Taryn Simon

Born in New York, where she lives and works, Taryn Simon received a BA in semi­otics from Brown Uni­ver­si­ty in 1997. In 2001 she was award­ed a Guggen­heim Fel­low­ship for what would become her first major pho­to­graph­ic and tex­tu­al work: The Inno­cents (2002), which was exhib­it­ed at MoMA PS 1. Doc­u­ment­ing cas­es of wrong­ful con­vic­tion in the Unit­ed States, The Inno­cents calls into ques­tion photography’s func­tion as a cred­i­ble eye­wit­ness and arbiter of justice.

Simon’s work directs our atten­tion to famil­iar sys­tems of organ­i­sa­tion – blood­lines, crim­i­nal inves­ti­ga­tions, flower arrange­ments – mak­ing vis­i­ble the con­tours of pow­er and author­i­ty hid­den with­in. Incor­po­rat­ing medi­ums rang­ing from pho­tog­ra­phy and sculp­ture to text, sound, and per­for­mance, each of her projects is shaped by years of rig­or­ous research and plan­ning, includ­ing obtain­ing access from insti­tu­tions as var­ied as the US Depart­ment of Home­land Secu­ri­ty and Play­boy Enter­pris­es, Inc.

Simon has exhib­it­ed exten­sive­ly through­out the world. Her work is includ­ed in notable pub­lic col­lec­tions, includ­ing the Muse­um of Mod­ern Art, the Met­ro­pol­i­tan Muse­um of Art, and the Whit­ney Muse­um of Amer­i­can Art, New York, USA; Los Ange­les Coun­ty Muse­um of Art, USA; Smith­son­ian Amer­i­can Art Muse­um, Wash­ing­ton D.C., USA; Tate Col­lec­tions, UK; Nation­al Gallery of Cana­da, Ottawa, Cana­da; Muse­um für Mon­derne Kun­st, Frank­furt, Ger­many; Helsin­ki Art Muse­um, Helsin­ki, Fin­land; Garage Muse­um of Con­tem­po­rary Art, Moscow, Rus­sia; Cen­tre Georges Pom­pi­dou, Paris, France; Auck­land Art Gallery, New Zealand; and the Art Gallery of New South Wales, Syd­ney, Australia.