Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition 2009

The National Portrait Gallery
Now – 8/22/10
The National Portrait Gallery invited artists working in the figurative arts to submit portraits of people close to them. Submissions were entered in every type of visual-arts media, including paintings, photographs, film, video and digital animation. The juried competition will result in an exhibition of approximately 49 of the finalists’ works. Visitors to the exhibition and the museum’s Web site can vote on the people’s choice award through Jan. 18, 2010. A fully illustrated publication will accompany the exhibition. Brandon Brame Fortune, curator of painting and sculpture, is the competition director and curator of the exhibition.

 

Falnama: The Book of Omens

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
Now – 1/24/10
Whether by consulting the position of the planets, casting horoscopes or interpreting dreams, the art of divination was widely practiced throughout the Islamic world. The most splendid tools ever devised to foretell the future were a type of illustrated texts known as the Falnama (Book of Omens). Notable for their monumental size, brilliantly painted compositions and unusual subject matter, the manuscripts, created in Safavid Iran and Ottoman Turkey in the 16th and early 17th centuries, are the center piece of “Falnama: The Book of Omens.”

 

Design for a Living World

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum
Now – 1/4/20
Ten leading designers have been commissioned to develop new uses for sustainably grown and harvested materials in order to tell a unique story about the life cycle of materials and the power of conservation and design. The featured designers and places include Yves Behar/Costa Rica, Stephen Burks/Australia, Hella Jongerius/Mexico, Maya Lin/Maine, Christien Meindertsma/Idaho, Isaac Mizrahi/Alaska, Abbott Miller/Bolivia, Ted Muehling/Micronesia, Kate Spade/Bolivia and Ezri Tarazi/China. The exhibition will feature the prototypes, drawings and finished products created by the designers. This is the debut venue in a national tour of the exhibition, organized by The Nature Conservancy.

 

Design USA: Contemporary Innovation

Cooper-Hewitt, National Design Museum, New York City
Now – 4/4/10
“Design USA: Contemporary Innovation” celebrates the accomplishments of the winners honored during the first 10 years of the prestigious National Design Awards. The exhibition features outstanding contemporary achievements in American architecture, landscape design, interior design, product design, communication design, corporate design, interaction design and fashion. Developed in collaboration with the renowned firm 2x4, this exhibition focuses on innovation through the lens of technology, material, method, craft and transformation. As the exhibition explores advancements in design, it reveals the remarkable new ways that we see, read, think and interact in the 21st century.

 

Brian Jungen: Strange Comfort

National Museum of the American Indian, Washington, DC
Now – 8/8/10
Brian Jungen (Dunne-za First Nations/Swiss/Canadian), widely regarded as a foremost Native artist of his generation, transforms the familiar and banal into exquisite objects that reference themes of globalization, pop culture, museums and the commodification of Indian imagery. His works have included a pod of whales made from plastic chairs, totem poles made from golf bags and a massive basketball court made from 224 sewing tables. “Strange Comfort” will feature Jungen’s iconic works, as well as major pieces never before seen in the United States.

 

Anne Truitt: Perception and Reflection

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Now – 1/3/10
The first major exhibition of Truitt’s work since her death in 2004, the Hirshhorn Museum offers a full survey of the artist’s sculpture and two-dimensional works spanning her 40-year career. In addition to a variety of three-dimensional works in which the artist explored the effects of scale and proportion, the retrospective presents the column sculptures that became the hallmark of Truitt’s profoundly focused practice and also includes the first completed monograph on the artist.

 

Panamanian Passages

S. Dillon Ripley Center’s Concourse
Now – 5/31/10
Discover this tiny country’s diverse and influential past. This bilingual (English/Spanish) exhibition traces Panama’s history beginning with the rise of the isthmus more than 3 million years ago and culminates with the expansion of the Panama Canal. Learn about Panama’s early indigenous settlements and Panama’s 20th-century struggle for sovereignty.

 

What’s It All Mean: William T. Wiley in Retrospect

Smithsonian American Art Museum
Now – 1/24/10
William T. Wiley has created a distinctive body of work during a 50-year career that embraces popular culture as well as fine art. This retrospective, featuring 88 works from the 1960s to the present, is the first full-scale look at Wiley’s career since 1979 and explores important themes and ideas expressed in his work. His work, crowded with a personal vocabulary of symbols, puns and images, demands close attention, but his wit and sense of the absurd make it accessible even to those who do not immediately discern the ambiguous allusions and layers of meaning.

 

Faces of the Frontier: Photographic Portraits from the American West, 1845 – 1924

National Portrait Gallery
Now – 1/24/10
See the dramatic transformation of the American West through the eyes of those most influential in its formation. Through 100 portrait photographs, the exhibition chronicles the 80 years between the Mexican War to the Indian Citizenship Act of 1924. Events affecting how the West was won and lost during this period are reflected in the portraits including the completion of the transcontinental railroad, ongoing conflicts between Native Americans and non-natives, the emergence of the national parks movement and the entry of 19 new states into the union. Influential figures in the time period, Kit Carson, Geronimo, John Fremont, Annie Oakley and Brigham Young, are featured.

 

Since Darwin: The Evolution of Evolution

National Museum of Natural History
Now – 7/18/10
When it comes to evolution, some things never change. Celebrate the 150-year anniversary of Darwin's groundbreaking book, "On the Origins of Species" by exploring specimens from the museum's diverse collection and documents from ongoing research on evolution. The exhibition highlights the importance of evolution as a foundation in science.

 

Accelerate: A National Juried Exhibition for Emerging Artists with Disabilities, Ages 16 – 25

S. Dillon Ripley Center
Now – 1/06/10
Featuring works by 15 award-winning emerging artist with disabilities, ages 16 to 25, the exhibition reflects the artists' experiences. The exhibit reveals how the artists find motivation and shape their lives through art.

 

Bittersweet Harvest: The Bracero Program, 1942 – 1964

National Museum of American History
Now – 1/2010
This exhibit journeys back to the era of the US immigration policy, dubbed the Bracero program, and explores a little-known chapter in the history of Mexican and U.S. labor policies. The Bracero program was introduced in the 1940s as an effort to fill the labor shortage created by World War II. Millions of Mexican men traveled north to work on short-term labor contracts. The exhibition reflects on the workers motivations for the journey to the U.S., the experiences of the workers and how the program affected both Mexican and U.S. communities. Drawing from photos, oral histories and documents the exhibit highlights the bittersweet combination of exploitation and opportunity resulting from the program.

 

One Life: Thomas Paine, The Radical Founding Father

National Portrait Gallery
Now – 11/29/09
Inspiration does not always have an extravagant introduction; often all it needs is a little common sense. The life of Thomas Paine (1737-1809) fills this one room exhibit focusing on his pamphlet "Common Sense," which inspired Americans to declare freedom from England. Paine's travels, tribulations and victories are explored through caricatures and original documents on display. A recently acquired portrait of Paine, rendered by French artist Laurent Dabos is featured as well.

 

Staged Stories: Renwick Craft Invitational 2009

Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Art Museum
Now – 01/03/10
Established in 2000, the Renwick Craft Invitational highlights the ingenuity and talent of today's artists. Fourth in the exhibition series, the exhibit features ceramic, fiber and glass renderings. Kate Bonansinga, director of the Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts at the University of Texas at El Paso, is the guest curator.

 

Moving Perspectives: Shahzia Sikander/ Xun

Arthur M. Sackler Gallery
Now – 11/08/09
Capturing art in motion, this exhibit highlights two artists who transcend mediums providing new perspectives on art. Trained in the United States and Pakistan, Shahzia Sikander reinterprets miniature paintings by isolating and abstracting formal composition elements. Sikander's video renderings use repeating shapes, imagery and calligraphy to create landscapes. Using a similar technique Chinese artist Sun Xun films his hand-drawn images of clocks, magicians, words and insects, morphing them into animated figures.

 

Alan Bean: Painting Apollo, First Artist On Another World

National Air and Space Museum
Now – 1/13/10
Celebration the 40th anniversary of the first Apollo moon landing, the National Air and Space Museum hosts an exhibition of paintings with a signature view of the world. American artists and Apollo 12 astronaut, Alan Bean rendered approximately 40 original paintings and drawings. The exhibition offers an insight on what the Earth looks like from 238,000 miles away—a perspective that is rendered by the only artist to have walked on the lunar surface. Artifacts from the National Air and Space Museum's collection provide a 3D reference to the lunar experience depicted in the painting.

 

World View: Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest

Smithsonian Institution Building
Now – 1/17/10
Smithsonian Magazine's Sixth Annual Photo Contest highlights the 50 finalist photographs from this year's competition. More than 17,000 entries were submitted from around the United States and the world. The contest's five categories—The Natural World, People, Americana, Altered Images and Travel—are as diverse as the subjects and landscapes in the photos.

 

Graphic Masters II: Highlights from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Smithsonian American Art Museum
Now – 1/10/10
This exhibition celebrates the extraordinary variety and accomplishment of American artists' works on paper. These exceptional watercolors, pastels and drawings from the 1920s to the 1960s reveal the central importance of works on paper for American artists, both as studies for creations in other media and as finished works of art. Rarely seen works from the museum's permanent collection by such masters as Stuart Davis, Sam Francis, Edward Hopper, Willem de Kooning, Grant Wood and Andrew Wyeth are featured in the exhibition.

 

Delivering Hope: FDR and Stamps of the Great Depression

National Postal Museum
Now - 6/6/10
Franklin D. Roosevelt, president during the Great Depression, used stamps to communicate with the American people. A stamp collector himself, he understood the power of visual imagery, and he changed the look of stamps to convey messages of hope, optimism and the solidity of the federal government. This exhibition offers novel insights into FDR's personality, his relationship with Postmaster General James A. Farley and his concern for the welfare of the American people.

 

Grand Salon Installation – Paintings from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian American Art Museum
New Permanent Exhibition
A new installation of 70 paintings from the Smithsonian American Art Museum's collection will be on view indefinitely in the Grand Salon of the museum's branch, the Renwick Gallery. The installation features landscapes, portraits and allegorical works by 51 American artists from the 1840s to the 1930s. Many of these paintings have not been exhibited in a number of years. The room is installed salon style, with paintings hung one-atop-another and side by side.

 

1934: A New Deal for Artists

Smithsonian American Art Museum
Now – 01/03/10
This exhibition celebrates the 75th anniversary of the Public Works of Art Program by drawing on the Smithsonian American Art Museum's unparalleled collection of paintings created for the program, between December 1933 to June 1934. Artists participating in the federal program were encouraged to depict the American scene, but were free to portray any subject matter. The 56 paintings in the exhibition range from portraits to cityscapes and images of city life to landscapes and depictions of rural life. Created by artists from across the United States, the paintings are a lasting visual record of America at a specific moment in time.

 

Written in Bone: Forensic Files of the 17th-Century Chesapeake

National Museum of Natural History
Now – 02/06/11
Human anatomy and forensic investigation provide intriguing information on people and events of America's past. Learn how forensic anthropologists discover history through 17th-century bone biographies.

 

Presidents in Waiting

National Portrait Gallery
Now – 01/03/10
Fourteen vice presidents have become president either by winning election on their own, upon the death of an incumbent, or famously, by the resignation of the president. How has the office evolved over time? A video kiosk shows exclusive interviews with recent vice presidents.

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