National Portrait Gallery
Kinship
October 28, 2022 – January 7, 2024
Kinship presents more than forty artworks by eight contemporary artists whose work explores the notion of “kinship” and the closeness that bonds us. The exhibition spotlights artists Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Ruth Leonela Buentello, Jess T. Dugan, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Jessica Todd Harper, Thomas Holton, Sedrick Huckaby, and Anna Tsouhlarakis. Featuring contemporary portraits in various mediums, Kinship explores the ways intergenerational dynamics change in response to physical and symbolic thresholds and borders, including those between life and death; childhood and adulthood; normative gender roles; and geographic regions. The exhibition visualizes the complex, often paradoxical, and deeply moving ways in which interpersonal relationships endure and change. Kinship is the latest in the museum’s “Portraiture Now” series dedicated to contemporary artists and is curated by the Portrait Gallery’s curators Dorothy Moss and Leslie Uren?a with Robyn Asleson, Tai?na Caragol, and Charlotte Ickes. The exhibition has an accompanying catalogue.
Two live performances by artist Anna Tsouhlarakis will take place as part of the exhibition in May and Nov. 2023 in the museum’s Kogod Courtyard. Admission is free.
Self-Portrait with Marshall by Jessica Todd Harper, 2008. Courtesy of the artist. © Jessica Todd Harper
