1. Home
  2. Art + Artists

Current Exhibitions

Museum

  • American Myth & Memory: David Levinthal Photographs

    Thumbnail

    June 7, 2019 — October 14, 2019

    Smithsonian American Art Museum (8th and F Streets, NW)

    Populated with toy cowboys and cavalry, Barbie dolls and baseball players, David Levinthal’s photographs reference iconic images and events that shaped postwar American society. Despite their playful veneer, Levinthal’s images provide a lens through which to examine the myths and stereotypes lurking within our most beloved pastimes and enduring heroes. In doing so, Levinthal encourages us to consider the stories we tell about ourselves—what it means to be strong, beautiful, masculine, feminine, and ultimately, American.

  • Artists Respond: American Art and the Vietnam War, 1965-1975

    Martha Rosler, Red Strip Kitchen

    March 15, 2019–August 18, 2019

    Smithsonian American Art Museum (8th and F Streets, NW)

    Artists Respond: American Art and the Vietnam War, 1965-1975 makes vivid an era in which artists endeavored to respond to the turbulent times and openly questioned issues central to American civic life.

  • Tiffany Chung: Vietnam, Past Is Prologue

    Tiffany Chung

    March 15, 2019–September 2, 2019

    Smithsonian American Art Museum (8th and F Streets, NW)
    Through maps, videos, and paintings that highlight the voices and stories of former Vietnamese refugees, Tiffany Chung probes the legacies of the Vietnam War and its aftermath.

  • Sculpture Down to Scale: Models for Public Art at Federal Buildings, 1974–1985

    Thumbnail

    May 31, 2019 - June 6, 2020

    Smithsonian American Art Museum (8th and F Streets, NW)

    Artists used preliminary models—or maquettes—to communicate their ideas. Varied in scale, format, and level of finish, the nine models in this exhibition offer windows into the creative process, with work by Jackie Ferrara, Sol LeWitt, Claes Oldenburg, and Beverly Pepper, among others.

  • Connections: Contemporary Craft at the Renwick Gallery

    Media - 2016.11 - SAAM-2016.11_6 - 124929

    March 29, 2019 - Ongoing

    Renwick Gallery (Pennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street NW)

    Connections is the Renwick Gallery’s dynamic ongoing permanent collection presentation, featuring more than 80 objects celebrating craft as a discipline and an approach to living differently in the modern world. The installation includes iconic favorites alongside new acquisitions.

  • David Best's Temple

    Thumbnail

    March 30, 2018 - January 5, 2020

    Renwick Gallery (Pennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street NW)

    David Best’s Temple transforms the Renwick Gallery’s Bettie Rubenstein Grand Salon into a glowing sanctuary, offering visitors a quiet place to reflect and pay tribute to lost loved ones.

  • Galleries for Folk and Self-Taught Art

    Thumbnail

    On View Indefinitely

    Smithsonian American Art Museum (8th and F Streets, NW)

    SAAM’s collection of folk and self-taught art represents the powerful vision of America’s untrained and vernacular artists. Represented in the museum’s collection are pieces that draw on tradition—such as quilts—as well as artworks that reveal a more personal vision.

  • Direct Carving

    Thumbnail

    On View Indefinitely

    Smithsonian American Art Museum (8th and F Streets, NW)

    Spontaneous! Truthful! Liberating! Direct carvers often used such words to describe their unconventional method of sculpting, in which an artist works directly on a piece of stone or wood as opposed to with a model, cast, or preconceived design.

Recently Viewed