Washington, D.C., Museums are Showcasing African American Art, Exhibitions Focus on Photography and the Black Arts Movement, Vivian Browne, Adam Pendleton & More

VIVIAN BROWNE, “Seven Deadly Sins,” circa 1968 (oil on canvas, 59 x 112 inches). | Courtesy Adobe Krow Archives, CA, and RYAN LEE Gallery, NY

Important and poignant exhibitions are on view in the nation’s capital, despite the politically charged climate and government overreach

ART MUSEUMS IN WASHINGTON, D.C., are showcasing African American art. Recent shows have included “Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist,” a major retrospective of the artist and activist at the National Gallery of Art, and “We Gather at the Edge: Contemporary Quilts by Black Women Artists” at the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum (SAAM), which featured 33 quilts by Carolyn Mazloomi and members of the Women of Color Quilters Network. An Ohio aerospace engineer-turned-quilt artist and scholar, Mazloomi founded the group 40 years ago and the works were acquired by the Smithsonian from her collection.

From the Smithsonian and National Gallery of Art to private institutions and universities, Washington museums regularly present exhibitions featuring works by African American artists, whether solo shows or themed presentations including a variety of artists. This has not always been the case, but in 2025 it is the norm in the nation’s capital and continues to be so, despite the current climate with the Trump White House pressing a politically motivated campaign against the Smithsonian Institution and clawing back grants already distributed by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and Institute of Museum and Library Services (ILS), adversely affecting museums across the country.

In Washington, an array of important and poignant exhibitions are currently on view. At The Phillips Collection, solo shows are dedicated to late artists Vivian Browne (1929-1993), who was best known for her Little Men paintings featuring untitled and obnoxious white men, and Essex Hemphill (1957-1995), a gay poet and activist whose work is presented in context with visual artists with whom he collaborated and has posthumously influenced.

Programming at the National Gallery of Art includes Chakaia Booker‘s In the Tower exhibition, which is anchored by a trio of monumental sculptures composed of recycled tires, works exploring cultural histories and environmental matters. Georgia collectors Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson recently pledged 175 works to the National Gallery of Art, which described the gift as “the largest group of objects by Black artists to enter our collection at one time.” More than 60 of the acquisitions are on view in “With Passion and Purpose: Gifts from the Collection of Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson,” including works by Charles Alston, Radcliffe Bailey, Vivian Browne, Alonzo Davis, David Driskell, Beauford Delaney, Mildred Thompson, Alison Saar, vanessa german, Jacob Lawrence, Sam Middleton, Archibald Motley, Mavis Pusey, and Kara Walker.

Installation view of “Adam Pendleton: Love, Queen,” Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden” (April 4, 2025–Jan. 3, 2027). | © Adam Pendleton. Photo by Andy Romer, Courtesy Hirhhorn Museum

Admission to the National Gallery of Art and Smithsonian museums is always free for everyone. Each institution was seeded by a private citizen, nearly 90 and 180 years ago, respectively, and today operates with federal government support (and the generosity of individual and corporate donors) for the benefit of the American people and the public at-large.

At the Smithsonian, the National Museum of African Art is marking its 60th anniversary and the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) will celebrate its 10th year in September 2026. On long-term view, “Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience.,” the current visual art exhibition at NMAAHC, features about 30 works from the museum’s collection.

Exhibition highlights at the Smithsonian also include Adam Pendleton‘s “Love, Queen” at the Hirshhorn Museum and Garden. The Virginia-born, Brooklyn, N.Y.-based conceptual artist’s first solo exhibition in Washington presents several new and recent series of two-color abstract paintings and debuts a single-channel video. “Resurrection City Revisited (Who Owns Geometry Anyway?),” features floor-to-ceiling “still and moving images of Resurrection City, the multi-day encampment erected on the National Mall in the spring and summer of 1968 that is considered to be the culmination of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Poor People’s Campaign.”

At the Smithsonian’s Anacostia Community Museum, “A Bold and Beautiful Vision: A Century of Black Arts Education in Washington, DC, 1900-2000” explores the commitment and transformative influences of local artist-educators such as Elizabeth Catlett, David Driskell, Loïs Mailou Jones, James A. Porter, and Alma Thomas.

“The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum presents 82 works produced between 1792 and 2023, drawing on SAAM’s holdings, “the largest collection of American sculpture in the world.” Exhibiting artists include Judith Baca, Ed Bereal, Huma Bhabha, Sanford Biggers, Barbara Chase-Riboud, Sonya Clark, Raven Halfmoon, Sargent Johnson, Titus Kaphar, Simone Leigh, Edmonia Lewis, Roberto Lugo, Isamu Noguchi, Betye Saar, Alison Saar, Augusta Savage, Joyce J. Scott, and Nari Ward, among others.

Entrance to Smithsonian American Art Museum on F Street NW, April 2025. | Photo by Victoria L. Valentine

Artist Amy Sherald “engages with the history of photography and portraiture, inviting viewers to participate in a more complex debate about accepted notions of race and representation, and to situate Black life in American art,” according to her biography. Highly anticipated, the traveling exhibition “Amy Sherald: American Sublime” was set to open next month at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery (NPG). In July, Sherald canceled the show, citing censorship of her painting “Trans Forming Liberty” (2024)—which depicts a Black trans woman as the Statue of Liberty—and government influence over the Smithsonian. Hers is a rare voice of opposition.

“When a government starts deciding which stories museums can tell, it is not protecting history. It is rewriting it,” Sherald wrote in an opinion piece published on MSNBC’s website. The largest-ever exhibition of the artist, “American Sublime” would have been the first-ever solo exhibition of a Black female artist since NPG opened its doors in 1968.

Coming soon, “Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955–1985” opens at the National Gallery of Art on Sept. 21 and will feature about 150 images by the likes of Anthony Barboza, James Barnor, Kwame Brathwaite, Roy DeCarava, Doris A. Derby, Emory Douglas, Barkley L. Hendricks, Gordon Parks, Robert A. Sengstacke, Moneeta Sleet, Ming Smith, Carrie Mae Weems, and Ernest Withers, among others.

Also in September, Georgetown University Galleries are presenting solo exhibitions of Chicago-based MacArthur Binion, whose abstract compositions draw on personal documents, and New York-based Lorraine O’Grady (1934-2024), the pioneering conceptual artist who died last year at age 90. Before realizing she was an artist, O’Grady was employed by the federal government. In the 1960s, she was a research economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics and also worked at the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Intelligence Research. CT

CURRENTLY ON VIEW

“Vivian Brown: My Kind of Protest” presents more than 60 paintings and works on paper across four decades from the 1960s to early 1990s. New York artist Vivian Browne (1929-1993), was active in the Black Arts and Feminist movements and co-founded the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition. Politics, nature and travel inspired her artwork. Exhibition co-curator Adrienne L. Childs introduces the show and notes that Browne produced her work in distinct series, including the Africa Series and Little Men series. | Video by The Phillips Collection

Vivian Browne: My Kind of Protest @ The Phillips Collection, 1600 21st Street, NW. | June 28-Sept. 28, 2025

RADCLIFFE BAILEY, “NY Rail (Transportation),” 1993 (cut-and-pasted offset printed paper and painted paper, acrylic paint, and blue crayon on wove paper, sheet: 45.8 × 58.9 cm / 18 1/16 × 23 3/16 inches). | National Gallery of Art, Gift of Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson, 2023.145.14

With Passion and Purpose: Gifts from the Collection of Larry D. and Brenda A. Thompson @ National Gallery of Art, East Building, 4th Street and Constitution Avenue NW. | June 7-Oct. 5, 2025

Installation view of “Essex Hemphill: Take Care of Your Blessings,” The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C. (May 17-Aug. 31, 2025). The exhibition explores the life and work of Essex Hemphill, a Washington, D.C., poet, performer, and activist who was active during the height of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. The show “explores the interdisciplinary relationship between Hemphill’s writing—raw, politically charged, and deeply personal—and contemporary visual art.” Archival materials are on view alongside works by Lyle Ashton Harris, Sharon Farmer, Isaac Julien, Glenn Ligon, Tiona Nekkia McClodden, and Diedrick Brackens, among others. | Courtesy The Phillips Collection

Essex Hemphill: Take Care of Your Blessings @ The Phillips Collection, 1600 21st Street, NW. | May 17-Aug. 31, 2025

CHAKAIA BOOKER, “Acid Rain,” 2001 (rubber tires and wood). | © Chakaia Booker, National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C., Museum purchase: Members Acquisition Fund. Photo by Lee Stalsworth

Chakaia Booker In the Tower: Treading New Ground @ National Gallery of Art, East Building, 4th St and Constitution Avenue, NW. | April 5, 2025-Aug. 4, 2026

“In the art world, tires are synonymous with Chakaia Booker. She is a pioneering artist who has developed an unparalleled practice, exploring the form, texture, and materiality of her signature medium with remarkable ingenuity. Booker’s transformative works speak to such enduring and critical themes as the impact of humanity on our planet.”
— Exhibition Curator Kanitra Fletcher

Introducing his exhibition “Love, Queen,” artist Adam Pendleton said, “When people come into the show, I want them to be curious and I also want them to be openhearted. I want them to be open to the possibilities of painting and, maybe even more so, I want them to be open to the possibilities of art and what art can do, how it can change and influence our world.” | Video by Hirshhorn Museum

Adam Pendleton: Love, Queen @ Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Independence Ave SW and 7th Street, SW. | April 4, 2025-Jan. 3, 2027

Installation view of “The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture,” Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, D.C. (Nov. 8, 2024-Sept. 14, 2025). Shown, from left, EMANUEL MARTINEZ, “Farm Workers’ Altar” (1967) and MARION PERKINS, “Skywatcher” (circa 1948). | Courtesy SAAAM

The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture @ Smithsonian American Art Museum, 8th and G Streets, NW. | Nov. 8, 2024-Sept. 14, 2025

JEAN-MICHEL BASQUIAT (b. Brooklyn, New York, 1960–1988), “Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump,” 1982 (acrylic, crayon, and spray paint on canvas). | Private collection. © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York

Basquiat x Banksy @ Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Independence Avenue SW and 7th Street SW. | Sept. 29, 2024-Oct. 26, 2025

Artist and educator Lois Mailou Jones in her classroom at Howard University (circa 1930s), where she taught and mentored students for nearly 50 years. | Scurlock Studio Records, Archives Center, Smithsonian National Museum of American History

A Bold and Beautiful Vision: A Century of Black Arts Education in Washington, D.C., 1900-2000 @ Anacostia Community Museum, 1901 Fort Place SE. | March 23, 2024-Jan. 4, 2026

“Outside the spotlight of the nation’s major museums and galleries, and in a longtime segregated school system, African American artist-educators in twentieth-century Washington achieved the extraordinary. Unified not by a singular aesthetic vision but by a bold and deeply held commitment to inspiring a love of the arts in young people, these artists (including Elizabeth Catlett, Alma Thomas, James A. Porter, Loïs Mailou Jones, David Driskell, Hilda Wilkinson Brown, Thomas Hunster, and Georgette Seabrooke Powell) shared their gifts with their students in the face of the seemingly insurmountable challenges of underfunding, overcrowding, and being overlooked.” — Anacostia Community Museum

Engaging with history, democracy, and the round architecture of the Hirshhorn, Pickett’s Charge showcases Mark Bradford’s penchant for “painting” with paper and working in layers. Learn more about the monumental work and its inspiration in brief videos here and here. Shown, Installation view of “Mark Bradford: Pickets Charge,” Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. (Nov. 8, 2017-Ongoing). | Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo by Cather Carver

Mark Bradford: Pickett’s Charge @ Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Independence Ave SW and 7th Street, SW. | Nov. 8, 2017-Ongoing

Jointly acquired by the Smithsonian American Art Museum and National Portrait Gallery, “Lessons of the Hour” (2019) by Isaac Julien is a five-screen video installation that re-enacts key episodes in the life of Frederick Douglass as orator and activist. | Video by National Portrait Gallery

Isaac Julien: Lessons of the Hour — Frederick Douglass @ Smithsonian American Art Gallery/National Portrait Gallery, 8th and G Streets, NW. | Dec. 8, 2023-Dec. 6, 2026

RECENTLY ON VIEW

ELIZABETH CATLETT, J. K. Fine Art Editions Co., Joseph Kleineman, Maureen Turci, “Links Together,” 1996 (lithograph on wove Arches paper). | Purchased as the Gift of Art Information Volunteers in Honor of Dianne Stephens, 2021.63.1

Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist @ National Gallery of Art, East Building, 4th St and Constitution Avenue, NW. | March 9-July 6, 2025

Artist and scholar Carolyn Mazloomi discussed her own quilting practice (“Every quilt is a lesson, of things that should not happen, whether it be police brutality or racism, or sexism. Each quilt is a learning tool. That’s the purpose of me doing what I do as an artist to try and inflict a change in the way some people see our history.”) and introduced members of the Women of Color Quilters Network, including Myrah Brown Green, Chawne Kimber, Viola Burley Leak, Beverly Y. Smith, Sylvia Hernandez, Helen Murrell, Bisa Butler, Betty Ford-Smith, among others, whose work is featured in the exhibition. | Video by SAAM

We Gather at the Edge: Contemporary Quilts by Black Women Artists @ Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Pennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street, NW. | Feb. 21-June 22, 2025

“It’s a tremendous event that these women are now in the permanent collection of the Renwick,” Mazloomi said in a SAAM video produced on the occasion of the exhibition. “To me, it’s like the top of the mountain insofar as museums. And I look at the Smithsonian, I always call it the People’s Museum because it is, the Museum of the American People. It’s just quite an honor that they’re there. And it’s indeed a huge footprint for us in quilt history.” — Artist Carolyn Mazloomi

CANCELED

Clockwise, from left, AMY SHERALD (4), “A Bucket Full of Treasures (Papa Gave Me Sunshine to Put in My Pocket),” 2020. | Private collection. © Amy Sherald. Courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth. Photo by Joseph Hyde; “Trans Forming Liberty,” 2024. Courtesy the artist and Hauser and Wirth. © Amy Sherald. Photo by Kevin Bulluck; “Michelle LaVaughn Robinson Obama,” 2018. | National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution, Courtesy Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery; and “A God Blessed Land (Empire of Dirt),” 2022. | Courtesy the Tymure Collection. © Amy Sherald. Photo by Joseph Hyde

Amy Sherald: American Sublime @ National Portrait Gallery, 8th St NW & G St NW. | Sept. 19, 2025-Feb. 22, 2026

COMING SOON

“Basil Kincaid: Spirit in the Gift” is the Saint Louis, Mo.-born artist’s first solo exhibition in Washington, D.C., and features four large-scaled quilt works. The museum is also opening “Material Witness” a museum-wide reinstallation of its collection, including works by 30 artists, Leonardo Drew, Samuel Levi Jones, Rodney McMillian, Shinique Smith, Diamond Stingily, Henry Taylor, and Kennedy Yanko, among them. Shown, BASIL KINCAID, “Buttons in the Sky Bursting at the Seams,” 2023 (Kente, Ghanaian Wax Block Fabric, cotton, wool, velour, polyester, sequins, embroidery floss, lace, batting, buttons, curtains, 144 x 204 x 12 inches / 365.8 x 518.2 x 30.5 cm), Acquired in 2023

Basil Kincaid: Spirit in the Gift @ Rubell Museum DC, 65 I Street SW. | Opening Sept. 3, 2025

MCARTHUR BINION, “Under:Ground,” 2025 (graphite, paint stick, ink, and paper on board, 40 × 48 × 2 inches). | Courtesy of the Artist and Lehmann Maupin, New York, Seoul, and London

McArthur Binion: Notes on Form (Intimate Structures) @ Georgetown University Galleries, 3535 Prospect Street, NW, Georgetown University. | Sept. 19-Dec. 7, 2025

LORRAINE O’GRADY, “Ceremonial Occasions I,” 1980/94 (cibachrome print, 28 x 39 inches). | Courtesy Mariane Ibrahim Gallery

Lorraine O’Grady: Miscegenated Family Album @ Georgetown University Galleries, 3535 Prospect Street, NW, Georgetown University. | Sept. 19-Dec. 7, 2025

JAMES E. HINTON, Two Women Sitting on a New York City Subway, 1966 (gelatin silver print, Sheet: 40.6 x 50.8 cm (16 x 20 inches), Support: 37.5 x 45.7 cm / 14 3/4 x 18 inches), Framed: 53.3 x 63.5 x 3.2 cm / 21 x 25 x 1 1/4 inches). | High Museum of Art, Atlanta, Purchase with funds from Jan P. and Warren J. Adelson, © James E. Hinton

Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955–1985 @ National Gallery of Art, West Building, 6th Street and Constitution Avenue, NW. | Sept. 21, 2025-Jan. 11, 2026

“Photography was central to the Black Art Movement, attracting all kinds of artists—from street photographers and photojournalists to painters and graphic designers. This expansive exhibition presents 150 examples tracing the Black Arts Movement from its roots to its lingering impacts, from 1955 to 1985.” — National Gallery of Art

RIK FREEMAN, “Frutos de Mar,” 2013 (Oil on canvas, 48 x 60 inches). | Courtesy the artist

Rik Freeman: Wade in the Waters @ Phillips@THEARC, 1801 Mississippi Ave, SE. | Sept. 24, 2025-Feb. 19, 2026

TAWNY CHAPMON, “Not Your Blackamoor,” from the series The Restoration, 2025 (cowrie shells, acrylic, and thread on archival pigment print, 38 x 36 inches. | © Tawny Chapmon. Courtesy the artist and Galerie Myrtis

Tawny Chatmon: Sanctuaries of Truth, Dissolution of Lies @ National Museum of Women in the Arts, 1250 New York Ave. NW. | Oct. 15, 2025–March 8, 2026

From left, LINN MEYERS, Detail of “The Moon is a Thief,” 2025. | Courtesy the Artist; JAE KO, Detail of “Rhombus #3,” 2025. | Courtesy Opera Gallery/Artist; JOYCE J. SCOTT, Detail of “Untitled Fairy Tale from The Graphic Novel Series,” 2019-1010. | Courtesy Goya Contemporary Gallery/Artist; and RENÉE STOUT, Detail of “I Trust My Third Eye,” 2025. | Courtesy Marc Strauss Gallery/Artist

Anonymous Was a Woman: Jae Ko | linn meyers | Joyce J. Scott | Renée Stout @ The Kreeger Museum, 2401 Foxhall Road, NW. | Oct. 16-Dec. 31, 2025

FIND MORE Smithsonian Secretary Lonnie G. Bunch III met with Trump at the White House on Aug. 29, according to the New York Times, “in the midst of President Trump’s efforts to review and change content at the institution’s museums”

BOOKSHELF
“Vivian Browne: My Kind of Protest” is a long overdue volume accompanying the artist’s exhibition at The Phillips Collection. “Essex Hemphill: Take care of your blessings” is also newly published and documents the poets exhibition at The Phillips Collection. “The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture” was published on the occasion of the Smithsonian American Art Museum exhibition. “Photography and the Black Arts Movement, 1955-1985” and “Adam Pendleton: An Abstraction” are forthcoming in September. Also consider, “Amy Sherald: American Sublime,” “Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist and All That It Implies,” “Isaac Julien: Lessons of the Hour – Frederick Douglass,” and “Mark Bradford: Pickett’s Charge.”