Like other arts venues and culture organizations, museums and galleries have mostly all reopened by now, and have also mostly returned to some sense of normal, although it’s always a good idea to check operating hours and admission pricing and policies before embarking on any cultural outing.

Among the vast and varied special programming on tap this fall at the area’s many public-facing, knowledge-disseminating institutions, no theme or topic is more prolific or widespread than surveys or examinations of African-American art and artists and the Black experience in America.

In particular, now is a great time to see and discover the work of Black visual artists, something you can do quite easily at a solid dozen area museums, from the National Gallery of Art to Hillwood, ArTecHouse to Transformer, the Renwick Gallery to IA&A Hillyer, as they and many other organizations seem to be heeding the loud pandemic-fueled calls agitating for greater overall diversity and minority representation in the presentation and production of art and culture.

Editor’s Note: This column has been modified slightly from the magazine edition.

AMERICAN VISIONARY ART MUSEUM

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

• ABUNDANCE: Too Much, Too Little, Just Right — The 27th original thematic mega-exhibition at this unique and uniquely quirky museum is officially described as “a wildly joyful, community-building contemplation of just what constitutes real wealth,” going on to suggest real wealth is rooted in deep satisfaction, productive happiness, and gratefulness. The mega-exhibition intends to serve as a showcase of art and artists “who have wrought new worlds from modest, often discarded, materials — equipped only with their hands, hearts, and fertile imaginations” (Opens 10/8)
• Esther and the Dream of One Loving Human Family — A display of 36 hand-embroidered works detailing the Holocaust survival story of Esther Krinitz along with testimonies from the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission and Rwandan genocide survivors to shine a light on humanity’s unjust persecution of innocents as a clarion call for the need to push harder to bring the dream of a world at peace closer to reality (Re-opening 10/8)
• The Science and Mystery of Sleep — The latest sleep-related scientific research, including sleep’s impact on obesity and diabetes, adolescents, even hormones and testicles, is examined in “plain-language” detail alongside three artist-made bedrooms (Now-10/7)
• Bling Universe — AVAM is “one small speck in a Bling Universe,” and “adorning one’s world — transforming it into a place that defies convention, surprising and delighting, providing hope and wonder — is what the Bling Universe is all about” (Permanent Collection)

AMY KASLOW GALLERY

The Shops in Spring Valley
4300 Fordham Rd. NW
www.amykaslowgallery.com

• Folk Art is Fine Art: Texture — This gallery, opened in the early months of the pandemic by its namesake, a former international photojournalist, is readying its second exhibition in a series heralding folk art. It features a curated selection of sculptors, painters, weavers, potters, and assemblers creating some of the world’s most astounding, and collectible, works of indigenous fine art. Texture offers a stunning cross-cultural journey, from Colombia to Uzbekistan, showcasing everything from tapestries of handspun raw silk soaked in botanical colors and stitched into perfectly smooth piles, to ceremonial beer pots contoured out of mud and decorated with raised dots enumerating the number of cows owned by the village’s tribal chief (9/23-12/18)
  Previews of the art and artists featured in the gallery’s earlier exhibitions can be viewed at the gallery’s website, with highlights including: Washington Landscapes, the exhibition that just closed earlier this month, showcasing three artists — Bernard Dellario, Brandon Mcdonald, and Andrea Limauro — who capture the capital city’s majestic landscape from strikingly different perspectives (Ongoing)
• Native Hands: Folk Art Is Fine Art, the gallery’s first international survey of folk art last year, featuring more than two dozen artists and art practices, including one-of-a-kind lacquered wooden boxes meticulously carved and painted by hand by a Mexican family of artists based in a hard-to-access part of of the country increasingly threatened by Narco-terrorism; striking and impeccably designed yet functional baskets, used as beer strainers, made by women in the Omba Arts collective of Northern Namibia following age-old techniques of dying, twisting, and weaving together palm strands, and stunning hand-colored wood-block prints from an artist in Cuba telling stories, in a vivid Art Deco palette, of real and imagined Cuban exits and arrivals (Ongoing)
• Ancestral Colors: Maya Design from the Guatemalan Highlands, the gallery’s first exhibition developed in consultation with the International Folk Art Market, showcasing exquisite indigenous rugs, made out of recycled fabrics, and richly detailed with culturally specific symbols and patterns by master Mayan women artists, weavers and embroiderers part of the Multicolores Collective (Ongoing)
• DC Lines, a display of striking pieces by four Washington artists whose works are inescapably, alluringly linear, including Elroy Williams’s contemporary paintings offering crisp and clean mixtures of gorgeous color and graceful form, Linda Cafritz’s seemingly sculpted acrylic paintings of defined lines by virtue of textured hues and elegant verticality, the highly polished, geometrically patterned square wall boards by the late lacquer artist Andrew Kaslow, Amy’s brother, and the gallerist herself with botanical images depicting natural pinstripes and curves (Ongoing)

ARTECHOUSE

1238 Maryland Ave. SW
www.dc.artechouse.com

• AṢẸ: Afro Frequencies — Inspired by the Yoruba concept relating to humanity’s power to produce change, the latest immersive, interactive audiovisual exhibition at the digital art gallery’s D.C. headquarters celebrates the Black experience through dramatic visuals created by Afro-surrealist Vince Fraser that are echoed in pulsating rhythmic drums and stirring spoken-word text by Philadelphia-based poet and musician poet Ursula Rucker. Guests walk alongside African kings and queens in an exploration of timeless questions about identity, power, and belonging in the Immersion Gallery, and elsewhere are invited to explore other multi-sensory experiences, including virtually “trying on” African masks, additionally, “after-hours” sessions feature exhibition-related Augmented Reality cocktails served at the XR Bar, powered by the ArTecHouse XR app (Now-11/13)

THE ATHENAEUM

201 Prince St.
Alexandria, Va.
703-548-0035
www.nvfaa.org

Joan Mayfield, Ruth Trevarrow (10/6-11/13)

DEL RAY ARTISANS

Nicholas A. Colasanto Center
2704 Mount Vernon Ave.
Alexandria, Va.
703-838-4827
www.delrayartisans.org

• Return to Eating, Drinking, and Merriment — Celebrating the ways that food and drink bring people together and add joy to our lives through a ceramic cup and bowl show juried by wood and soda fire potter Jeremy Wallace of Baltimore Clayworks as well as additional non-ceramic artworks on the same theme (10/7-10/29)
• Local Artisan Showcase — A “Gallery Without Walls” exhibit of member artworks on display at a nearby veterinary clinic (Now-11/12, VCA Alexandria Animal Hospital)
• $100 and Under — The return of a popular holiday-timed show with pieces, chosen by member artists as their best works at an affordable price point (11/4-27)

GWU CORCORAN SCHOOL OF THE ARTS & DESIGN

500 17th St. NW
202-994-1525
www.corcoran.gwu.edu

• LEGACY: Fifty Years of Dance on the Edge — A moving exhibition and immersive installation that celebrates the remarkable five-decade career of GW Corcoran dance professor Maida Withers (9/23-12/10)
• A Letter To My Body — Born from Martina Maya-Callen’s relationship with her own body as an “eating disorder warrior” and efforts to hold space for others’ individualized journeys, this exhibit features a varied mix of empowerment photography by women and nonbinary folx to represent the multidimensionality of beauty (9/21-10/17)
• Transformer20 — A retrospective exhibition celebrating the 20th anniversary of the Transformer Gallery, a contemporary visual arts leader supporting innovative emerging artists and artistic practices (11/11-12/10)
• RENEWAL — Celebrating the reinstallation of Robert Stackhouse’s work, Ghost Dance, at the Corcoran alongside pieces by the Washington Sculptors Group as part of a juried show inspired by renewal, rebirth, and sustainability (Now-12/3)

GLEN ECHO PARK

7300 MacArthur Blvd.
Glen Echo, Md.
301-634-2222
www.glenechopark.org

• Cooling Off: Autumnal Scenes — A juried group show featuring 23 artists capturing the spirit of the season, including J. Jordan Bruns, Shona D’Cruz, Matthew Fuchs, Robert Grudberg, Jin Jeong, Tania Kaddeche, Alex Kasten, Kathryn Mohrman, Felicia Reed, and Janet Wittenberg (Now-10/9, Popcorn Gallery)
• Khánh H. Lê’s From Behind There, We Are Now Here — Mixed-media collages reflecting the blurred, distorted sense of identity and culture from Lê, a Vietnamese refugee, who has embellished images drawn from family albums, digital archives, and fashion and home décor magazines with glitter, sparkling craft-store duds, acrylic paintings, and print (Now-10/2, Stone Tower Gallery)
• Lily Kak’s Celebrating Diversity — A solo show from a Maryland-based self-taught watercolor artist who was born and raised in India and frequently travels around the world for her work as an expert in international public health. Kak’s paintings depict the color and liveliness of diversity across cultures and races through dance, compassion, girl power, and friendship (Now-10/9, Park View Gallery)

HILLWOOD MUSEUM & GARDENS

4155 Linnean Ave. NW
202-686-5807
www.hillwoodmuseum.org

• Grace of Monaco: Princess in Dior — Examining the longstanding collaboration between Grace Kelly, Princess of Monaco, and Marc Bohan, artistic director at Christian Dior, through clothing, accessories, photos, and more, on display by special loan from the Palace of Monaco, with many items appearing in North America for the first time (Now-1/8/23)
• Portrait of Lloyd Patterson — The artist Lloyd Walton Patterson traveled to Soviet Russia in 1932 along with an illustrious group of other Black Americans, including Langston Hughes and Louise Thompson, yet only Patterson remained behind after the reason for their trip — the making of a Soviet-German film intended to highlight pervasive racism in the United States — was canceled. This special exhibition explores that chapter in history, including the remarkable life Patterson made for himself in his new country (Now-4/16/23)

HIRSHHORN

700 Independence Ave. SW
202-633-1000
www.hirshhorn.si.edu

• Put It This Way: (Re)Visions of the Hirshhorn Collection — Uniting almost a century of work by 49 women and nonbinary artists in a range of media drawn exclusively from the Hirshhorn’s permanent collection, including recent acquisitions, a presentation that is intended to encourage conversations around the significance of gender in creating and perceiving an artwork, the effects of catgorizing artists by gender, and the museum’s role and responsibilities in stewarding the national collection of modern and contemporary art (Through Fall 2023)
• John Akomfrah: Purple — London-based artist and filmmaker originally from Ghana presents his largest-ever video installation, an immersive, six-channel work, featuring an hour-long symphony of image and sound that weaves together original film with archival footage against a hypnotic score, to address themes related to climate change, forming a moving meditation on the impact of human progress on the Earth (10/28-Summer 2023)
• Simone Leigh — The first comprehensive survey of the richly layered work of this highly disciplined artist working in ceramic, bronze, video, and installation, with much of her work interrogating Black femme subjectivity as well as exploring ideas of race, beauty, and community (Opening Fall/Winter)
• Mark Bradford: Pickett’s Charge — Gay Black artist’s commissioned “cyclorama” of eight large, site-specific painting collages inspired by the Philippoteaux masterpiece depicting the loss of the Confederate Army at the Battle of Gettysburg that remains all-too resonant today (Ongoing)

IA&A AT HILLYER

9 Hillyer Court NW
202-338-0680
www.athillyer.org

• The Ties That Bind — A celebration of the cultural, religious, and spiritual connections among Black people throughout the Diaspora portrayed by 14 artists working in a range of artistic media, including Michael Booker, Lisa Brown, Wesley Clark, Mahari Chabwera, Aliana Grace, Chelsea Odufu, and Sydney Vernon, curated by Jarvis DuBois and Lauren Davidson, and presented by Millennium Arts Salon (Now-10/30)
• Zero Dollar Bill: The Prints of Imar Lyman — A special limited-edition serigraph print by an autodidact artist based in Washington that critiques the commodification and materialism of the so-called “art world” and offers an interrogation of our conceptions of value, currency, and money itself (Now-10/30)

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS

Thomas Jefferson Building
10 First St. SE
202-707-8000
www.loc.gov/exhibits

• Not an Ostrich: & Other Images From America’s Library — A total of 428 photographs drawn from the collections of the Library, curated by Anne Wilkes Tucker and organized by the Annenberg Space for Photography in Los Angeles, offering a taste of the more than 14 million images in the institution’s holdings and tracing the evolution of photography from daguerreotypes and other early processes to contemporary digital technology (Southwest Gallery)
• Geppi Gems — A selection of the gems collected by Stephen A. Geppi of Baltimore and donated to the Library, documenting how comic books have shaped and influenced American culture, as told through Walt Disney’s iconic characters, superheroes, sports, music, and entertainment (Graphic Arts Galleries)
• Mapping a Growing Nation: From Independence to Statehood — Displaying a rare copy of the first map of the independent United States created in America by an American, Abel Buell’s 18th-Century “New and Correct Map of the United States of North America,” along with other early maps (North Gallery)

LONG VIEW GALLERY

1234 9th St. NW
202-232-4788
www.longviewgallerydc.com

• Resin d’Être — Art that incorporates resin by Gian Garofalo, Darlene Charneco, and Jeremy Brown (Now-10/23)

MANSION AT STRATHMORE

5301 Tuckerman Lane
Bethesda, Md.
301-581-5109
www.strathmore.org

• Purpose-Repurpose: Studio Art Quilt Associates — Fiber artists incorporating discarded elements into new compelling compositions are celebrated in this exhibition presented by the Studio Art Quilt Associations (Now-10/29)
• Metalwork 2022 — The 20th biennial juried exhibition of work by members of the Washington Guild of Goldsmiths evaluated based on technical mastery and creativity, and including Challenge 2022, a special display of juried works priced under $202 (Now-10/29)
• A Decisive War — A series of introspective portraits and figures representing artist Ralston Cyrus’s personal longing for the freedom of resolution, virtue, and clarity (Now-10/29)
• Perspective — A focus on the art of Jack Boul, one of the region’s premiere artists working in both painting and monotype and conveying a deeply poetic sensibility, and Jean Hirons, a Master Circle Member of the International Association of Pastel Societies whose paintings instinctively draw viewers into her compositions (11/19-1/3/23)
• The 89th Annual Exhibition of Fine Art in Miniature — Intricately detailed works of art, painstakingly produced in miniature (11/19-1/3/23)

NATIONAL ARCHIVES MUSEUM

Lawrence F. O’Brien Gallery
202-357-5000
www.archivesfoundation.org

• All American: The Power of Sports — A showcase of more than 75 items, including original records, artifacts, and photographs, exploring the athletes who have shaped American identity (9/16-1/7/24)

NATIONAL BUILDING MUSEUM

401 F St. NW
202-272-2448
www.nbm.org

• Notre-Dame De Paris: The Augmented Exhibition — An augmented-reality immersion into the history and restoration of the revered cathedral produced by the innovative French start-up Histovery allowing individuals to choose their own in-depth adventure transporting them through time to relive the extraordinary saga from its construction in the Middle Ages to key events over the centuries to ongoing restoration and rebuilding efforts since the 2019 fire (Now-10/9)
• The Wall/El Muro: What Is a Border Wall? — The ways in which the architecture and landscape of security surround us and challenge us as we imagine America is the core thrust of this exhibition, which utilizes photography, video, artifacts, and immersive design to help visitors better understand and appreciate the larger, and broader impact and significance of the built environment beyond the more obvious, physical realm (Now-7/3/23)
• Alan Karchmere: The Architects’ Photographer — A cross-section of professional photographs, coupled with personal photos and artifacts, help shed light on the work of a photographer who factors in his knowledge of the design process, gained from earning a master of architecture in his own right, to better capture the essence of a building, illuminating why certain images are successful in expressing both the physical and emotional aspects of architecture (Now-8/4/23)
• House & Home — A kaleidoscopic array of photographs, objects, models, and films take visitors on a tour of houses both familiar and surprising, through past and present — including one of a same-sex couple — and challenging ideas about what it means to be at home in America, and further illuminating how certain aspects have evolved over time, from the household goods used in “Living at Home,” to the materials used and mechanics involved in “Building a House,” to the financial and legal processes involved in “Buying a Home” (Ongoing)
• Justice Is Beauty: The Work of MASS Design Group — Best known for developing the National Memorial for Peace and Justice in Montgomery, Alabama commemorating victims of racially motivated lynching in the nation’s history, the Boston-based socially conscious architecture firm MASS is celebrated here for its work overall in designing innovative, community- and conservation-supporting structures in some of the world’s most troubled hotspots, told through the use of models, videos, material samples, sketches, diagrams, and photographs (Now-3/7/23)
• Gun Violence Memorial Project — MASS Design Group also helped conceive of this project with conceptual artist Hank Willis Thomas, developed in partnership with gun violence prevention organizations, centered on four glass houses, filled with actual mementos from people killed by gun violence, whose stories are further shared in recorded audio installations; concluding with a pace for reflection and the ability to learn and get involved, this special combination of architecture with memorabilia, memory, and advocacy is intended to serve as a prototype for a future permanent national memorial to gun violence victims (Closes 9/25)

NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

3rd St. & Constitution Ave. NW
202-737-4215
www.nga.gov

• Called to Create: Black Artists of the American South — For decades, Thornton Dial, Mary T. Smith, Purvis Young, and many other Black artists in the South worked with little recognition — that’s begun to change, especially in the past couple of years as many large cultural institutions started pledging to increase their diversity, which is how this exhibition came to be, with its display of roughly 40 sculptures, assemblages, paintings, reliefs, quilts, and drawings, most of them deriving from a major acquisition in 2020 (9/18-3/26/23)
• The Double: Identity and Difference in Art Since 1900 (Now-10/31)
• The Woman in White: Joanna Hiffernan and James McNeill Whistler (Closes 10/10)
• The Renaissance in the North: New Prints and Perspectives (Now-11/27)
• Night Moods (Now-12/31)
• Sargent and Spain (10/2-1/2/23)
• Photography and Travel in Sargent’s Spain (10/3-12/30, East Building Library)
• Vermeer’s Secrets (10/8-1/8/23)
• Vittore Carpaccio: Master Storyteller of Renaissance Venice (11/20-2/12/23)

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MUSEUM

1145 17th St. NW
202-857-7700
www.nationalgeographic.org/events

• Beyond King Tut: The Immersive Experience — Through cinematic storytelling and soaring projection imagery, visitors explore Tutankhamun’s world in ancient Egypt like never before, and also learn more about the present-day National Geographic Explorers who continue to unmask the mysteries of the Boy King’s life, 100 years after their legendary discovery of his tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings; notably, “Beyond King Tut goes BEYOND a traditional artifact display and uses the power of photography and multimedia to create a time-traveling adventure of discovery” — allowing the treasured artifacts themselves to remain in their country of origin (Now-2/6/23)

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY & CULTURE

14th St. & Constitution Ave. NW
844-750-3012
www.nmaahc.si.edu

• Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience. — The Black Lives Matter movement, violence against African Americans, and the role of art in depicting social protest movements are front and center in this special exhibition, which opened last year just prior to the museum’s fifth anniversary. The struggles Black Americans have faced in their pursuit of the fundamental rights and freedoms promised in the Constitution is documented through artwork and images depicting a broad African-American response to racism, systems of oppression, and the ongoing reckoning in America. An augmented-reality component allows visitors to use their mobile devices to interact with several select pieces and learn how the works connect with other objects and themes in the museum (Ongoing, Fourth Floor)
• ONLINE: Pauli Murray’s Proud Shoes: A Classic in African-American Genealogy — Building on Murray’s groundbreaking genealogy book and charting her family’s history through historical photographs, an interactive map of her life journey, and video interviews, this online exhibition also allows viewers to delve more into her storylines, including first-hand reflections on her gender and sexual identity (Virtual)

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AMERICAN HISTORY

1400 Constitution Ave. NW
202-633-1000
www.americanhistory.si.edu

• Entertainment Nation — Over a decade in the making, one of the most ambitious exhibitions this museum has ever planned, and also its first major show dedicated to mass entertainment, showing the importance and influence that the arts and artistic endeavors have had on Americans and American culture through a powerful, ever-changing collection of objects from the realms of sports, theater, film, television, and music, some dating back more than 150 years. Influential figures to be featured include Prince, Selena, Kristi Yamaguchi, Cyndi Lauper, Judy Garland, Frank Sinatra, Bette Davis, and Muhammad Ali, while Hamilton, Rent, M*A*S*H, Sesame Street, The Handmaid’s Tale, and Star Wars will be among the more recent preeminent works of entertainment recognized (Opens 12/9)
• Food: Transforming the American Table — Julia Child’s home kitchen serves as the opening story of the museum’s first major exhibition on food history, exploring the transformation of food and drink in post-World War II America along with what we know, or think we know, about what’s good for us (Ongoing)
• America’s Listening — Thomas Edison’s phonograph, Alexander Graham Bell’s graphophone, Emile Berliner’s gramophone, Ray Dolby’s noise reduction system, and Apple’s iPod are showcased as five innovations in recorded sound that changed how we consume music and movies (Ongoing)
• American Democracy: A Great Leap Of Faith — A display of prominent artifacts highlighting the history of citizen participation, debate, and compromise, from the nation’s formation to today (Ongoing)
• Giving in America — Philanthropy has built many of the nation’s most important and enduring cultural institutions, from museums to libraries to hospitals, and this exhibit offers breakdowns on the who, the what, the where, and the wherefore of charitable giving (Ongoing)

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN

4th St. & Independence Ave. SW
202-633-1000
www.nmai.si.edu

• Why We Serve: Native Americans in the United States Armed Forces (Now-11/30/23)
• Nation to Nation: Treaties Between the United States and American Indian Nations — Telling the story of treaties signed between early U.S. leaders and influential Native diplomats (Now-1/25/25)
• Return to a Native Place: Algonquian Peoples of the Chesapeake (Ongoing)
• Americans — A showcase of nearly 350 objects and images, from a Tomahawk missile to baking powder cans, all demonstrating that Indian words and images are everywhere in American life, revealing an enduring cultural fascination with American Indians (Ongoing)

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ASIAN ART

1050 Independence Ave. SW
202-633-1000
www.asia.si.edu

• A Splendid Land: Paintings from Royal Udaipur — Artists in northwest India around 1700 began creating dazzling, immersive paintings on paper and cloth that conveyed the mood of the region’s palaces, lakes, and mountains, now presented in a first-of-its-kind exhibition featuring a soundscape by filmmaker Amit Dutta inviting contemporary audiences to sense as well as see these extraordinary places and paintings (11/19-5/14/23)
• A Collector’s Eye: Freer in Egypt — A range of souvenir artworks that Freer acquired during layovers in Egypt on his way to destinations further east, including an ancient Bible, New Kingdom Egyptian glass vessels, a Byzantine jewelry set, amulets, and hundreds of beads, many of which will be on display for the first time (Opens 12/17)
• Rinpa: Creativity Across Time and Space (9/17-2/5/23)
• The Peacock Room Comes to America — Collector Charles Lang Freer filled this Whistler-designed room with ceramics from Syria, Iran, Japan, China, and Korea, arranging them largely by color, in the process creating a captivating environment and a showcase of unexpected resonances across cultures and eras (Reopened)
• Feathered Ink — Drawing from the museum’s extensive collection of bird-and-flower paintings, from hanging scrolls to folding screens to ceramics, to explore how Japanese artists have experimented over centuries with different brush techniques in their depictions of avian subjects (Now-1/29/23)
• Living in Two Times: Photography by Bahman Jalali and Rana Javadi — Noted for their sharp documentary images and haunting photomontage works, these two artists, husband and wife, are among the most influential figures in the development of late 20th-century photography in Iran, having created an unparalleled visual record of a tumultuous period in their homeland (Now-1/8/23)
• Once Upon a Roof: Vanished Korean Architecture — Roof tiles made of fired clay are key elements of traditional Korean architecture, and they have survived more than 1,000 years even as the ancient wood frame buildings they were built to protect are long gone, and the artifacts reveal hidden stories of the ancient architecture of Korea (Now-10/30)
• Feast Your Eyes: A Taste for Luxury in Ancient Iran — Exploring the meaning behind the museums’ extraordinary collection of luxury metalwork, dating from the first millennium BCE to the early Islamic period (Ongoing)

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF WOMEN IN THE ARTS

1250 New York Ave. NW
202-783-5000
www.nmwa.org

• SOLANGE by Katharina Cibulka — For her first U.S. installation, the Austrian artist will cover the museum’s north-facing façade with one of her monumental works known as a “SOLANGE,” which translates from German to “as long as”; part of a large-scale, site-specific series addressing gender-based inequity and social power structures, the installation will feature bright pink tulle on white mesh fabric to cover the construction scaffolding and will carry cross-stitched poetic and witty declarations, although the exact messages in D.C. won’t be revealed until it goes up. Previous messages elsewhere have included, “As long as he makes the cash while I work for change, I will be a feminist” and “As long as women’s power is an underrated energy source, I will be a feminist” (10/28-2/26/23)

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

8th & F Streets NW
202-633-8300
www.npg.si.edu

• One Life: Maya Lin — The first biographical exhibition of the architect, sculptor, and environmentalist best known for designing the now 40-year-old Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial, her life from childhood to today, presenting a range of photographs, sculptures, personal ephemera, sketchbooks, architectural models, and images of her completed works (9/30-4/16/23)
• Kinship — More than 40 artworks by eight contemporary artists whose work explores the notion and the closeness that bonds us, including Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Jess T. Dugan, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Jessica Todd Harper, and Anna Tsouhlarakis (10/28-1/7/24)
• Portrait of a Nation: 2022 Honorees — An intimate exhibition that will feature portraits of seven individuals selected for the annual tribute to be announced at the unveiling (11/10-10/22/23)
• The Outwin 2022: American Portraiture Today — A showcase of 42 works by finalists from the triennial Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition, spanning a wide range of media and mixed-media, at least nine of which have some degree of LGBTQ relevance by virtue of either the artist or the artistic content (Now-2/26/23)
• Block by Block: Naming Washington — Exploring the namesakes of D.C.’s streets, avenues, neighborhoods, and other public spaces (Now-1/15/24)

THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION

1600 21st St. NW
202-387-2151
www.phillipscollection.org

• Intersections: Jonathan Monaghan — A site-specific immersive installation transforming the former Dining Room of the Phillips House into phantasmagoric dreamscapes where past and present meet, and the sacred and urbane overlap. Monaghan’s installation, offering a beach scene strewn with present-day digital detritus, from abandoned scooters to Pelotons, and also including a video projection featuring a mythical horse walking on a beach toward a spaceship, ready to embark on an unknown journey, is accompanied by paintings from the permanent collection, Giorgio de Chirico’s Horse (1928) and Théodore Géricault’s Two Horses (1808–09), with the resulting back-and-forth slightly disorienting (9/22-12/31)
• An Italian Impressionist in Paris — The Italian in question is first exhibition in the U.S. devoted to the work of Giuseppe De Nittis, a painter whose career flourished in Impressionist Paris in the 1870s and 1880s. Approximately 70 of De Nittis’s artworks will be on display in what will be the first U.S. exhibition devoted to the artist, who was a central figure to the aesthetic and institutional upheavals of the Paris of his day and had friendships with Edgar Degas and Edouard Manet, with select works from the two displayed as well (11/12-2/12/23)
• Jacob Lawrence and the Children of Hiroshima — Reevaluatng the impact of the 1945 bombing of Hiroshima through a study of Lawrence’s Hiroshima series of silkscreen prints and selected drawings by the children of Hiroshima’s Honkawa Elementary School; though created 35 years apart, the call and response in these two powerful bodies of work convey the emotional impact of nuclear warfare and the potential for peace and reconciliation (Now-11/27)

RENWICK GALLERY

1661 Pennsylvania Ave. NW
202-633-7970
www.americanart.si.edu/visit/renwick

• This Present Moment: Crafting A Better World — A year-long survey filling both floors of “the nation’s premier museum dedicated to American craft, this exhibition serves most notably as a testament to the success of this Smithsonian gallery’s 50th Anniversary Acquisition Campaign, launched only two years ago, but already responsible for adding more than 200 purchased or gifted objects, a majority of which form the basis of the exhibition, which features 171 artworks in a wide range of styles and mediums, from 148 different artists, a broadly representative and diverse group of American artists (Now-4/2/23)

SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM

8th & F Streets NW
202-633-7970
www.americanart.si.edu

• We Are Made of Stories: Self-Taught Artists in the Robson Family Collection — Tracing the rise of self-taught artists in the 20th century and examining how their creativity and bold self-definition became major forces in American art. Celebrating the gifts of art and program support from two collectors in particular, the exhibition puts on display a total of 110 works, a mix of drawings, paintings, and sculptures, from 43 “game-changing self-taught artists,” including Calvin and Ruby Black, Howard Finster, Sister Gertrude Morgan, Judith Scott, and Nellie Mae Rowe (Now-3/26/23)
• Artist To Artist — Pairing artworks, each representing two figures whose trajectories intersected at a creatively crucial moment, whether as student and teacher, professional allies, or friends (Now-9/3/23)
• The Automobile and American Art — Take a road trip through SAAM’s collection to find links between automobiles and American art, inspired by a gift of model cars (Ongoing)

TOUCHSTONE GALLERY

901 New York Ave. NW
202-682-4125
www.touchstonegallery.com

• Transparent to Transcendence by Steve Wanna — This exhibit from the multi-disciplinary sound and visual artist features pieces from his Myths of Creation series, a celebration of the wondrous, almost magical, scientific discoveries resulting from images by the Hubble Telescope, their implications on human civilization, and our deep desire for storytelling and mythmaking; also on view is a site-specific installation (Closes 9/25)
• September Member Show — A diverse range of work from Touchstone member artists, including photographs, sculptures, paintings, and mixed-media pieces, with prices starting at $100 (Closes 9/25)

TRANSFORMER

1404 P St. NW
202-483-1102
www.transformerdc.org

Artise Fletcher: Commemorative Strands — Transformer’s 19th Annual DC Solo Artist Exhibition explores the sociological meanings and issues surrounding hair, especially in Black culture, with the artist presenting reimagined versions of traditional African commemorative cloths, brightly and intricately designed tapestries, only his are made using synthetic Kanekalon hair, along with original photographs and projected video works (Opens 9/17-10/22)

Transformer20 — a large-scale exhibition “celebrating 20 years of Transformer’s work as a catalyst and advocate for emerging artists & emergent expression in the visual arts” (11/10-12/10, GWU/Corcoran College of Art & Design)

UNITED STATES BOTANIC GARDEN

100 Maryland Ave. SW
202-225-8333
www.usbg.gov

• Cultivate: Growing Food in a Changing World — Learn how inventive ideas in agriculture, both scientific and social, sustain and enrich life, and how growing and cooking food connects people with each other and communities in this exhibition which also displays the wild relatives of modern plants we eat, the many different peoples that have farmed the land over the centuries, and the plants that connect several local chefs with their food cultures, sharing their stories in their own words (Now-12/23)
• Patrick Dougherty: Stickwork Sculpture Installation — Renowned stickwork artist created a custom sculptural installation, woven from plant materials, to mark the U.S. Botanic Garden’s 200th anniversary in 2020. The installation, made with invasive plants removed by the garden’s employees from around the grounds, is still up two years later, and will remain up for another two weeks. Visitors are invited to touch and explore the nature-inspired artwork that took Dougherty and an assorted crew of helpers more than three weeks to create (Closes 9/30, West Lawn just passed the Conservatory)

U.S. NATIONAL ARBORETUM

3501 New York Ave. NE
202-245-4523
www.usna.usda.gov

• A Love of Viewing Stones and Stone Collecting — An exhibit of stones from the collection of a longtime National Bonsai Foundation board member, Glenn Reusch, who was also a Potomac Viewing Stone Group co-founder, illustrating his wide-ranging interest and expansive taste in stone collecting, featuring stones from across the world and the United States, including many that he personally found in nature (Closes 9/25)
• Autumn Bonsai Exhibit: The Colors of Nature — A display of ripe fruit and fall foliage hanging from the miniature branches of bonsai and penjing, along with selections of red maples, golden ginkgo, and fruited trees from the Museum’s permanent collections and paired with chrysanthemum viewing stones and scrolls (10/29-11/13)
• Cultivated Stones: Chinese Scholars’ Rocks From The Kemin Hu Collection (Now-12/31)

WASHINGTON PRINTMAKERS GALLERY

1641 Wisconsin Ave. NW
202-669-1497
www.washingtonprintmakers.com

• Petra Bernstein: Beyond This Moment — Says Bernstein, “Nature draws me outside. It guides me and my camera through the seasons. It fuels my desire to look for lasting impressions and perfect imperfections” (Closes 9/25)
• September 2022 Members’ Exhibit (Closes 9/25)

WASHINGTON PROJECT FOR THE ARTS

2124 8th St. NW
202-234-7103
www.wpadc.org

• Being/Becoming: The Act of Portraiture — Artist/curator Yacine Tilala Fall invited five Black women and gender non-conforming artists to respond to a prompt inquiring about “visual emancipation” and what it looks like, plus, “How do we radicalize Black visual language?” Artists Holly Bass, Renee Cox, Muse Dodd, Dominique Duroseau, and Marcelline Mandeng Nken responded using portraiture as an action, a movement, and a physical experience to explore the questions and their own presence (Now-11/12)
• Artists in Residence in Partnership with Take Creative Control — Since July, photographer Nakeya Brown, musician Cecily Bumbray, and painter Lauren McKinney have been in residence together at a studio space in Shaw, sponsored by WPA and a partner organization providing education, resources, and community convenings to creators of color (Closes mid-October)

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