Artworks by Artists Shaping the Guggenheim

In this Ocula selection, the spotlight falls on artists whose work has been celebrated at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York—whether through landmark solo exhibitions or inclusion in ambitious group shows curated from the storied museum’s collections. The artworks gathered here, however, are not about what’s locked away in a museum vault or behind a security rail, but about ongoing visibility. These pieces are presented on Ocula because their makers have, at some fortuitous moment, entered the museum’s story and are represented by galleries on Ocula.

Browsing this selection should feel like stepping into a lively opening: flashes of overheard conversation, the proximity of established pioneers with restless new voices, and the sense of global ideas colliding in unexpected ways. Some artists—like Julie Mehretu, Jenny Holzer, Paul Chan, Cai Guo-Qiang, Richard Prince, and Carrie Mae Weems, among others—have held centre stage for years; others have slipped in and out of focus, always nudging the conversation forward.

Main image: Guggenheim Museum (2019). CC BY-NC-SA 2.0. Photo: Martin Beek.