Home & Design Magazine

Paws on Parchment
2025-08-06 - 2026-02-15 | THE WALTERS ART MUSEUM, Baltimore
This Baltimore gallery celebrates feline subjects with a show dedicated to the portrayal of cats in medieval manuscripts. Not only endearing pets, 15th-century cats also played deeply symbolic roles in literature and served as protectors that warded off pests.

State Fairs: Growing American Craft
2025-08-06 | Renwick Gallery, Pennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street NW Washington, DC 20006
From a life-size butter cow created on-site by Iowa’s Sarah Pratt to a pyramid of 700 glass jars of preserved fruits and vegetables by canning expert and fellow Iowan Rod Zeitler, the Renwick celebrates the artistry and crafts that play an integral role in state fairs nationwide. More than 240 objects on view date from the mid-19th century to the present.

Enduring Traditions
2025-08-16 - 2025-12-20 | THE GW UNIVERSITY MUSEUM AND THE TEXTILE MUSEUM
Marking The Textile Museum’s centennial, this exhibition examines the roles textiles have played over the centuries in celebrations, performances and religious ceremonies around the world. Pieces on view run the spectrum from festival robes to palace carpets.

Deconstructing Nature: Environmental Transformation in the Lucas Collection
2025-08-27 - 2026-01-04 | BALTIMORE MUSEUM OF ART
This show chronicles how 19th-century European and American artists not only documented but also influenced the transformation of pristine environments into resources of industry. More than 50 works on paper—organized by themes of desert, forest, field, city and studio—were pulled from the collection of Baltimore native George A. Lucas (1824-1909).

Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1600–1750
2025-09-26 - 2026-01-11 | NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WOMEN IN THE ARTS
This landmark show chronicles the pivotal role women artists played in what is presently the Netherlands and Flanders, Belgium, during the 17th and 18th centuries. The nearly 150 works on view—from paintings and prints to sculpture, embroidery and lace—are a testament to women’s participation in nearly all aspects of artistic culture of the era. However, as the museum reveals, their contributions were often misattributed or overlooked in the annals of art  history.

Fantastic Realities
2025-10-04 - 2026-09-06 | AMERICAN VISIONARY ART MUSEUM
This mega-exhibition marking the  Baltimore venue’s 30th anniversary focuses on alternate worlds by a coterie of self-taught artists. Among 130 creations shown are paintings and lithographs, ceramic subway scenes, handcrafted action figures, chainsaw-carved minotaurs and hand-painted sci-fi galaxies.

Tawny Chatmon: Sanctuaries of Truth, Dissolution of Lies
2025-10-15 - 2026-01-20 | NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WOMEN IN THE ARTS
Tokyo-born Tawny Chatmon elevates cultural truths and confronts racist myths through her photography-based art. Her large-scale photographs are embellished with digital techniques and handmade elements that include embroidered and mosaic-like patterns.

Anonymous Was a Woman: Jae Ko | linn meyers | Joyce J. Scott | Renée Stout
2025-10-16 - 2026-01-31
This exhibition displays recent work by four DMV-based recipients of Anonymous Was a Woman (AWAW) grants. The 25-year-old program supporting mid-career female artists throughout the U.S. takes its name from a Virginia Woolf essay underscoring challenges faced by creative women. The Kreeger show highlights 26 works by Jae Ko, linn meyers, Joyce J. Scott and Renée Stout.

The Stars We Do Not See: Australian Indigenous Art
2025-10-18 - 2026-03-01 | National Gallery of Art
October 18 to March 1, 2026 –This exhibit offers visitors a rare opportunity to discover modern and contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art, dating from the late 19th century to the present. More than 200 works by 130 artists illustrate the diverse and distinct visual iconographies of Indigenous Australia, which is made up of more than 250 distinct nations.

Grandma Moses: A Good Day’s Work
2025-10-24 - 2026-07-12 | Smithsonian American Art Museum
The museum reexamines the work and life of Anna Mary Robertson “Grandma” Moses (1860–1961), the self-taught artist who was propelled to fame after starting to paint in her late 70s. The 88 works on view illuminate lesser-known aspects of Moses’ experience and reconcile the roles she played—from mother of five and dairy farmer in post-Reconstructionist Virginia to celebrity folk artist—in the context of today.

Amy Sherald: American Sublime
2025-11-02 - 2026-04-05 | BALTIMORE MUSEUM OF ART
In the most comprehensive unveiling of former Charm City resident Amy Sherald’s work to date, the BMA presents approximately 40 of her portraits, from rarely seen examples to iconic portrayals of Michelle Obama and Breonna Taylor. The ticketed show focuses on Sherald’s experimentation with the conventions of portraiture and her ability to tell stories through color, pose and dress.

Visible Vault: Open Collections Storage
2025-11-07 - 2025-12-31 | NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM
A permanent exhibit showcases some 3,000 of the museum’s 500,000 historical artifacts. Find architectural models by I.M. Pei and Frank Gehry, an antique blueprint machine, 1960s dollhouses, building fragments from the Carnegie Mansion and more. Items on display will be regularly rotated.

Korean Treasures: Collected, Cherished, Shared
2025-11-08 - 2026-02-01 | NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ASIAN ART
In 2021, family of the late Samsung chairman Lee Kun-Hee donated his vast art collection to the Republic of Korea. Some 200 items from the endowment are on display in the debut of this traveling exhibit. Spanning 1,500 years, objects range from ancient Buddhist sculpture to Joseon dynasty furnishings and bold, 20th-century paintings.

Out of Many: Reframing an American Art Collection
2025-11-08 - 2026-02-15 | The Phillips Collection
The  Phillips brings together some 75 paintings, prints, sculptures and mixed-media pieces spanning more than a century to celebrate and study the beauty and complexity of the American experience through the lens of visual art. Coinciding with the 250th anniversary of the U.S., the show reflects on the nation’s ever-changing culture and identity.

Big Things for Big Rooms
2025-11-21 - 2027-07-04 | Hirshhorn Museum
Since the late 1960s, immersive, large-scale artworks have blurred traditional boundaries. This exhibit traces the evolution of installation art, displaying early works such as Sam Gilliam’s 1969 Light Depth (pictured) along with those of contemporary artists such as Mika Rottenberg and Spencer Finch.

Giants: Art from the Dean Collection of Swizz Beatz and Alicia Keys
2025-11-22 - 2026-03-01 | VIRGINIA MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS
An exhibit of more than 130 works on loan from the collection of music-industry power couple Alicia Keys and Kasseem Dean (aka Swizz Beatz) shines a light on 40-plus Black artists from Africa, Europe, the U.S. and the Caribbean. Pictured: A work by Amy Sherald.

Holiday Fête
2025-12-11 18:00 - 20:00 (America/New_York) | WASHINGTON DESIGN CENTER
Every year, local design teams partner with Washington Design Center showrooms to create seasonal vignettes and tablescapes composed with furniture, fabrics and finery sourced at the center. Proceeds benefit Children's National Hospital. At press time, this year's participants included Amoda Decor; Barbara Noguera Interiors; Charles C. Almonte, AIA ASID; David Anthony Chenault, Drysdale Design Associates; Elizabeth Kannan Interior Design; Erica Burns & Everett Design; Grider Upholstery, LLC; grOH!; House of Shima; Katy Anderson Interiors + B. Croft Textile; LBW Studio; Lucia Lau Designs; Michelle Tremont Boyd Interiors; Milly Lipp Designs; Penno Interiors; Sroka Design; Stalburg Design. Pictured: A space conjured by JD Ireland Interior Architecture + Design in the Kravet showroom at the 2024 Holiday Fete. Photo: Kate Wichlinski

Ruth Orkin: Women on the Move
2025-12-12 - 2026-03-26
The daughter of a silent-film star, the late Ruth Orkin is remembered for her postwar photographs of confident women in public and private spaces. Twenty-one striking images on view range from Hollywood glamour shots to depictions of women in classrooms, parks and homes.

Washington Winter Show
2026-01-09 - 2026-01-11
Forty fine-arts and antiques dealers from the U.S. and Europe converge for this annual expo, now in its 71st year. Lectures, panel discussions and a jazz night are part of the mix.

peter campus: there somewhere
2026-01-17 - 2026-05-07 | The Phillips Collection
This exhibit showcases several videos by peter campus, a New York artist long considered a new-media pioneer. Along with one of his iconic 1970s works, The Phillips unveils new videos inspired by the coastline near the artist’s Long Island home.

Clifford Ross: Digital Waves
2026-01-17 - 2026-10-18 | National Gallery of Art
This immersive video installation dives deep into multi-media artist Clifford Ross’ ongoing fascination with the vast, awe-inspiring ocean through computer-generated media. Installed on a 23-foot-high screen in the West Building’s Rotunda, the work prompts viewers to reflect on the natural world and their own place in it.

Ilana Manolson: The Air We Share
2026-02-07 - 2026-03-29
Painter, printmaker and botanist Ilana Manolson celebrates species often dismissed as weeds, revealing their vitality, beauty and the essential roles they play within the ecosystems we share. From her luminous landscapes to her depictions of the intricate veins of leaves, the Canadian-born artist exposes unseen forces connecting all living things.

Ties of our common kindred
2026-02-12 - 2027-01-16 | Glenstone Museum
Marking the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the gallery celebrates significant achievements in American art over the past century. Among the artists represented, the show includes works by Jackson Pollock, Andy Warhol, Ruth Asawa and Cindy Sherman.

Nick Cave: Mammoth
2026-02-13 - 2027-01-03 | Smithsonian American Art Museum
The largest solo show SAAM has ever commissioned, “Mammoth” will transform a suite of galleries into a series of immersive environments. Combining sculpture, video and thousands of found objects, the exhibition draws on artist Nick Cave’s childhood in Missouri, where his grandparents were farmers and his grandmother was a quilter. As curator Sarah Newman remarks, “His work is a powerful reminder that objects are often more than things; they carry our histories, our knowledge and the stories that carry us forward.”

Mary Cassatt: An American in Paris
2026-02-14 - 2026-08-30
The NGA celebrates Mary Cassatt on the 100th anniversary of her death in 1926. The only American and one of three women who participated in the Impressionist movement, she spent most of her life in France. This display of some 40 paintings and works on paper document Cassatt’s creative  process.

On Time: Giving Form to the Fleeting
2026-02-14 - 2026-06-14 | HILLWOOD ESTATE, MUSEUM & GARDENS
Hillwood presents its dazzling collection of 18th-, 19th- and 20th-century timepieces, displayed alongside historic and contemporary loans in an exhibit that chronicles the history of horology and watch-making. Visitors will discover how changing clock and watch styles, from rococo to Neoclassical, were in sync with trends in interior design.

American Craft Made Baltimore
2026-02-20 - 2026-02-22 | Baltimore Convention Center
Now in its 49th year, this expo will showcase the creations of 400 artists working in ceramics, glass, jewelry, metalworking, printmaking, clothing, furniture and basketry. Visitors can enjoy artist talks, demonstrations  and hands-on activities.

Adorning the Horse: Equestrian Textiles for Power and Prestige
2026-02-21 - 2026-06-20 | GW UNIVERSITY AND THE TEXTILE MUSEUM
A dazzling selection of saddle blankets, horse covers and other textiles dating back 1,300 years illustrates the vital role horses have played in Asian civilizations.

Making Their Mark: Works from the Shah Garg Collection
2026-02-27 - 2026-06-26
The museum shines a light on abstract work by notable 20th- and 21st-century female artists. More than 70 pieces on display in an array of media explore themes of representation, identity and power.

A Trio of Matisse Exhibits
2026-03-11 - 2026-10-25 | BALTIMORE MUSEUM OF ART
Three exhibitions capture the enduring influence of Henri Matisse. In “To See This Light Again,” works by the 20th-century French icon and Maryland painter Louis Fratino are juxtaposed, creating a dialogue between figural studies. “Matisse and Martinique” highlights how the Caribbean influenced the artist’s work, and “Matisse in Vence” examines the mural he created for The Chapelle du Rosaire in a town near Nice, France. Check website for start and end dates of each show.
