Exhibitions

Grandma Moses: A Good Day's Work sheds new light on a beloved body of work by Anna Mary Robertson "Grandma" Moses.

State Fairs: Growing American Craft is the first major exhibition dedicated to artists’ contributions to the great U.S. tradition of state fairs.

Justin Favela’s site-specific installation with shimmering gold-fringed walls and piñata corncobs highlights the role of maize in North American visual culture.

Shahzia Sikander’s video artwork The Last Post (2010) critically considers the legacy of British colonialism in Asia using her signature approach of infusing Indo-Persian miniature paintings with a contemporary perspective. 

Sightlines provides glimpses into the complexity and depth of Asian American connections to Washington, DC.

Glenn Kaino’s powerful aerial sculpture Bridge, suspended from the ceiling of SAAM’s Luce Foundation Center, evokes the ways that even small acts can ripple through time and alter the course of history. 

A presentation of Isaac Julien’s tour de force moving image installation that interweaves period reenactments across five screens to create a vivid picture of nineteenth-century activist, writer, orator, and philosopher Frederick Douglass.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum's galleries for modern and contemporary art display selections from the permanent collection from the 1940s to the present.

Artist to Artist features paired artworks, each representing two figures whose trajectories intersected at a creatively crucial moment, whether as student and teacher, professional allies, or friends.

SAAM’s collection of folk and self-taught art represents the powerful vision of America’s untrained and vernacular artists.

The Smithsonian American Art Museum's galleries for 18th to early 20th century art display selections from the permanent collection that offer insights into the rich artistic and cultural history of the United States.

Look into America in the 1930s, a heady time when the country’s artists captured the beauty of the landscape, the industry of America’s working people, and a sense of community shared in towns large and small despite the Great Depression.