Museums & Galleries: Fall Arts Preview 2015

Colin Winterbottom in his museum debut at the National Building Museum, Benedict Cumberbatch at the National Geographic Museum, and the august Virginia Museum of Fine Arts’ toast to tattoos. Those are just three of the season’s highlights across the region. Yet perhaps the most noteworthy, at least to historically minded Washingtonians, is the offerings at the recently opened George Washington University Museum. In addition to incorporating the Textile Museum, this expanded Woodhull House complex, it also houses a Washingtoniana Collection responsible for three exhibitions this fall documenting the “making of modern Washington.” But if that’s all a bit too earnest for you, there’s always the usual crop of cute and quirky art — some of it even practical at Del Ray Artisans and the Torpedo Factory. There must be something in Alexandria’s water.

1708 GALLERY

319 West Broad Street
Richmond, VA
804-643-1708
1708gallery.org

• Going Somewhere — Seven artists whose works, in video, performance, sculpture, photography, painting and sound, engage notions of navigation and movement, adaptation and mobility, exploration and transition (Now-10/17)
• Tameka Norris (10/23-12/5)
• InLight Richmond 2015 – A one-night, public exhibition of light-based art installations and performance. This year, its 8th, takes place on the grounds of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, including the E. Claiborne and Lora Robins Sculpture Garden (11/13)

AMERICAN VISIONARY ART MUSEUM

800 Key Highway
Baltimore, MD
410-244-1900
avam.org

• The Big Hope Show — Over 25 artists offer works in various media that champion the radiant and transformative power of hope in this original and unabashedly idealistic exhibition, curated by Rebecca Alban Hoffberger, founder and director of this 20-year-old museum (10/3-9/4/16)

THE ATHENAEUM

201 Prince Street
Alexandria, VA
703-548-0035
nvfaa.org

• Athenaeum Invitational 2015 — A total of 32 regional artists created works on the theme of Cole Porter’s “Don’t Fence Me In,” a competition judged by Jack Rasmussen of the American University Museum (Now-10/25)
• Mike McConnell — A commercial illustrator cum fine artist whose work is complex, fun and often witty (10/29-12/13)
• Suzanne Stryk: Notes on the State of Virginia — Works inspired by Thomas Jefferson, based on Stryk’s tours of and reflections on places he described (12/17-1/31/16)

THE BALTIMORE MUSEUM OF ART

10 Art Museum Drive
Baltimore, MD
443-573-1700
artbma.org

• American Crazy Quilts — Seven elaborate quilts from the late 1880s with a delightfully arbitrary quality that belies the skillful planning that went into making them (Now-11/29)
• Diverging Streams: Eastern Nigerian Art –Featuring 20 headdresses, masks and costumes demonstrating the exchange between the peoples who lived between the Benue and Cross rivers in Africa (Now-4/27/16)
• Black Box: Sharon Hayes — Artist, renowned for her politically charged live performances and video works, ignites an engrossing, candid conversation about sexuality and gender identity in Richerche: Three (Now-10/11)
• Baker Artist Awards 2014 & 2015 — Winners of the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance’s Mary Sawyer Baker Prize present arresting and poignant examples of their works, diverse in subject matter and media (Now-11/15)
• New Arrivals: Photographs from the O’Neil Collection — Approximately 18 photographs from the collection of Tom and Nancy O’Neil (9/30-3/27/16)
• Imagining Home — The inaugural exhibition for the museum’s new Center for People & Art brings together more than 30 works from across the collection and in various media exploring the universal theme of home (10/25-1/1/18)
• New Arrivals: Joachim Koester (10/28-3/6/16)
• New Arrivals: Matisse Prints & Drawings — Approximately 20 prints and drawings add to one of the most comprehensive collections of Matisse’s work (12/9-6/3/16)

DEL RAY ARTISANS

Nicholas A. Colasanto Center
2704 Mount Vernon Avenue
Alexandria, VA
703-731-8802
thedelrayartisans.org

• Altars: Religious Rituals — An exhibition of works by members of the Artisans and of the Art Latin American Collective Project, visualizing rituals of worship from around the world both literally and figuratively (Now-9/27)
• Under a Summer Sun — A “Gallery Without Walls” program in conjunction with the Animal Welfare League of Alexandria (Now-9/27, Vola Lawson Animal Shelter)
• Art in City Hall — Another Gallery Without Walls collaborative program also with Alexandria Commission of the Arts, the Art League and the Torpedo Factory (Now-12/18, Alexandria City Hall)
• Skeletons: Exploring Under the Surface — In addition to animal and human skeletons this exhibition also includes 2D and 3D artwork in a range of mediums digging deeper and discovering “under there,” examined literally and figuratively (10/2-11/1)
• Under $100: Affordable Masterpieces (11/6-29)
• Fine Art & Fine Craft Holiday Market 2015 — The 20th annual market offers pottery, photography, jewelry, cloth, paper crafts and glass made by local artists (12/4-6, 12/11-13, 12/18-20)

FOLGER SHAKESPEARE LIBRARY

201 East Capitol Street SE
Washington, DC
202-544-7077
folger.edu

• Age of Lawyers: The Roots of American Law in Shakespeare’s Britain — A close-up look at the rapid increase of legal actions 400 years ago, from the law’s impact on daily life to major political and legal disputes — some invoking the 800-year-old Magna Carta — that still influence American politics and government (Now-1/3/16)
• Shakespeare, Life of an Icon — This stunning collection of manuscripts and printed books from Shakespeare’s lifetime offer a firsthand look at the most famous author in the world (1/20/16-3/27/16)
• The Shakespeare First Folio — The first collected edition of Shakespeare’s plays, including the only source for 18 of his plays, is on permanent display in the Great Hall (Ongoing)

FORD’S THEATRE

511 10th Street NW
Washington, DC
202-397-7328
fordstheatre.org

• Lincoln and Leadership — Exhibition explores the qualities of good leadership through the lens of some of Abraham Lincoln’s key leadership principles and examines why Lincoln has remained relevant into the 21st Century (Ongoing)

FREER/SACKLER GALLERIES
SMITHSONIAN’S MUSEUMS OF ASIAN ART

1050 Independence Avenue SW
Washington, DC
202-633-1000
asia.si.edu

• Peacock Room REMIX: Darren Waterston’s Filthy Lucre — Painter reimagines James McNeill Whistler’s famed room as a decadent ruin collapsing under the weight of its own creative excess (Now-2017, Arthur M. Sackler Gallery)
• The Nile and Ancient Egypt (Now-1/3/16, Freer Gallery of Art)
• Chinese Ceramics: 13th-14th Century (Now-1/3/16, Freer)
• Perspectives: Lara Baladi — Egyptian-Lebanese artist experiments with photography, as captured in Oum el Dounia (The Mother of the World), a large-scale tapestry based on a photographic collage (Now-6/5/16)
• Bold and Beautiful: Rinpa in Japanese Art — A remarkable group of Japanese artists who created striking images for paintings, ceramics, textiles and lacquerware. The Rinpa style respects tradition and continues to renew Japanese art and design today. (Now-1/3/16, Freer)
• Sotatsu: Making Waves — The first in-depth examination of this fountainhead of Japanese painting and design, one of the most influential yet elusive figures in Japanese culture, featuring more than 70 of Sotatsu’s masterpieces from collections in Japan, Europe and the U.S. (10/24-1/31/16, Sackler)

THE GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY MUSEUM
THE TEXTILE MUSEUM

701 21st Street NW
Washington, DC
202-994-5200
museum.gwu.edu

• The Civil War and the Making of Modern Washington — An overview of the 19th Century printmaking techniques that helped spread news, information and images of war to an unprecedented degree (Now-10/15)
• Seat of Empire: Planning Washington, 1790-1801 — Historical maps and related images tell the story of the early experiment in urban design that shaped the landscape of our nation’s capital (Now-10/15)
• China: Through The Lens of John Thomson (1868-1872) — A stunning selection of photographs by this 19th Century Scottish photographer and travel writer, displayed alongside contemporaneous pieces from the Textile Museum’s collection of Qing-Dynasty textiles and accessories (9/19-2/14/16)
• Old Patterns, New Order: Socialist Realism in Central Asia — Examining the socialist realist art movement in Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and other areas of Central Asia, pairing 20th Century paintings with examples of the traditional textiles they depict (10/10-5/29/16)
• A Collector’s Vision: Creating the Albert H. Small Washingtoniana Collection — Highlights of the maps, prints, rare letters, photographs and drawings documenting the history of Washington, D.C. (Opening 11/21)
• For The Record: The Art of Lily Spandorf — Co-produced and curated with the Historical Society of Washington, D.C., this exhibition explores the artwork of the Austrian-born watercolorist and journalist who became known for the news illustrations she created for the Washington Star, the Christian Science Monitor and Washington Post (Opening 11/21)

HILLWOOD MUSEUM & GARDENS

4155 Linnean Avenue NW
Washington, DC
202-686-8500
hillwoodmuseum.org

• Ingenue to Icon: 70 Years of Fashion from the Collection of Marjorie Merriweather Post — Discover elegant designs, sumptuous fabrics and fashionable styles (Now-12/31)
• Konstantin Makovsky: The Tsar’s Painter — The romance and extravagance of boyar life in 19th Century Russia is portrayed in exquisite detail (Opens 2/13/16)

HILLYER ART SPACE

9 Hillyer Court NW
Washington, DC
202-338-0680
hillyerartspace.org

• Novie Trump: Longing for Distant Skies — An exhibition of porcelain, glass, wax and steel installations by this Arizona-based sculptor and installation artist who previously founded the contemporary arts space Flux Studios in Mt. Rainer, Md. (Now-9/26)
• Under the Sun: Artists of Sol Print Studios — An exhibition featuring 14 artists associated with this Baltimore facility dedicated to solar plate etching and non-toxic printmaking (Now-9/26)
• Susan Grace: Lay of the Land — A series of “plein air” paintings of three mountains in West Virginia by this resident artist in the Workhouse Arts Center in Lorton, Va. (Now-9/26)
• Perspective: A Look at Contemporary Painting & Drawing (10/2-31)
• Surya Gied (10/2-31)
• Iberoamerican Cultural Attachés Association: My Kingdom for a Stage (11/6-28)
• Marisa S. White (11/6-28)
• Leah Appel (11/6-28)
• Adam Bradley (12/4-23)
• Michael Corigliano (12/4-23)
• Chee-Keong Kung (12/4-23)

HIRSHHORN MUSEUM & SCULPTURE GARDEN

700 Independence Avenue SW
Washington, DC
202-633-1000
hirshhorn.si.edu

• At the Hub of Things: New Views of the Collection — The first exhibition in the newly renovated Third Level galleries features many favorite Hirshhorn artworks that have not been on view in years
• Focus: Dan Flavin
• Shirin Neshat: Facing History (Now-9/20)
• Barbara Kruger: Belief+Doubt — Installation wraps space in text-printed vinyl, questioning ideology, social norms and consumption
• Black Box: Sergio Caballero — Spanish artist and filmmaker makes his international museum debut with a 25-minute film, Ancha es Castilla, which relates a darkly comic tale of a child’s exorcism by blending homespun puppet animation and live action (Now-1/3/16)
• Le Onde: Waves of Italian Influence, 1914-1971 — Nearly 20 works from the museum’s collection, following Italian contributions to the transnational evolution of abstraction (Now-1/3/16)
• Marvelous Objects: Surrealist Sculpture from Paris to New York — First major museum exhibition devoted to a comprehensive view of surrealist sculpture, bringing together more than 100 works by artists from France, Spain, Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, the U.K. and the U.S. (10/29-2/15/16)
• Shana Lutker: Le “New” Monocle, Chapters 1-3 — American artist’s stage set-like installation of sculptures based on historic fistfights involving surrealist artists in the avant-garde milieu of 1920s Paris (10/29-2/15/16)

INTERNATIONAL SPY MUSEUM

800 F Street NW
Washington, DC
202-EYE-SPU
spymuseum.org

• Operation Spy — A one-hour, adrenaline-fueled immersive mission that is hardly your traditional exhibition
• Spy In The City — Armed with a GPS device, museumgoers can embark on a high-stakes operation outside the museum’s neighborhood
• Exquisitely Evil: 50 Years of Bond Villains — In partnership with EON Productions, the James Bond film producers, this exhibit showcases over 100 artifacts and explores how the evildoers and their plots have changed to reflect the times and how Bond has influenced public perceptions of real espionage
• Permanent Exhibition — The museum is the largest collection of international espionage artifacts ever on public display, spanning the history of the tradecraft around the globe, and telling stories of individual spies and their missions, tools and techniques, with interactive displays

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Thomas Jefferson Building
10 First Street SE
Washington, DC
202-707-8000
loc.gov/exhibits

• Chamber Music: The Life and Legacy of Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge (Now-1/23/16)
• Pointing Their Pens: Herblock and Fellow Cartoonists Confront the Issues (Now-3/19/16)
• Out of the Ashes: A New Library for Congress and the Nation — Marking the 200th anniversary of the acquisition of Jefferson’s library, the foundation of the modern Library of Congress (Now-5/2016)
• The Civil Rights Act of 1964: A Long Struggle for Freedom — Commemorating the 50th anniversary of landmark legislation that helped inspire the civil rights movement and change American society (Now-1/2/16)
• Exploring the Early Americas — Featuring selections from more than 3,000 rare maps, documents, paintings, prints and artifacts providing insight into indigenous cultures and the conflict with and changes wrought by European explorers and settlers (Ongoing)

LONG VIEW GALLERY

1234 9th St. NW
Washington, DC
202-232-4788
longviewgallery.com

• Michelle Peterson-Albandoz (Now-10/25)
• Tony Savoie (10/29-11/29)
• Ceramic Exhibition (12/3-31)

MANSION AT STRATHMORE

5301 Tuckerman Lane
North Bethesda, MD
301-581-5100
strathmore.org

• Women Chefs: Artists in the Kitchen — Portraits by 21 visual artists of nearly two dozen local female chefs (Now-11/8)
• Ceremony: Agreements We Call Art: Drawings, Paintings & Assemblages by Steven Nesheim — Mixed-media examination of the imagery of belief (Now-11/8)
• The 82st Annual Exhibition of Fine Art in Miniature — Intricately detailed works of art, painstakingly produced in miniature, on popular display (11/22-1/3/16)

NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM

Independence Ave at 6th Street SW
Washington, DC
202-633-2214
airandspace.si.edu

• Art of the Airport Tower — Smithsonian photographer Carolyn Russo’s journey examining contemporary and historic air traffic control towers (11/11-2016)
• The Wright Brothers & The Invention of the Aerial Age – The 1903 Wright Flyer, the world’s first successful airplane, serves as the centerpiece of this exhibition (Ongoing)

NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM

401 F St. NW
Washington, DC
202-272-2448
nbm.org

• Scaling Washington — Celebrated local gay photographer Colin Winterbottom’s debut museum exhibition, featuring stunning, large-scale images of the post-earthquake restoration of the Washington Monument and Washington National Cathedral (Now-1/3/16)
• The New American Garden — The Washington-based firm Oehme, van Sweden & Associates revolutionized American landscape architecture with lushly planted gardens with ornamental grasses and perennials — relatively low-maintenance and tapestry-like to be viewed in all four seasons (10/17-5/1/16)
• House & Home — Surveying houses both familiar and surprising, through past and present –- including a same-sex couple –- challenging ideas about what it means to live at home in America (Ongoing)

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

3rd Street and Constitution Avenue NW
Washington, DC
202-737-4215
nga.gov

• From the Library: Photobooks After Frank — Examining how photography emerged as a viable fine art form in part a result of the influence of Robert Frank’s seminal book The Americans, first published in 1958 (Now-2/7/16)
• Pleasure and Piety: The Art of Joachim Wtewael (1566-1638) (Now-10/4)
• Gustave Caillebotte: The Painter’s Eye (Now-10/4)
• In The Library: Setting the Scene with Theater Architecture and Set Design — Recounting the comedy and drama that unfolded during the 18th and 19th centuries, a pivotal era in architecture and design as told through a collection of nearly two dozen rare books (Now-10/2)
• Vermeer’s Woman in Blue Reading a Letter — On loan from Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum (9/19-12/1)
• Celebrating Photograph at the National Gallery of Art: Recent Gifts (11/1-3/27/16)
• Louise Bourgeois: No Exit — Artist’s ties to surrealism and existentialism is explored through 17 works on paper and four sculptures (11/15-5/15/16)
• Power and Pathos: Bronze Sculpture of the Hellenistic World — An unprecedented survey of roughly 50 works from world-renowned archaeological museums offering insight into the development of Hellenistic art as it spread from Greece throughout the Mediterranean between the fourth and first centuries BC (12/13-3/20/16)

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MUSEUM

1145 17th Street NW
Washington, DC
202-857-7700
ngmuseum.com

• Indiana Jones and the Adventure of Archaeology — An exhibition featuring real fascinating archeological artifacts along with an extensive collection of original film materials intended to provide the adventure of a lifetime (Now-1/3/16)
• Monster Fish: In Search of the Last River Giants — Zeb Hogan, National Geographic explorer and host of Nat Geo Wild series, embarks on a journey to find and protect the world’s largest freshwater fish (Now-10/11)
• Pristine Seas: The Ocean’s Last Wild Places — Featuring stunning photography and behind-the-scenes expedition images from the Arctic to the tropics as well as an immersive underwater video wall (Now-3/27/16)
• Jerusalem 3D — Oscar-nominated actor Benedict Cumberbatch narrates this film, the first-ever large format aerial footage of the Old City and throughout the Holy Land (9/26-3/31/16)

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY

1400 Constitution Ave. NW
Washington, DC
202-633-1000
americanhistory.si.edu

• Hear My Voice: Alexander Graham Bell and the Origins of Recorded Sound (Now-1/31/16)
• Artifact Walls — Art Pottery and Glass in America 1880s-1920s — Highlighting the design movement that embraced the ideals of superior craftsmanship, naturalistic ornamentation and living with beauty in the home (9/25-2017)
• Hart-Celler Act — Documenting the watershed immigration act passed in 1965 (10/2-10/2/16)
• Wonderplace (Opens Winter 2015)
• American Stories – An engaging mix of artifacts telling the various stories of the country’s history, from the Pilgrims’ arrival to the historic 2008 election (Ongoing)

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY

10th Street and Constitution Avenue NW
Washington, DC
202-633-1000
mnh.si.edu

• African Elephant — Learn about elephant behavior and the threats facing elephants today
• Primordial Landscapes: Iceland Revealed — Photographer Feodor Pitcairn and poet Ari Trausti Guðmundsson reveal a land of fire, ice, hardy life and natural beauty (Now-2017)
• National Geographic Into Africa: The Photography of Frans Lanting (Now-2016)
• The Last American Dinosaurs: Discovering a Lost World — As it develops a new National Fossil Hall, this exhibition is one place for the museum to display its ancient bones collection (Now-2018)
• Once There Were Billions: Vanished Birds of North America (Now-1/3/16)
• Portraits of Planet Ocean: The Photography of Brian Skerry — Amazing underwater photographs from some of the most beautiful, diverse and threatened environments on the planet (Now-10/4/15)
• Mud Masons of Mali — Djenne, a UNESCO World Heritage Site in Mali, is famous for its spectacular architecture thanks to its centuries-old tradition of masons, whose work is highlighted through archival and contemporary photographs and early engravings (Indefinite)

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN

4th Street and Independence Avenue SW
Washington, DC
202-633-1000
nmai.si.edu

• Commemorating Controversy: The Dakota-U.S. War of 1862 — President Abraham Lincoln ordered the hanging of 38 Dakota men in 1862 as a culminating step in the war between natives in southern Minnesota and the U.S. military and immigrant settlers. It left deep wounds that have yet to heal over 150 years later (Now-12/29)
• Our Universes: Traditional Knowledge Shapes Our World — Organized around the solar year, this exhibition focuses on indigenous cosmologies, or the worldviews and philosophies related to the creation and order of the universe that guide American Indian communities (Now-2017)
• Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the United States and American Indian Nations — Exhibition tells the story of the treaties signed between early U.S. leaders and influential Native diplomats (Now-2018)
• The Great Inka Road: Engineering an Empire — One of the monumental engineering achievements in history, this network of more than 20,000 miles crossed mountains and tropical lowlands, rivers and desserts, linking the Inka capital Cusco with the farthest reaches of its empire — and still serves Andean communities today in Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina and Chile (Now-2018)
• Return to a Native Place: Algonquian Peoples of the Chesapeake — A look at the Native peoples of our region, told through photos, maps, ceremonial and everyday objects, and interactive displays (Ongoing)

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WOMEN IN THE ARTS

1250 New York Ave. NW
Washington, DC
202-783-5000
nmwa.org

• Vanessa Bell’s Hogarth Press Designs — An English painter, designer and important member of the Bloomsbury group, a cluster of culturally influential figures in early 20th Century London (Now-11/13)
• Up Front: Esther Bubley — Photographer captures American life during the Golden Age of photojournalism (Now-1/17/16)
• Pathmakers: Women in Art, Craft and Design, Midcentury and Today — Illuminating the vital contributions of women to postwar visual culture and their use of craft materials to explore concepts of modernism (10/30-2/28/16)
• Womanimal: Zine Art by Caroline Paquita — Brooklyn-based artist, zinester and founder of Pegacorn Press (11/16-5/13/16)

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

8th and F Streets NW
Washington, DC
202-633-1000
npg.si.edu

• Dark Fields of the Republic: Alexander Gardner Photographs 1859-1872 — Known as the man who shot the Civil War, Gardner created dramatic and vivid photographs of battlefields, including images of the recently dead — shocking images that continue to haunt the national imagination (9/18-3/13/16)
• One Life: Dolores Huerta (Now-5/15/16)
• From Token to Ornament: Indian Peace Medals and the McKenney-Hall Portraits — Thomas L. McKenney, a superintendent of Indian affairs back when the U.S. had such a post, commissioned artist Charles Bird King to make paintings of Native leaders when they visited the capital, often portrayed proudly wearing peace medals that had been bestowed on them by U.S. presidents beginning with George Washington (Now-6/5/16)
• Eye Pop: The Celebrity Gaze — 53 portraits of luminaries who have been top in their fields, from Oprah Winfrey to Brad Pitt, Katy Perry to Sonia Sotomayor, all recent additions to the museum’s collection (Now-7/10/16)
• Elaine de Kooning: Portraits (Now-1/10/16)
• Nelson Shanks: The Four Justices — Artist’s monumental group portrait, a tribute to the four female justices who have served on the U.S. Supreme Court(Now-10/16/16)
• Mathew Brady’s Photographs of Union Generals (Now-5/8/16)

NEWSEUM

555 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
Washington, DC
888-NEWSEUM
newseum.org

• 40 Chances: Finding Hope in a Hungry World — A powerful exhibition featuring 40 photos by Warren Buffett’s philanthropist son Howard G. Buffett, documenting the world hunger crisis as part of a global awareness campaign (Opens 9/18)
• Inside Today’s FBI — An update to the Newseum’s popular FBI exhibit explores how the agency fights crime in the age of global terrorism and cybercrime, with news stories and dozens of new artifacts (Opens 11/13)
• Nationals at 10: Baseball Makes News — Exclusive exhibit features artifacts from some of the most unforgettable moments from the last decade of Nationals baseball (Now-11/29)
• 1965: Civil Rights at 50 — Part of a changing exhibit exploring the relationship between the news media and the civil rights movement in the 1960s through powerful stories, iconic images and historic front pages (Now-1/3/16)
• Make Some Noise: Students and the Civil Rights Movement — Exploring the new generation of student leaders that emerged in the 1960s to fight segregation and fight for civil rights (Indefinitely)
• Blood and Ink — The Civil War changed journalism in America, as told through the front pages of newspapers (Indefinitely)
• First Dogs: American Presidents and Their Pets (Indefinitely)
• 9/11 Gallery Sponsored by Comcast (Permanent)
• Berlin Wall Gallery (Permanent)

THE OLD PRINT GALLERY

1220 31st St. NW
Washington, DC
202-965-1818
oldprintgallery.com

• 20th Century People — A compendium of “people in prints” by some of the most celebrated 20th century American printmakers, including Thomas Hart Benton, Isabel Bishop, Robert Riggs and Max Weber, who stayed rooted in a sort of inherent figural humanism despite current trends toward abstract expressionism and modernism (9/18-11/14)

THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION

1600 21st St. NW
Washington, DC
202-387-2151
phillipscollection.org

• Gauguin to Picasso: Masterworks from Switzerland — Over 60 celebrated paintings by 22 world-famous artists from the renowned collections of Rudolf Staechelin and Karl Im Obersteg (10/10-1/10/16)
• Question Bridge: Black Males — A documentary-style video art installation that aims to represent and redefine black male identity in America (10/8-1/3/16)
• Art and Wellness: Creative Aging — Artwork by older adults from Iona’s Wellness & Arts Center (10/24-12/27)
• Intersections @ 5: Contemporary Art Projects at the Phillips — Celebrating five years of projects that have aesthetically and conceptually engaged with the museum’s collection and architecture in different ways (Now-10/25)
• The Journals of Duncan Phillips — A selection of the museum founder’s extensive journals illuminate his dreams for the museum, passion for art and relationships with emerging and established artists (Now-1/10/16)

SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM

8th and F Streets NW
Washington, DC
202-633-7970
americanart.si.edu

• Irving Penn: Beyond Beauty — One of the foremost photographers of the 20th Century, known for his iconic fashion, portrait and still-life images that appeared in Vogue (10/23-3/20/16)
• Crosscurrents: Modern Art from the Sam Rose and Julie Walters Collection — Exploring the “river of intellectual and artistic commerce that flowed both ways between America and Europe” in the 20th Century, with painting and sculpture works by Americans including Alexander Calder, David Hockney and Georgia O’Keeffe, and Europeans including Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro (10/30-4/3/16)
• Wonder — Nine leading contemporary artists, including Gabriel Dawe, Patrick Dougherty and Maya Lin, have each taken over different galleries in the newly renovated Renwick Gallery, the first building in the U.S. designed expressly as an art museum (11/13-7/10/16, Renwick Gallery)
• Measured Perfection: Hiram Powers’ Greek Slave — Featuring work by one of the most innovative sculptors of the 19th Century (Now-2017)
• The Modern Pueblo Painting of Awa Tsireh — Also known by his Spanish name Alfonso Roybal, this artist’s stylized forms echoed the popular Art Deco aesthetic (Now-1/31/16)

TORPEDO FACTORY

105 N. Union Street
Alexandria, VA
703-838-4565
torpedofactory.org

• Off The Table: Onto the Walls (Now-9/27, Scope Gallery)
• What I Did on My Summer Vacation (Now-10/18, Potomac Fiber Arts Gallery)
• Autumn Bling (Now-10/4, Enamelists Gallery)
• Wijati Soemantoro: The Ring of Fire — Abstract lithographs express a response to the energy, emotions and aftermath of natural disasters (Now-10/5, Art League Gallery)
• September Open Exhibit — A juried exhibit of artwork in all media (Now-10/15, Art League)
• Angel Soldier Dance Sublime — Four artists explore the sublime dance of archetypal masculinity and femininity (Now-10/18, Target Gallery)
• Karen Keating: I Come From… — A solo photography exhibition (Now-10/18, Multiple Exposures Gallery)
• Foundations: Shades of Clay (9/28-10/25, Scope Gallery)
• Superstition & Belief — Artists working in all media deal with myth, religion, belief, fantasy and dreams (10/7-11/3, Art League)
• Cool Colors (10/6-11/1, Enamelists)
• Sheila Harrington: Each Day Is A Celebration — Oil paintings of subtly seasonal food and drink illustrate the passage of time (10/8-11/1, Art League)
• Safari — The call of the wild, animal prints, exotic animals (10/20-11/16, Potomac Fiber Arts)
• Entertaining and Occasions — Jolly holiday potters from the Washington Ceramic Guild create original centerpieces, servers, platters, bakers and trays for upcoming occasions (10/26-11/29, Scope Gallery)
• Extravagant Enamels (11/3-29, Enamelists)
• Mini MAX — Exploring the extremes of scale with works that are either very small or very large (11/5-12/1, Art League)
• Artist Vision: Redefining the Picture Frame — An exhibit curated by William Adair, formerly of the National Portrait Gallery (11/5-29, Art League)
• Winter Wonderland (11/17-1/3/16, Potomac Fiber Arts)
• Moderation and Excess (12/1-/1/3/16, Enamelists)
• Ornamentation of the Season — Kiln Club members present oodles of ornaments, seasonal items and handmade gifts (11/30-1/3/16, Scope Gallery)
• December Open Exhibit (12/9-1/4/16, Art League)
• Kathlyn Avila: No Ordinary Woman — Ceramic works drawing on Avila’s life and the memorable characters she has known (12/9-1/4/16, Art League)

TOUCHSTONE GALLERY

901 New York Ave. NW
Washington, DC
202-347-2787
touchstonegallery.com

• Layers — Layers of color and layered points of view are on display in this exhibition of member artists working in photography, painting, sculpture, hand-pulled prints, collage and drawing (Now-9/26)
• McCain McMurray: Metropolis — A new series of artwork inspired by cityscapes and explorations of color and architectural forms (Now-9/26)
• Janet Wheeler: Quarter Sections — A procession of assemblages based on oppositions, from repetition to variation and manmade to natural (Now-9/26)

TRANSFORMER

1404 P Street NW
Washington, DC
202-483-1102
transformerdc.org

• Tobias Sternberg: The Temporary Art Repair Shop — Berlin-based sculptor invites the public to drop off objects that are broken, faulty, ugly, unsuccessful or in some other way not suitable for their intended purpose, allowing him to try to turn the received materials into sculptures (10/3-30)

UNITED STATES BOTANIC GARDEN

100 Maryland Avenue SW
Washington, DC
202-225-8333
usbg.gov

• Exposed: The Secret Life of Roots — Agricultural ecologist Jerry Glover, sculptor Steve Tobin and photographer Jim Richardson work together to showcase the importance of roots through visually stunning root representations (Now-10/13)
• Illustrating Hidden Treasures: Botanical Art by Wendy Hollender — Celebrated artist offers several pieces of her belowground structures (Now-10/25)

VIRGINIA MUSEUM OF FINE ARTS

200 North Boulevard
Richmond, VA
804-340-1400
vmfa.state.va.us

• Spotlight Loan: Eastman Johnson’s Views of Mount Vernon — Two paintings depicting the crumbling structures at the first president’s plantation when it had fallen into a state of great disrepair (Now-2/1/16)
• Here and Above: A Dialogue between Sculptures — Two welded steel sculptures in the museum’s atrium offer a cross-generational dialogue about material, form and environment between David Smith and his daughter Rebecca Smith (Now-3/1/16)
• Seasonal Flowers in Japan: Woodblock Prints by Kawase Hasui (Now-10/12)
• Organic: Photographs of the Natural World — An exhibition of photographers who provide intimate studies of plants, more akin to portraits than to landscapes (Now-10/12)
• Felix Bracquemond: Impressionist Innovator — Selections from the Frank Raysor Collection of this skilled etcher who was a luminary within Paris Salon and avant-garde artistic circles, but little known today (Now-10/4)
• Japanese Tattoo: Perseverance, Art and Tradition — Works by seven internationally acclaimed tattoo artists organized by L.A.’s Japanese American National Museum, it has been extended due to popular demand in Richmond — reportedly the third most tattooed city in the U.S. (Now-11/29)

THE WALTERS ART MUSEUM

600 North Charles Street
Baltimore, MD
410-547-9000
thewalters.org

• Gold of the Ancient Americas — More than 50 artifacts made by the indigenous peoples of the ancient Americas from Peru to Panama (Now-10/11)
• Pearls on a String: Artists, Patrons and Poets at the Great Islamic Courts — The first major exhibition of Islamic art at the Walters, with a focus on the cultures of historic India, Iran and Turkey (11/8-1/31/16)
• Gérôme and His Circle: Travel, Art and Business in the Middle East — Jean-Leon Gérôme was the leading French academic artist during the second half of the 19th century, specializing in scenes depicting present-day Egypt and Turkey (11/14-2/7/16)
• From Rye to Raphael: The Walters Story — An extraordinary group of art and artifacts illustrates the intriguing stories behind the museum (Ongoing)

WASHINGTON PRINTMAKERS GALLERY

1641 Wisconsin Avenue NW
Washington, DC  20007
202-669-1497
washingtonprintmakers.com

• Show and Teach: Look and Learn (Now-10/4)
• Back to School: Color and Abstraction (Now-10/4)
• Yolanda Frederikse — A passion for nature guides this artist, whose work captures notable places in and around the nation’s capital (October)
• Pauline Jakobsberg — A co-founder of the gallery whose medium of expression has for 33 years been hand-pulled print (November)
• Matina Marki Tillman — An exclusive focus on the human figure by a Greece-born drawing artist, who has recently become inspired by the experimental nature of printmaking (December)

WASHINGTON PROJECT FOR THE ARTS

Capitol Skyline Hotel
10 I Street SW
202-234-7103
wpadc.org

• South Capitol Skyscape: Avi Gupta — D.C.-based artist, an editor at U.S. News & World Report, offers the third and final installation in this series: Upward Mobility, a photograph of a staircase inside the former Corcoran Gallery of Art (Now-9/25)
• Lobby Project: David Bellard — D.C.’s NoMa neighborhood is the inspiration and source of the new installation Massing (Now-11/27, 1200 1st St. NE)

More Fall Arts 2015

• Film
• Television
• Stage
• Pop Music
• Classical
• Dance
• Above & Beyond