Nan Goldin hasn’t had a solo show in London since 2002 (when her travelling exhibition The Devil’s Playground came to Whitechapel). A lot has happened since then, both in politics and photography, and the artist appeared in the UK press after declaring in February that she would turn down a major retrospective at the National Portrait Gallery if it accepted a £1 million donation from the Sackler family—the owners of the pharmaceutical company who produce OxyContin. In March, the NPG announced it would drop the Sackler grant. Now, Goldin returns to London for an exhibition of new work at Marian Goodman, which announced representation of the hugely influential sixty-five-year-old artist in 2018. Sirens—one of three new video works—will be shown for the first time in London alongside Memory Lost and Salome. The work comprises Goldin’s images set to music by composer Mica Levi, imbuing it with a heightened sense of emotion. The gallery calls this series her most arresting body of work yet. Sirens opens to the public on 15 November, and Goldin will be in conversation at the NPG with its director, Dr Nicholas Cullinan, on 17 November.
