“The Guggenheim New York presents Taryn Simon | Father Country I Do Love You, 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 brings together never-before-seen photographs, texts, 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 iconic spiral 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 multipart artworks or ‘chapters.’ The immense project is a labyrinth of stories 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. Stings and entrapments, traitors and child soldiers, impeachment and Hollywood, mass shootings and poison: everything he touched ricocheted to the outer boundaries of nations and lives he’d never know.

As the impacts of the agent’s stories reverberate throughout the Guggenheim rotunda, visitors step into the whirlwind Simon has assembled. From Quantico to Moscow, Beijing to Atlanta, the life of Simon’s central character unfolds in episodes. He eavesdrops on employees at the Soviet embassy, hoping to expose a rat. He babysits a model’s kids in a Hilton hotel while she lures D.C. mayor Marion Barry into a crack cocaine sting. He searches the rubble of the U.S. embassy bombing in Nairobi, where victims were blinded by flying shards of glass. He dissects hard drives and stumbles upon child pornography again and again. He takes a break while on assignment in Saudi Arabia to photograph a Flat Stanley for a friend’s kid back home.”—Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

“Once again proving herself the foremost artistic storyteller of her generation, Simon has created a profound and personal body of work that rebounds between anxiety, survival, empathy, and pleasure,” said Nat Trotman, Curator, Performance and Media. “In this exhibition she shines a shaky spotlight on democracy, memory, and the invisible hands shaping the worlds we inhabit.”

Images courtesy Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.