Image: Norton Museum of Art, West Palm Beach
The Norton Museum of Art in West Palm Beach will present ‘Visible Fictions: Photography and Artifice’ from September 19, 2026, through February 21, 2027. Drawn from the museum’s collection, the exhibition examines photography as a constructed medium rather than an impartial record of reality.
The exhibition brings together photographs shaped by staged scenes, built environments, performed identities and invented narratives. According to the Norton, these works focus on the ways photographs form and influence perceptions of the world instead of simply reflecting an existing reality.
Artists represented include Sophie Calle, Renée Cox, Gregory Crewdson, Thomas Demand, Tania Franco Klein, Nikki S. Lee, Cindy Sherman and Laurie Simmons. The museum’s online presentation also identifies works by Hans Bellmer, Yasumasa Morimura and others, extending the exhibition’s consideration of artifice across different generations and approaches to photographic image-making.
Among the works listed are Hans Bellmer’s ‘La poupée (The Doll)’ from 1933; Renée Cox’s ‘Missy at Home’ (2008, printed 2023), from the series ‘The Discreet Charm of the Bougie’; Thomas Demand’s ‘Landing’ (2006); and Tania Franco Klein’s ‘Car, Window (Self-portrait)’ (2018, printed 2025), from the ongoing series ‘Proceed to the Route.’
The presentation also includes Nikki S. Lee’s ‘Part (14)’ (2002), from the series ‘Parts’ (2000–05); Yasumasa Morimura’s ‘An Inner Dialogue with Frida Kahlo (Dialogue with Myself 1)’ (2001); and Laurie Simmons’s ‘Untitled (Dummy in a Stairwell)’ (1994). The selection brings together works involving constructed settings, self-presentation, role-playing and fictional or psychologically charged scenarios.
‘Visible Fictions: Photography and Artifice’ is organized by the Norton Museum of Art. Major support is provided by the William and Sarah Ross Soter Photography Fund. The exhibition will be on view at the Norton, located at 1450 S. Dixie Highway in West Palm Beach, through February 21, 2027.
