Taryn Simon | Father Country I Do Love You

Taryn Simon | Father Country I Do Love You is a major exhibition premiering a new body of work by artist Taryn Simon (b. 1975, New York). On view during the 250th anniversary of the United States, this presentation will bring together never-before-seen photographs, text, videos, and sculptures into a singular, interactive installation filling the entire rotunda. It will mark the first monographic exhibition by a photography-based artist in the rotunda and the largest debut of new work ever staged at the Guggenheim. Nearly a decade in the making, Father Country I Do Love You (2026) traces the real life of one unnamed federal agent through 42 individual artworks. The immense project is a labyrinth of sagas in which Simon uncovers the ripple effects of her protagonist’s actions and inactions. Through duty, devotion, loss, and happenstance, the federal agent acted as a middleman, witnessing events great and small and collecting evidence for someone else to slot into the bigger picture. Everything he touched ricocheted to the outer boundaries of nations and lives he’d never know. Simon is widely recognized for her storytelling, which directs visitors’ attention to the unseen forces shaping the worlds they inhabit. For Father Country I Do Love You, her narration recounts victims, predators, survivors, and the mechanics of justice. As the exhibition winds up the building’s ramps, visitors step into the whirlwind Simon has assembled. This exhibition serves as a turning point in Simon’s career, integrating personal stories into her practice for the first time. Father Country I Do Love You is dedicated to Simon’s father, whose life shadows the entire project. Her father lived in Thailand and traveled to Russia, Iran, Israel, China, Afghanistan, Korea, and elsewhere while working for the U.S. government, before transitioning to a career manufacturing and selling arcade games. Simon never got his full story, and, upon his diagnosis of Alzheimer’s disease, she realized she never would. “’But America,’ he always said, ‘was the best story on earth, if you could find someone to tell it,’” Simon recounts. Taryn Simon | Father Country I Do Love You marks a significant moment in the Guggenheim’s ongoing relationship with Simon. The artworks in the exhibition will enter the museum’s permanent collection, which already holds three other works by the artist. On the occasion of this landmark exhibition, the Guggenheim and Hatje Cantz will copublish an artist book. This exhibition is organized by Nat Trotman, Curator, Performance and Media. The exhibition was initiated by Nancy Spector, former Artistic Director and Jennifer and David Stockman Chief Curator.