Taryn Simon's New Work 'Father Country I Do Love You' to Open in the Guggenheim's Rotunda

The Guggenheim Museum has announced that a new work by photography-based artist Taryn Simon, titled "Father Country I Do Love You," will open to the public at the New York museum on September 18, 2026. According to the museum's official press release, the piece traces the real life of one unnamed federal agent through 42 individual, multipart artworks or chapters.

Per the Guggenheim's statement, the presentation marks the first monographic exhibition by a photography-based artist staged in the museum's iconic spiral rotunda. It is also described by the institution as the largest debut of new work ever staged at the Guggenheim. Filling the entire rotunda, the installation brings together never-before-seen photographs, text, videos, and sculptures into a single interactive presentation.

The museum notes that the project took roughly a decade to complete and is being presented as Simon's most expansive and personal work to date. The press release also includes a personal recollection tied to the project's origins: Simon's father is quoted as having described America as "the best story on earth, if you could find someone to tell it." In a separate email exchange with ARTnews, Simon recounted a closely related version of this memory in her own words, saying her father voiced the sentiment while he still had language, before Alzheimer's took hold, so the anecdote is not resting on a single account alone.

Following the trajectory of a single federal agent's life to trace its wider global reverberations, the work layers photography, video, text, and sculpture into an interwoven structure. This scale of photography-based project is rare within the Guggenheim's rotunda tradition, and the exhibition is set to open to visitors on September 18, 2026.