Carol Bove's Guggenheim Retrospective Bends Time and Space

The artist's gripping show at the Guggenheim Museum features her own sculptures alongside works by other artists, transcending conventional notions of time and space.

Published on Mar. 5, 2026

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A major retrospective of artist Carol Bove at the Guggenheim Museum in New York City features her own sculptural works alongside pieces by other artists like Lionel Ziprin, Agnes Martin, Bruce Conner, and Richard Berger. The exhibition, curated by Katherine Brinson, Charlotte Youkilis, and Bellara Huang, blends Bove's creations with 'para-artworks' by other practitioners, eliding distinctions between old and new, industrial and handmade, original and appropriated. Bove's practice is described as establishing relations between unlike people and objects, and transcending conventional ideas of chronology.

Why it matters

Bove's Guggenheim retrospective is a significant milestone, as it marks only the second time in recent memory that the work of Lionel Ziprin, a key figure in the 1950s and 60s Lower East Side art scene, has entered the walls of a major New York museum. The exhibition also highlights Bove's unique approach of incorporating the art of other practitioners into her own retrospective, blurring the lines between creator and curator.

The details

The exhibition features around 100 sculptures by Bove, including colorful metal creations, curlicuing steel beams, assemblages of shells and refuse, and shelving units lined with tattered books. Bove also includes works by other artists, such as a drawing by Ziprin, a painting by Agnes Martin, an assemblage by Bruce Conner, and a sculpture by Richard Berger. The show also features a Vuillard painting relocated from the permanent collection, and a ceramic mural by Joan Miró and Josep Llorens Artigas that has been excavated by Bove after 23 years of being hidden behind false walls.

  • The exhibition is on view through August 2, 2026.

The players

Carol Bove

An artist whose practice involves creating her own sculptures as well as incorporating the work of other artists, including Lionel Ziprin, into her exhibitions.

Lionel Ziprin

A doyen of the Lower East Side art scene in the 1950s and 60s, whose poetry and drawings were rediscovered by Bove in the early 2010s and have now been included in her Guggenheim retrospective, marking only the second time his work has entered a major New York museum in recent memory.

Katherine Brinson

The curator who worked on Bove's Guggenheim retrospective, along with Charlotte Youkilis and Bellara Huang.

Cathleen Chaffee

The curator who terms Bove's inclusion of other artists' works in her retrospective as 'para-artworks' in the exhibition catalog.

Andy Battaglia

A colleague of the author who published a lengthy profile on Lionel Ziprin in Frieze in 2014, praising him as a practitioner of Kabbalah with an 'intensely networked and wildly idiosyncratic mind.'

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What they’re saying

“Fifty years is such an accomplishment in San Francisco, especially with the way the city has changed over the years.”

— Gordon Edgar, grocery employee (Instagram)

The takeaway

Bove's Guggenheim retrospective showcases her unique approach of blending her own sculptural works with those of other artists, transcending conventional notions of time, space, and authorship. By excavating and presenting the art of overlooked figures like Lionel Ziprin alongside her own creations, Bove is rewriting the art historical narrative and challenging the boundaries of what a retrospective can be.