Hyperallergic Roundup: Taryn Simon at the Guggenheim, Damien Hirst Play, and Leon Black's Museum Plans

Key facts

• Aruna D'Souza reviewed Taryn Simon's exhibition at the Guggenheim Museum, describing a sense of helplessness and systemic injustice.
• Hrag Vartanian reviewed The Wreck of the Unbelievable, a play by Sleth at the Brick Theater about a fictional gay lover of Damien Hirst.
• The play's character Shape, played by Sleth, appears on a mattress reminiscent of Tracey Emin's My Bed (1998).
• Noah Fischer reviewed Dana Mashoian Walrath's graphic nonfiction The Book of Genocides, covering 10 genocides from Germany and Turkey to Gaza.
• Congress voted to hold billionaire and MoMA board member Leon Black in contempt in its Epstein investigation.
• A new book reveals Leon Black's plan to convert an iconic Manhattan property into a foundation for his estimated $5 billion art collection.
• Liu Wei returns to New York with new works for the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Genesis Facade Commission.
• Forty life-sized buffalo puppets migrated through parts of NYC for Return of the Buffalo: Tatanka Owe Akupi.
• Alex Strada's Public Address brings handwritten testimonies from over 400 unhoused New Yorkers and shelter staff to a dozen Bronx locations.
• Hyperallergic members in NYC can attend studio visits at the International Studio & Curatorial Program on September 30, featuring Alicia Grullón, Zoë Pulley, Erick Hernandez, and Kara Springer.
• Edith Pritchett created an alternative Bayeux tapestry for the Guardian.
• The Art Gallery of Ontario acquired a portrait illuminating the life of 19th-century Black life model Pierre Louis Alexandre.
• Seventeen new public bathrooms were approved across NYC's five boroughs under Mayor Zohran Mamdani.