Exhibition: Tom Thayer Greater New York 2026

For the sixth edition of MoMA PS1’s Greater New York, Tom Thayer presents a new installation, Counterdoses for the Home, a spellbinding atmosphere stitched together by overlapping sounds, images and floating shadows. The darkened room is brought to life by Thayer’s latest video animations on box monitors, a new motorized instrument-sculpture, a 35mm projected painted slide, and spindly, suspended puppets. The constellation of handmade elements synthesize and change in the conditions of the room, rendering it impossible to see the same configuration of Thayer’s creation twice. Several puppet sculptures, drawings and other objects are on display in a nearby vitrine for close inspection.

Tom Thayer (b. 1970, Chicago Heights, IL; lives and works in New Jersey) is a Professor of Painting, Drawing, and Diverse Media at the City College of New York. Solo and two-person exhibitions include I Want to Climb Through the Windows of My Eyes and Become Static Electricity, Matt Hoyt & Tom Thayer, Bureau, NY (2024); What you wonder about is what you know– as well as the other way around., Derek Eller Gallery, New York, NY (2022); Einig, Matt Hoyt & Tom Thayer, Stations, Berlin, Germany (2019); Make a Pinch Pot Out of Your Mouth, Derek Eller Gallery, New York, NY (2019). Group exhibitions include Le Contre-Ciel, curated by Olivia Shao, Empty Gallery, Hong Kong (2024); Nurikabe, Tetsuo’s Garage, Nikko, Japan (2019); I got the Moon in the Morning and the Sun at Night, WallRiss Gallery, Fribourg, Switzerland (2019); 2012 Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY (2012); Looking Back: The White Columns Annual, selected by Jay Sanders, White Columns, New York, NY (2008). Performances include Tom and Henry Thayer for Abasement 66, organized by Joe Frivaldi, Artists Space, New York, NY (2023); Matt Hoyt and Tom Thayer, Loong Mah, New York, NY (2021); An Evening with Tom Thayer, Modern Mondays, curated by Stephanie Webber, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY (2013). His work is in the collections of University of Chicago Booth School of Business, Chicago, IL; Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; The Frances Young Tang Teaching Museum and Art Gallery at Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX; and The Columbus Museum of Art, Columbus, OH.