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Business Journals
14-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Business Journals
7 must-see exhibits to catch around D.C. this summer before they close
Washington, D.C. is always bursting with world-class art, and this season is no exception. As the summer season picks up, locals and visitors alike will want to head to some of the free and paid museums in the city to see some very special exhibits, including an unnerving exploration of the concept of the uncanny valley at the National Museum of Women in the Arts to a full-floor exhibition at the Hirshhorn featuring the Brazilian artist twins known as OSGEMEOS, catch these profound and thought-provoking shows before they close. 'Elizabeth Catlett: A Black Revolutionary Artist' National Gallery of Art Closes: July 6, 2025 This powerful exhibition brings long-overdue recognition to Elizabeth Catlett, a masterful sculptor and printmaker whose work centers Black women's strength, labor, and resistance. Born in Washington, D.C., Catlett's art is inseparable from her politics; her bold linocuts and sculptures celebrate civil rights icons, laborers and everyday people. The show charts her career from the 1940s through the 1990s, illuminating her time in Mexico, her activism and her stylistic evolution. It's an essential visit for anyone interested in Black art, political resistance and feminist aesthetics. More information. 'Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Always to Return' National Portrait Gallery Closes: July 6 Minimalist and poetic, Felix Gonzalez-Torres's work is both intimate and political. Gonzalez-Torres, who died of AIDS-related complications in 1996, often used ordinary materials — lightbulbs, candy, paper stacks — to create deeply emotional installations. His works push the boundaries of what portraiture can be, for example, in a portrait of his father made from a pile of candies weighing the same as his father — candies that the viewer is encouraged to take. He also left instructions for the works to be updated after he died and thus the gallery's curators updated some of the word portraits to reflect current events with words such as Black Lives Matter Plaza 2020 and 'January 6 2021.' This is the first large-scale exhibition of Gonzalez-Torres' work in D.C. in 30 years. More information. 'The Artist's Experience: From Brotherman to Batman' Phillips@THEARC Closes: July 24 This dynamic exhibition, presented by the Phillips Collection at THEARC arts and community center in Congress Heights, celebrates 20 Black comic book artists and their engagement with superhero narratives, comics and Afrofuturism. From the independently published 'Brotherman: Dictator of Discipline' to the global icon Batman, the show examines how artists reinterpret the heroic form to reflect Black identity, struggle and imagination. Featuring vibrant illustrations, prints, and multimedia works, this show speaks to fans of graphic novels as much as to contemporary art lovers. More information. 'OSGEMEOS: Endless Story' Hirshhorn Museum Closes: Aug. 3 Brazilian twin brothers Otavio and Gustavo Pandolfo — known as OSGEMEOS — have brought their fantastical world to the Hirshhorn in their first U.S. survey exhibition. With nearly 1,000 pieces on view, taking up a whole floor of the iconic circular museum building, 'Endless Story' is a kaleidoscopic experience filled with graffiti, music, puppetry and surreal characters. The exhibit blurs the boundaries between high art and street culture, channeling dreams, folklore and cultural memory. It's a visually explosive journey you'll want to wander through more than once — and a hit with all ages. More information. expand 'Uncanny' National Museum of Women in the Arts Closes: Aug. 10 After a major renovation, the National Museum of Women in the Arts reopened in 2023 with fresh energy — and 'Uncanny' is a standout among its inaugural offerings. The exhibition brings together contemporary women artists whose work explores the eerie, the strange and the psychologically charged. Expect sculpture, photography, and video that unsettle and provoke, with themes ranging from bodily transformation to domestic unease. Fun fact: many of the pieces in the show — and indeed, the museum itself — are from the collections of now divorced powerhouse lobbyists Tony and Heather Podesta. 'Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo' Smithsonian American Art Museum Closes: Aug. 17 This poignant exhibition highlights the work of three Japanese American women artists who endured World War II incarceration and emerged with unique perspectives on identity and resilience. Their paintings and prints, many rarely seen, capture both the trauma and tenacity of their generation. This show is as much about American history as it is about artistic innovation, shedding light on lives and legacies too often overlooked. More information. 'American Vignettes: Symbols, Society, and Satire' Rubell Museum Closes: Fall 2025 The Rubell Museum, the city's newest private museum that opened in 2022, continues to present bold, provocative contemporary art from the collection of its founders, Miami art barons Don and Mera Rubell. 'American Vignettes' features a rotating selection of works that interrogate American culture through humor, symbolism and critical commentary. Think political pop art, subversive collage and biting sculpture. More information.
New York Times
24-04-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
In the Heart of Washington, Adam Pendleton's Work Demands Deep Thought
When Adam Pendleton begins preparing for an exhibition, his first step is always the same: build a model of the space. Pendleton, who lives and works in New York, has employed this process for years, as he has prepared for shows in New York, London and Los Angeles. He finds that it allows him to visualize and refine his approach before and during installation. His first solo exhibition in Washington, D.C., 'Adam Pendleton: Love, Queen,' at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden was no exception. It opened April 4 and runs through Jan. 3, 2027. Pendleton, 41, had a very clear vision for the show from the start. He noted that, to him, the unique thing about art was its ability to function both within a particular moment and outside of it, offering a timeless reflection. 'What I want this work to do is to actually make people more conscious of how they spend their time and what they're doing with it,' Pendleton said in an interview at the museum in March, as preparations for the show were underway. 'And so I hope the exhibition is an opportunity to slow down and actually just, if only for a moment, exists outside of the dynamics or the pressures of any given moment.' Evelyn C. Hankins, the Hirshhorn's head curator, and the organizer of 'Love, Queen,' explained that the show — a major retrospective — was years in the making. She recalled that she and Pendleton started talking about the show in early 2022. Since then, she said that she visited his studio in New York every few months. 'Every time I'd go to the studio, there were these little scaled images of the paintings moving around,' Hankins explained in an interview at the museum. 'I think he spent so much time looking at the model, thinking about the building and what he wanted to do in here.' The show comes at a big moment for the institution, during its 50th anniversary year (it was founded in 1974). Aptly, 'Love, Queen' speaks very directly to the Hirshhorn, taking inspiration from both the museum's architecture and its location, right on the National Mall. 'For us, this project is very much part of our mission, which is about reflecting the art of our time, and Adam does that in his painting practice especially,' the Hirshhorn's director, Melissa Chiu, said in an interview. Pendleton explained that 'the exhibition is a kind of a retrospective of the way in which I thought and moved through the discipline of painting for about 20 years.' He said the show presented an argument about what painting can be — exploring its possibilities within the context of the 21st century, while also reflecting on its history and role in the early 20th century. 'Love, Queen' features 35 of Pendleton's paintings, displayed in the museum's second-floor inner-ring galleries. The paintings represent five different bodies of work: Some of the canvases are from three of Pendleton's ongoing series — 'Black Dada,' 'Days' and 'WE ARE NOT' — while others are from two new series, 'Composition' and 'Movement.' Through 'Black Dada' — the name of Pendleton's evolving conceptual framework, as well as the title of one series of paintings — Pendleton explores the relationship between Blackness and abstraction. His process begins on paper, where he builds compositions through paint, ink and watercolor, often incorporating stenciled text and geometric shapes. These works are then photographed and transformed through screen printing, blurring the lines between painting, drawing and photography. The final works reflect his belief in paintings as a powerful force. 'I think that's unique, because particularly in contemporary life, or just in general, we're always thinking, thoughts, thoughts, thoughts. But are we present?' Pendleton said while walking through the circular space on the second floor of the Hirshhorn where his works were being hung. 'Painting is, for me, a way to be my most present self. I hope that aspect of the act of painting, the act of making, of doing, is not necessarily understood by the viewer, but felt.' A centerpiece of the exhibition is 'Resurrection City Revisited (Who Owns Geometry Anyway?),' a nine-minute video installation exploring Resurrection City — an encampment erected on the National Mall in the spring and summer of 1968 as part of the Poor People's Campaign. Planned by the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and carried forward by the Rev. Ralph Abernathy after King's assassination, the campaign brought together thousands of people in a call for economic justice across racial lines. Pendleton became interested in Resurrection City after encountering photographs by Jill Freedman who, after King's assassination, took up residence in a plywood shantytown erected in Washington by the Poor People's Campaign, documenting the encampment's structures and daily life. Pendleton said that, 'in those photos, there's these lush blacks, these muted whites, but also there were the primary structures that existed within the context of the encampment.' He added, 'I became interested in them because I'm obsessed with triangles, circles, squares.' Pendleton studied Freedman's photographs for about four years before deciding to engage with them artistically. 'I've been mining Resurrection City as an example of a radical avant-garde,' Pendleton said of the encampment on the Mall. 'If I had to define the avant-garde, it's this drive to move forward — intelligently, willfully, joyfully. And that's really what Resurrection City is.' The video's score, composed by the multi-instrumentalist Hahn Rowe, weaves together a reading by the poet and playwright Amiri Baraka with rich orchestration of brass, woodwinds and drums. Pendleton is not just revisiting a historical moment, he is navigating a visual space where art stands on its own. 'It's a feeling you can't find anywhere else,' he said. 'This idea of deep looking and letting something resonate in an unexpected way.' This concept extends into his video installation. Like each of his paintings, the video is designed to offer a rich viewing experience, in which the visitor discovers something new each time they revisit it. 'It drives you to look and think deeply, so that things are actually seen, felt and heard,' Pendleton explained. 'And I think that's what really resonates — how the video functions in relation to the paintings.' Throughout 'Love, Queen,' Pendleton extends his exploration of the relationship between history and form. His large-scale paintings — layered with bold strokes and fragmented text — defy singular interpretation, instead prompting viewers to actively construct meaning. 'I think that's one of the really beautiful things about painting,' Pendleton reflected. 'It marks time in a very human and humanistic way. And that's why it has spoken so deeply to us as human beings for so long, because it articulates something very specific about our humanistic potential.'
