Lorna Simpson

Punta della Dogana
From 29 March 2026 to 22 November 2026

Curated by Emma Lavigne, general director and curator, Pinault Collection 
Exhibition organized in partnership with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York

In 2026, Punta della Dogana will dedicate a major exhibition dedicated to American artist Lorna Simpson, presenting for the first time in Europe on such a scale a comprehensive panorama of her work focused on over a decade of painting practice. Organized in partnership with the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York —where an initial version, "Source Notes", was presented in spring 2025— the exhibition is curated by Emma Lavigne, General Director of the Pinault Collection and Chief Curator, in close collaboration with the artist. The Venetian iteration offers a renewed, and expanded, selection conceived specifically for the spaces of the Punta della Dogana. It brings together around fifty works —including paintings, but also collages, videos, sculptures, and installations— drawn from private collections, international institutions, as well as from the artist’s personal archive. 

Since gaining recognition in the mid-1980s for her groundbreaking approach to conceptual photography, Lorna Simpson has consistently and critically examined the mechanisms through which images are constructed —particularly in the American context, where race and gender constructs deeply shape self-perception and the perception of others. Since the mid- 2010s, painting has become a particularly fertile ground for her artistic exploration, extending the core concerns that run through her practice: the erosion and resurgence of memory, the failures of representation, and the instability of narratives. 

The exhibition brings together works from several emblematic series from this period. It spans over twenty years of work, including a number of paintings created for her participation in the 2015 Venice Biennale, curated by Okwui Enwezor, to the debut of several new works made specifically for this exhibition. Defying any singular interpretation, Simpson’s paintings draw viewers into uncertain zones at the edges of the visible. Dense compositions, populated by enigmatic figures, historical echoes, and political tensions, evoke uprisings and their repression. A series of Arctic panoramas, recreated from expedition archives, unfold in ranges of nocturnal blues and frosted greys, imbuing these landscapes with a suspended, dreamlike quality. Majestic and enigmatic female figures emerge from the pictorial matter, confronting the viewer with the complexity of identities and the ambiguity of their representation.