Like the first installation of this exhibit, which remains on view through January 29, the second part also presents portraits by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Brian Lanker of Black women who changed America. Subjects include seminal figures such as Cicely Tyson, tennis champion Althea Gibson (pictured) and Oprah Winfrey.

Léon Bonvin (1834-1866) is known for his exquisite watercolors, inspired by Japanese prints, photography and trends of the day. Following the French artist’s tragic suicide, Baltimore patron William Walters began to acquire Bonvin’s paintings, amassing what became the largest collection of his work in existence; Walters’ son later bequeathed the collection to the city of […]

An accomplished businesswoman and legendary arts patron, Hillwood founder Marjorie Merriweather Post applauded female artists and designers. Hillwood displays art and objects from its collection that depict women whom Post admired, along with work created by women—from an 18th-century Fabergé pencil holder to a 1790 French painting of Princess Elizabeth (pictured).

The museum presents a stunning array of antique Islamic prayer rugs collected around the globe from Ottoman Turkey to Mughal India. Exploring the spiritual meaning behind the rugs’ iconic motifs, the show also offers comparisons to Jewish traditions.

A major retrospective surveys the 50-year career of modern artist Philip Guston (1930 to 1980). Some 110 paintings and 115 drawings on view run the spectrum from figurative and abstract work to political satire in the Nixon era.

Now in its 46th year, this craft show will host more than 350 artists displaying handmade treasures. Attendees can browse basketry, ceramics, furniture, fiber art and works in wood and metal, along with jewelry and wearables.

In this collection of newly acquired work, 25 modern and contemporary artists reveal their emotional and spiritual selves. Taken as a whole, the pieces on view illustrate the power of art to shed light on our existence and to affect change.

This novel exhibit explores how the materials and methods artists employ in their work evoke history, memory and meaning among viewers. Paintings, sculptures, photographs, drawings, prints and textiles are among the 65 works on view from the museum’s permanent collection.

Approximately 80 recently acquired watercolors and drawings in the museum’s permanent collection provide a vast overview of British art created over two centuries. The display features portraits, landscapes, historic scenes and nude studies.

Commemorating hip hop’s 50th anniversary, this exhibit surveys the cultural, conceptual and aesthetic attributes that have made the art form a global phenomenon. Ninety works by famed contemporary artists such as Devin Allen, Monica Ikegwu and Amani Lewis are presented alongside apparel and other objects that embody hip hop culture.

Twenty-nine tours will take place throughout Virginia during this annual event, sponsored by the Garden Club of Virginia. Among them: a walking tour in Old Town Alexandria and visits to private properties overlooking the Blue Ridge mountains in Warrenton.

Now in its 90th year, this spring event offers participants a glimpse into some of Georgetown’s most spectacular homes and gardens. A parish tea at St. John’s Episcopal Church follows the self-guided tour. Proceeds benefit the church’s ministry and outreach.

Marking the 125th anniversary of the Spanish-American War, this exhibit examines the rise of the U.S. as an empire through the lens of portraiture and visual culture. More than 90 […]

In the 1990s, Drexciya, a Detroit-based techno duo, imagined an underwater kingdom populated by the offspring of pregnant women who were either pushed or jumped overboard during voyages of the […]

Now in its 41st year, the Smithsonian Craft Show will display creations by 120 artists representing all facets of craft and design, from ceramics and basketry to glass, jewelry, furniture, fiber and wearable art. “Celebrating the American Spirit” is the theme of this year’s juried event, which will feature work by 13 Native American and […]

When they envisioned Washington’s architectural profile, America’s Founding Fathers and subsequent leaders frequently invoked Greek and Roman styles as a link to America’s political roots. This exhibit explores depictions of monuments, sculptures and public buildings throughout the nation’s capital that were designed to reflect the classical architecture of these ancient civilizations.

Martha Jackson Jarvis’ great-great-great-great grandfather, Luke Valentine, was a free Black militiaman who served during the Revolutionary War. In a series of 13 large abstract works on paper, the multi-media artist traces a journey Valentine made from Virginia to South Carolina. The assemblage not only captures shifts in terrain but also the dangers and emotions […]

This retrospective celebrates the 50-year career of Robert Houle (Saulteaux Anishinaabe, Sandy Bay First Nation). Embracing Western and Indigenous artistic traditions, Houle pays homage to the earth, the sacred and […]

Lego lovers of all ages will delight in an around-the-world tour featuring reproductions of 37 iconic structures and places made entirely of Lego bricks. Edinburgh-based artist Warren Elsmore constructed the […]

Italian Neoclassical sculptor Antonio Canova (1757–1822) started each of his masterpieces in marble by producing a model in clay. More than 30 of some 60 surviving clay sketches shed light on the artist’s creative process.

The Renwick Invitational showcases 
mid-career and emerging artists deserving wider national recognition. Jurors selected six Native American artists for the 2023 exhibit, which examines the honors and burdens facing Native artists as they express their cultural traditions. Creations on display by Joe Feddersen, Lily Hope, Ursala Hudson, Erica Lord, Geo Neptune and Maggie Thompson address […]

This retrospective commemorates the life and work of artist and educator Benjamin Wigfall (1930–2017) in his native Richmond. After launching his career, Wigfall studied at Hampton University and Yale and later became a professor at State University of New York (SUNY), New Paltz. It was there that he founded his studio, Communications Village, as a […]

This show explores the powerful connection between video art and music, showcasing 29 time-based installations by 10 award-winning creators. Harnessing genres from hip-hop and jazz to spirituals and lullabies, the […]

A text-and-image-based installation by New York conceptual artist Jessica Diamond offers a commentary on American culture and commercialism. Thirteen new wall drawings play off two of Diamond’s preexisting works.

The museum spotlights a 12-panel screen depicting women in an imperial palace during the Han dynasty. Visitors will learn about the 1672 screen’s meaning and manufacture as well as about […]

The rise of stylized, mass-produced posters in late-19th-century Europe and America blurred the lines between fine and applied art. Works by top French, Belgian, Viennese and American artists emphasized natural […]

By expressing the personal stories and experiences of makers and their communities, quilts often illuminate historical events and cultural trends. Drawn from the collection of New York’s American Folk Art Museum, creations on display range from traditional early-American quilts to contemporary sculptural assemblages.
museum.

Mounted in partnership with Hemphill Artworks, this exhibition shines a light on Washington-based artist Steven Cushner, showcasing 34 small-scale works on paper, woodcut prints and large paintings.

DC artist Franklin White has spent the past two decades in Merida, Venezuela, enamored by its scenery and traditions. The Katzen presents a selection of White’s expansive oil pastels on handmade paper, depicting the mountain village’s natural beauty.

This exhibition focuses on sculptures by Rachel Rotenberg created using cedar planks and other materials. The artist, notes the Katzen, “has managed to build works on a heroic scale without sacrificing intimacy.”

Science and imagination collide in a mind-bending video experience developed in collaboration with NASA. Exploring light as a thread connecting history, science and technology, the show reimagines cutting-edge processes and […]

The museum reflects on the career and work of late African American artist Alma Thomas, who was born in the Jim Crow South but spent most of her life in […]

Pieces by some 50 living Native American artists are a testament to indigenous survival and knowledge of the land. Works on view run the gamut from weaving and sculpture to […]

The museum displays more than 200 objects illustrating the integral role women played in the development of art, culture and commerce over four centuries. This vast display of royal portraits, […]

The Modern Architecture + Design Society and listModern host a celebration of residential modern architecture and design. From DC to Arlington and McLean to Chevy Chase, come see the inside and out of some of DMV's most unique modern homes; meet the local architects, designers, and builders that created the homes; and find some inspiration […]

Featuring more than 70 creations by 50 artists, this exhibition explores art networks and exchanges between Africa and the U.S. during the postwar period. Organized into four parts, it reveals […]

Inaugurating its new modern and contemporary galleries, the museum spotlights the photographic work of Park Chan-kyong—the Korean artist’s first solo exhibit at a major U.S. institution. Visually powerful still and […]

This exhibit chronicles an early chapter in photography, when innovators perfected a way to etch a photographic image into a copperplate and print it in ink. Resulting images dazzled viewers […]

The gallery shines a light on scientists, politicians, activists, writers and artists who played a pivotal role in the conservation movement from the late 19th century until today. Showcasing more […]

Fresh from a two-year renovation, the museum marks its reopening with a dramatic exhibit featuring contemporary sculpture and immersive installations created over the past two decades by 13 women artists. […]

Hung Liu (1948–2021) lived through Mao Zedong’s totalitarian regime before immigrating to the U.S. The museum reveals “weeping” paintings and prints by the artist featuring signature paint drips and layers […]

French artist Antoinette Bouzonnet-Stella (1641–1676) is best known for a work entitled The Entrance of the Emperor Sigismond into Mantua. This series of 25 prints is on display as part […]

Sculptures and special installations dot the Kreeger’s grounds in a display that demonstrates how art encourages viewers to consider subjects from other perspectives. The eight works in this show were […]

The museum highlights work by 25 influential contemporary artists from the U.S. and around the world. More than 120 selections in an array of media include paintings by DC-based Rozeal […]

An exhibit spotlights Franco-Senegalese artist Alexandre Diop, whose mixed-media creations explore legacies of colonialism and the diaspora.

Chicago native Simone Leigh explores themes of race, beauty and community in visual and material culture with references to vernacular and handmade processes from across the African diaspora. The Hirshhorn […]

This show centers on paintingsa by 20th-century icons such as Georgia O’Keeffe, Grant Wood and Hale Woodruff depicting rural scenes and city life in the U.S. In addition, select works […]

More than 100 portraits on view of everyday Americans, taken from the Great Depression through the 1960s, are a testament to the prolific American photographer’s ability to capture the character and strength of her subjects. Throughout her 50-year career, Lange (1895–1965) focused her lens on scenes of economic disparity, migration, poverty and racism.

Focusing on the intersections of poetry and nature in visual art, The Phillips pairs the large-scale forest landscape paintings of contemporary Swiss artist Ugo Rondinone with more than 50 paintings by American artist and poet Louis Michel Eilshemius (1864–1941). The museum also displays poems on paper and diary paintings by Rondinone, who is a longtime […]

Sponsored by the Institute of Classical Architecture & Art Washington Mid-Atlantic Chapter, this event celebrates Stan Dixon’s eponymous book, The Residential Architecture of D. Stanley Dixon: Home.  HOME is the debut book from award-winning Southern architect Stan Dixon, one of a highly influential group of Atlanta-based architects and designers who are revolutionizing the design world with […]

Fascinated by cities undergoing drastic change in the late 19th century, James McNeill Whistler depicted many historic London and Paris structures shortly before they were demolished to make way for modernity. This show unveils more than 100 works by the artist—oil paintings, watercolors, pastels and prints—that capture these bygone scenes.

The gallery traces the evolution of Rothko’s oeuvre through some 100 finished paintings on paper that are unfamiliar to critics and the public. Ranging from early watercolors to monumental oils and acrylics, the works are only a fraction of the museum’s vast Rothko repository—all of which is viewable online and about to be published in […]

A newly commissioned work by Mexican-American multimedia artist and musician Raúl de Nieves animates the museum’s two-story lobby. Comprised of a 27-pane, faux stained-glass window and a multi-tiered chandelier adorned with 999 colorful resin butterflies, the installation examines notions of beauty and transformation.

Spearheading the first major U.S. exhibit that examines Ethiopian art in a global context, the Baltimore gallery traces the country’s artistic traditions from their origins to the present day. More than 225 objects—from coins, painted icons, wood carvings and metalwork to paintings by contemporary artists—reveal Ethiopia’s significance in cross-cultural exchange and the movement of art […]

More than 40 dealers from the U.S. and Europe will exhibit their wares, from furniture and art to jewelry and collectibles. A panel on the 12th will feature designers India Hicks, Celerie Kemble and Alex Papachristidis, moderated by New York designer Joy Moyler. Pictured: A display exhibited by Bell + Preston Antiques.

From historical newspaper illustrations to oil paintings, depictions of DC residents out and about with the city’s iconic architecture as a backdrop capture 19th-century life in the nation’s capital.

A special installation and guided tour sheds light on the lives of enslaved and free individuals of African descent who lived and worked at Tudor Place over almost two centuries. Created in collaboration with descendants, the exhibit features photographs, artifacts and audio recordings.

A collection of densely hued paintings and woodblock prints by Barbara Kerne reveals the Bethesda artist’s strong connection to nature.

This site-specific installation conceived and created by artists Ellyn Weiss and Sondra N. Arkin centers on the climate-related causes and consequences of mass migration. Works depicting wildfires, rising sea levels and extreme heat convey the urgent need to confront challenges facing humanity and the planet.

Dynamic paintings and works on paper by the late American artist Jennifer Bartlett celebrate the beauty of gardens. This installation complements an upcoming spring exhibit that will focus on the work of another garden enthusiast, Pierre Bonnard.

Rejecting norms of idealized beauty, German Expressionist art embraced bold distortions, angular forms and the use of non-naturalistic colors. More than 100 prints as well as drawings, illustrated books and sculptures created over the past century document the movement and the ways in which it has reflected and contributed to revolutionary change.

From an early visit during the 1900 World’s Fair to her later years as a patron of Paris’ opulent hotels, opera houses, galleries and fashion ateliers, Marjorie Merriweather Post was enamored with the City of Light. Nearly 60 pieces of furniture, porcelain creations, tapestries and other precious items the heiress acquired in Paris will be […]

Attendees can discover resources for myriad home-improvement projects at this show, where exhibitors run the gamut from landscaping, kitchen design and home electronics experts to vendors offering appliances, windows, flooring and more. Emmy award-winning Kevin O’Connor (pictured), host of “This Old House,” will speak on the 23rd.

The ancient resist-dyeing technique of ikat developed independently in communities across Asia, Africa and the Americas. This exhibit presents more than 70 vivid ikat textiles from a diverse group of countries including Indonesia, India, Uzbekistan, Côte d’Ivoire and Guatemala.

Architect Mark McInturff, FAIA, will discuss the common roots of Classical and Modern Architecture at this event hosted by The Institute of Classical Architecture & Art Washington Mid Atlantic Chapter. Beginning with the training and early work of the iconic Modernists including Mies, Le Corbusier, Wright and Kahn, the talk will illustrate common denominators of […]

Channeling the glamour and intrigue of 007 lore, this exhibit unveils 17 iconic vehicles that appeared in James Bond movies over the past six decades. Props, motorcycles and film clips will also be shown.

Since 1965, the historic Woodlawn estate has hosted the largest judged show of needle arts in the nation with hundreds of embroidery pieces on display from artists all over the world. The month-long fundraiser is put together by Nelly’s Needler’s Needlework Group, established in 1975 to help in the preservation of Woodlawn through the pursuit […]

The museum examines 160 works to unravel connections that unite abstract art, fashion, design and craft. Varied media—from oil painting to weaving, basketry, netting, knotting and knitting—explore social and political issues that have influenced textile production over the past century.

The Traditional Building Conference Series delivers focused, relevant education and training for architects, contractors, craftspeople and designers. Faculty includes industry experts and practitioners who present a mix of hands-on construction techniques, methods and materials, classical design, urban planning, and sustainable building practice as it relates to updating and preserving traditional and historic buildings of all […]

In the latest—and largest—installation of a series mounted every three years, NMWA presents the work of 28 artists from 13 countries. Creations ponder issues of our time, including the effects of a global pandemic, advocacy for social change and fallout from the political divide.  Pictured: A digital print by Meryl McMaster.

Twenty-nine tours will take place throughout Virginia during this annual event, sponsored  by the Garden Club of Virginia. Among them: a jaunt around Leesburg and visits to two gardens in McLean.

The gallery shines a light on the portraits and biographies of 60 visionary American women who lived and worked in Paris in the early 20th century—a time when they ostensibly enjoyed greater personal and professional freedom there than they would have in the U.S. The first exhibit to focus on the impact of American women […]

A pivotal 1874 exhibition in Paris is considered by many to be the birthplace of modernist painting. Many works that appeared in that historic show—seen as radical at the time—will be on view at the National Gallery in an exhibit exploring political and social shifts that sparked the Impressionist movement. Included are paintings by Cézanne, Degas, Monet […]

Los Angeles-based artist Suchitra Mattai creates layered textile installations, sculptures, collages and paintings by combining richly colored saris, vintage needlepoints, book pages, jewelry, tinsel, beads and other found objects. The NMWA’s spotlight on 40 of her mixed-media and textile installations explores how memory, myth and visual culture can counter colonial and patriarchal narratives.

Peruse—and purchase—one-of-a-kind creations from a curated collection of wearable crafts at this annual event. More than 90 makers display their wares, from jewelry and leather to clothing, accessories and decorative fiber. Proceeds support grants to the Smithsonian for education, outreach and research projects. The Smithsonian Craft2Wear show will feature a necklace by Holly Anne Mitchell […]

Now in its 70th year, this annual event will attract more than 40 dealers from the U.S. and Europe presenting furniture, art, jewelry and collectibles. Visitors can browse antiques and decorative arts from historic houses in a special anniversary exhibit.

A lifelong resident of Washington, DC, Otho D. Branson is known for his mathematical compositions of intersecting lines and color. His first solo show highlights modern works from 1970 to […]

How does Southern architecture reflect the needs of its locale and its people? This exhibition aims to examine the contemporary architecture and design practices of the American South as the region deals with population growth as well as rebuilding after several devastating natural disasters.

The largest juried craft fair on the East Coast highlights creations by more than 350 artists and makers from across the country, alongside demonstrations, talks and hands-on experiences.

More than 250 companies will showcase the latest products and services in home remodeling, décor, landscape and garden design at this event, headlined in 2025 by Mika and Brian Kleinschmidt of HGTV’s “100 Day Dream Home.” Seminars by home-remodeling and landscape experts will take place throughout the weekend.

This yearly spring showcase features more than 450 exhibitors, along with 125 crafters and the latest home and outdoor-living products. Presentations by HGTV landscape expert Chris Lambton and hosts Leslie Davis and Lyndsay Lamb of “Unsellable Houses” are also part of the mix. The show takes place on March 1 and 2 and from March […]

Consumers who want to update a living room, transform a bedroom into a spa retreat or create a more efficient workspace can get professional design advice at a special rate during ASID's annual Spring Spruce Up. For $150 per hour (maximum two hours), a certified ASID designer will lend their expertise to help homeowners with […]

Interior designers, makers and creative entrepreneurs will converge for a weekend of design talks, hands-on demonstrations, and a curated shopping experience set against the charming backdrop of Maryland’s Eastern Shore […]