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Taryn Simon

Taryn Simon directs our attention to the unseen forces shaping the worlds we inhabit. Her projects, using photography, sculpture, text, sound and performance, center on storytelling, secrecy, and the hidden contours of power. Simon works with institutions including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, the International Commission on Missing Persons, and the Fine Arts Commission of the CIA.

Her multi-year projects include The Innocents, documenting the stories of individuals who served time in American prisons for violent crimes they did not commit; An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar, examining the divide between public and expert access through hidden and unknown objects and sites in the United States; A Living Man Declared Dead and Other Chapters I – XVIII, for which Simon traveled the world recording bloodlines and their related stories; the photographs and sculptures of Paperwork and the Will of Capital recreate the bouquets of flowers arrayed at a number of international treaty signings; and An Occupation of Loss in which professional mourners enact rituals of grief, simultaneously broadcasting their lamentations from within a sculptural installation.

Simon's work has been the subject of numerous solo exhibitions, including 'Father Country I Do Love You', Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, US (2026); 'Start Again the Lament', The Cisternerne, Copenhagen, Denmark (2024); 'Kleroterion', Storm King Art Center, New Windsor, NY, US (2024); 'Human Brains: It Begins with an Idea', Fondazione Prada at the Venice Biennale, Italy (2022); 'The Color of a Flea's Eye: The Picture Collection', The New York Public Library, New York, NY, US (2021); 'Paperwork and the Will of Capital: An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar', Aichi Triennale, Toyota Municipal Museum, Aichi, Japan (2019); 'Taryn Simon: A Cold Hole & Assembled Audience', Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art (MASS MoCA), North Adams, MA, US (2019); 'An Occupation of Loss', Artangel, London, UK (2018); 'Taryn Simon: An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar', Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark (2017); 'An Occupation of Loss', Park Avenue Armory, New York, NY, US (2016); 'A Soldier is Taught to Bayonet the Enemy and Not Some Undefined Abstraction', Albertinum, Dresden, Germany (2016); 'Vues arrière, nébuleuse stellaire et bureau de la propagande extérieure', Musée du Jeu de Paume, Paris, France (2015); 'A Living Man Declared Dead and Others Chapters', The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, US (2012); 'A Living Man Declared Dead and Others Chapters', Tate Modern, London, UK (2011); 'A Living Man Declared Dead and Others Chapters', Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, Germany (2011); 'An American Index of the Hidden and Unfamiliar', The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, US (2007); and 'The Innocents', MoMA P.S.1, Long Island City, NY, US (2003).

She has also participated in group exhibitions at institutions including the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Beijing, China (2013); and the 56th Venice Biennale, Italy (2015). Her honors include the Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in Photography and a Master of Photography award from Photo London.

Her work is held in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, US; Tate Modern, London, UK; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY, US; the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, US; the Centre Pompidou, Paris, France; the Kunstmuseum Luzern, Switzerland; and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA, US, among others.


Image: Taryn Simon, CHAPTER V (South Korean abducted by North Korea), 2011 - Archival inkjet prints, comprised of 3 components - 213.4 x 301.6 cm, 84 x 118 3/4 in - Edition of 4 + 3 AP

  • Biography

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  • Bibliography

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Selected artworks

  • Taryn Simon,                                      Executive Order 14347 / Restoring the United States Department of War, 2026

    Taryn Simon Executive Order 14347 / Restoring the United States Department of War, 2026

    Edition of 4 + 2 APs
    Archival inkjet print, in artist's frame
    83.8 x 69.9 x 4.8 cm
    33 x 27 1/2 x 1 7/8 in

  • Taryn Simon,                                      McDonald’s French Fries, Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania, 2024

    Taryn Simon McDonald’s French Fries, Feasterville-Trevose, Pennsylvania, 2024

    Edition 2 of 4 + 2 AP
    Archival inkjet print, in artist's frame
    69.9 x 83.8 x 4.8 cm
    27 1/2 x 33 x 1 7/8 in

  • Taryn Simon,                                      Capitol Police Headquarters, Washington, D.C., 2024

    Taryn Simon Capitol Police Headquarters, Washington, D.C., 2024

    Edition 2 of 4 + 2 AP
    Archival inkjet print, in artist's frame
    69.9 x 83.8 x 4.8 cm
    27 1/2 x 33 x 1 7/8 in

  • Taryn Simon,                                      Kleroterion, 2024

    Taryn Simon Kleroterion, 2024

    Mixed media

  • Taryn Simon,                                      Thirty-year natural gas contract between Gazprom  and China National Petroleum Corporation.  Shanghai, China, May 21, 2014, 2015

    Taryn Simon Thirty-year natural gas contract between Gazprom and China National Petroleum Corporation. Shanghai, China, May 21, 2014, 2015

    Archival inkjet print and text on archival herbarium paper in mahogany frame
    215,9 x 186,1 x 7 cm - 85 x 73 1/4 x 2 3/4 inches (framed)

  • Taryn Simon,                                      ‘Folder: Tug of War’, 2013

    Taryn Simon ‘Folder: Tug of War’, 2013

    Edition 3 of 5 + 2 AP
    Archival inkjet print
    119.4 x 157.5 cm - 47 x 62 in (framed)

  • Taryn Simon,                                      CHAPTER VIII (Fetal absorption of Thalidomide, Scotland), 2011

    Taryn Simon CHAPTER VIII (Fetal absorption of Thalidomide, Scotland), 2011

    Edition of 4 + 3 APs
    Archival inkjet prints comprised of 4 components
    213.4 x 455 cm - 84 x 179 1/8 in (framed)

  • Taryn Simon,                                      Fruit, Misc. (Prohibited), 2010

    Taryn Simon Fruit, Misc. (Prohibited), 2010

    Edition 3 of 4 + 2 AP
    29 archival inkjet prints in 5 Plexiglass boxes

  • Taryn Simon,                                      Cryopreservation Unit Cryonics Institute Clinton Township, Michigan, 2007

    Taryn Simon Cryopreservation Unit Cryonics Institute Clinton Township, Michigan, 2007

    Edition of 7 + 2 AP
    Chromogenic print, framed
    95 x 113 cm
    37 3/8 x 44 1/2 in

Videos

  • Taryn Simon introduces 'Kleroterion' (2024).
  • Taryn Simon's "An Occupation of Loss"
  • Taryn Simon: A Cold Hole 02
  • Artist Taryn Simon: The Art of Mourning | Louisiana Channel

Museum exhibitions

Selected press