Ongoing—New York-based artist Iké Udé paid homage to Nollywood, the $3 billion film industry in his birthplace of Nigeria, by photographing its most famous celebrities. On view with garments and other items used in their creation, these portraits make bold statements about African identity. Pictured: A portrait of actress Genevieve Nnaji.
While temporarily closed for renovation, the museum will display a series of public commissions on its scaffolded façade. The first is a mural by DC-based MISS CHELOVE, also known as Cita Sadeli. Titled Reseeded: A Forest Floor Flow, the 60-by-40-foot work (shown in a rendering) speaks to the resurgence of the natural world during the […]
Chronicling the life and work of American abstract artist Joan Mitchell, this retrospective presents paintings, pastels and works on paper. Viewers will discover the influence poetry and music had on the artist, who died in her adopted home of Paris in 1992.
Historical maps, prints and documents explore the complex relationship between the city and its adjacent rivers. Above: art from an 1866 publication, National Farm School for Children of Colored Soldiers and Colored Orphans.
The museum shines a light on the myths and legends surrounding subjects living on the fringes of society in early modern Japan. Works on view reflect on the virtues of these misfits who rejected societal norms.
Visitors can experience five installations by Yayoi Kusama, who at 93 is still creating art in her native Tokyo. The show includes sculptures, an early painting, photographs and two of the artist’s ground-breaking Infinity Mirror Rooms. One of these, called Infinity Mirrored Room—My Heart is Dancing into the Universe (pictured), is lined with reflective surfaces […]
This exhibit assembles more than 130 works including paintings, sculptures and photographs to reflect upon the African Diaspora since the 17th century. Artists from Africa, Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean are represented. Left: Into Bondage, a 1936 oil on canvas by Aaron Douglas.
This triennial competition recognizes work that challenges traditional definitions of portraiture. Open to artists living and working in the U.S., this year’s contest received entries in a wide range of media, from painting and photography to sculpture and performance art. npg.si.edu
A selection of works from the museum’s collection illuminates Henri Matisse’s ability to speak volumes about his subjects with a few simple lines. Pen-and-ink drawings, aquatints and bronzes reveal the artist’s shift from classical style to a more fluid treatment of the body. artbma.org
An artist whose work focuses on the social history of plants, Beatrice Glow has turned her lens on tobacco and the repercussions of its trade. Digitally printed and embroidered silk textiles, 3D-printed objects and watercolors express both the decadent opulence and unsavory realities of the industry. artbma.org
Born in Pakistan and living in New York, Salman Toor upends tradition and outdated notions of power and sexuality in his work. This assemblage of 45 of his paintings and works on paper made between 2019 and 2022—some for this exhibit—weaves together motifs from historical works and 21st-century events.
The museum celebrates the late Washington-based abstractionist with an exhibit of his circular paintings, or tondos, created in 2021. Ranging from three to five feet in diameter, each starts with a beveled-wood panel on which the artist layers dense, vibrant pigments, sawdust and metal fragments to reveal a bold combination of colors and textures. Rail, […]
Hamiltonian Artists is a DC incubator that promotes the careers of emerging visual artists. This indoor-outdoor exhibit presents new work by seven Hamiltonian Artists’ fellows alongside pieces in the museum’s permanent collection to examine how subject matter and media shift over time. The new creations include video, mixed media, photography and sculpture (such as a […]
More than 80 pieces of couture, accessories and photographs on loan from the Palace of Monaco shed light on the glamorous wardrobe of Princess Grace and her longstanding collaboration with Marc Bohan, the one-time artistic director at House of Dior.
After studying fine arts at the Corcoran in DC and working under several Washington Color School artists in the ’80s and ’90s, Mokha Laget eventually moved to Santa Fe. The Katzen will display more than 40 of her abstract geometric expressions, from paintings and drawings to sculpture and lithographs. american.edu/cas/museum
This exhibit displays drawings, paintings and sculptures by 43 seminal self-taught artists of the 20th century; it includes a painted work on cut-and-pieced sheet metal by David Butler (pictured). The creations—most recent or promised gifts from the Robson family—encourage viewers to see the world through the eyes of others. americanart.si.edu
This exhibit is the first to examine the life of Joanna Hiffernan, a model who was depicted in many early works by James McNeill Whistler and who played an integral role in his life. An impoverished Irish immigrant living in London, she and the artist had a five-year romance. Later, she served as Whistler’s manager […]
The gallery displays a selection of rare prints, engravings, etchings and woodcuts created in Northern Europe from 1450 to the 1600s. Originating in the region that now comprises Germany, Switzerland, Belgium and the Netherlands, the works on view are a testament to the creative masters of the period.
Twenty works explore the evolving role of indigenous artists in the North American Arctic. The exhibit traces the transition from the ornate, ritualistic and utilitarian objects crafted for many generations to present-day model kayaks and cribbage boards created for non-Native markets. artbma.org
