed through repetition, omission, and chance encounters. The physical act of moving through the space becomes inseparable from the act of interpretation, emphasizing the role of the observer within the narrative itself.
Organized by Nat Trotman, Curator of Performance and Media,
Taryn Simon transforms the Guggenheim Rotunda into a site of inquiry and reflection. The exhibition affirms Simon’s position as a singular voice in contemporary art, one who persistently challenges how stories are told and who gets to tell them. By offering no single point of entry or conclusion, the work remains open, demanding active engagement and leaving visitors with a heightened awareness of the unseen forces shaping both personal perception and collective history.
Image:
Taryn Simon, composite of images to be featured in the Guggenheim New York’s exhibition, September 18, 2026–March 14, 2027. © Taryn Simon