Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies

Musical Thinking: New Video Artists in the Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection explores the powerful resonances between recent video art and popular music.

June 23, 2023 – January 28, 2024

American Art Museum

Many Wests: Artists Shape an American Idea

The exhibition examines the perspectives of 48 modern and contemporary artists who offer a broader and more inclusive view of this region, which too often has been dominated by romanticized myths and Euro-American historical accounts.

July 28, 2023 – January 15, 2024

American Art Museum

A Window Suddenly Opens: Contemporary Photography in China

A Window Suddenly Opens is the Hirshhorn’s first survey of photography by leading multigenerational Chinese artists made between the 1990s and 2000s.

November 4, 2022 – January 7, 2024

Hirshhorn Museum

Kinship

Kinship presents more than forty artworks by eight contemporary artists whose work explores the notion of “kinship” and the closeness that bonds us.

October 28, 2022 – January 7, 2024

Portrait Gallery

To Live and Breathe: Women and Environmental Justice in Washington, D.C.

Explore how women of color draw on a long history of activism and advance environmental justice efforts.

May 19, 2023 – January 7, 2024

Anacostia Community Museum

John Akomfrah: Purple

An enveloping, hour-long symphony of image and sound, Purple (2017) weaves together original film with archival footage against a hypnotic score to address themes related to climate change

November 23, 2022 – January 7, 2024

Hirshhorn Museum

In Memoriam: Rosalynn Carter, 1927–2023

Rosalynn Carter was the first lady of the United States from 1977 to 1981.

November 21, 2023 – January 3, 2024

Portrait Gallery

Shelley Niro: 500 Year Itch

Shelley Niro: 500 Year Itch celebrates more than a half century of Shelley Niro’s paintings, photographs, mixed-media works, and films.

May 27, 2023 – January 1, 2024

American Indian Museum New York

Highlights of the NMAAHC Library Collection

Eleven objects are featured in this exhibition of highlights from the National Museum of African American History and Culture Library.

September 12, 2022 – December 31, 2023

African American History and Culture Museum

Why We Serve: Native Americans in the United States Armed Forces

Why We Serve honors the generations of Native Americans who have served in the armed forces of the United States—often in extraordinary numbers—since the American Revolution.

November 11, 2020 – November 30, 2023

American Indian Museum New York

Why We Serve: Native Americans in the United States Armed Forces

Why We Serve honors the generations of Native Americans who have served in the armed forces of the United States since the American Revolution.

November 10, 2021 – November 30, 2023

American Indian Museum DC

Portrait of a Nation: 2022 Honorees

This intimate exhibition features the portraits of the seven individuals who have been selected to receive one of the museum’s 2022 Portrait of a Nation Awards.

November 10, 2022 – October 22, 2023

Portrait Gallery

Block by Block: Naming Washington

Explore the namesakes of Washington, D.C.’s streets, avenues, neighborhoods, and other public spaces.

July 30, 2021 – October 22, 2023

Portrait Gallery

A Perfect Harmony: American Art

Juxtaposing American and Asian art is a legacy of the founder of our museum, Detroit industrialist Charles Lang Freer. He believed in a universal language of beauty that resonated across time, space, and cultural diversity.

November 27, 2019 – October 8, 2023

Asian Art Museum, West Building

Ay-Ō's Happy Rainbow Hell

Immerse yourself in Ay-Ō’s world of sensory experience, exploration, and fun. This exhibition contains material not appropriate for all audiences. Parental discretion is advised.

March 25, 2023 – September 10, 2023

Asian Art Museum, East Building

I Dream a World: Selections from Brian Lanker's Portraits of Remarkable Black Women: Part II

The Portrait Gallery recently acquired all 75 portraits from the Pulitzer-Prize winning photographer’s series and is celebrating the acquisition with a two-part exhibition.

February 10, 2023 – September 10, 2023

Portrait Gallery

Put It This Way: (Re)Visions of the Hirshhorn Collection

Put It This Way is devoted to the work of nearly 50 women and nonbinary artists in the Hirshhorn’s collection.

August 2, 2022 – September 4, 2023

Hirshhorn Museum

Designing Peace

Designing Peace explores the unique role design can play in pursuing peace.

June 10, 2022 – August 6, 2023

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

One with Eternity: Yayoi Kusama in the Hirshhorn Collection

Building on the Hirshhorn’s blockbuster 2017 exhibition Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors, this new exhibition affirms Kusama’s legacy within the Museum’s collection and art history with new acquisitions.

April 1, 2022 – July 16, 2023

Hirshhorn Museum

Baseera Khan: The Liberator

Baseera Khan’s sculpture The Liberator (2022) points to ongoing and global struggles for justice, as well as the complicated relationships between Western museums, capital, and cultural identity.

May 4, 2023 – July 16, 2023

Hirshhorn Museum

Unstill Waters: Contemporary Photography from India

Through still and moving image, seriality, and portraiture, five leading contemporary artists explore rapidly changing natural and built environments in India, from riverbanks, ancient forests, and city streets to surreal symbolic settings.

December 10, 2022 – June 11, 2023

Asian Art Museum, East Building

Family Ties: Daguerreotype Portraits

The portraits in this exhibition reflect the range of familial relationships documented by the camera during the daguerreian era.

July 1, 2022 – June 11, 2023

Portrait Gallery

Outbreak DIY: Epidemics in a Connected World

Join epidemiologists, veterinarians, public health workers, and citizens as they rush to identify and respond to infectious diseases.

November 3, 2022 – June 4, 2023

Natural History Museum

Nature by Design: Botanical Lessons

Botanical Lessons explores nature in the Smithsonian collections through thirteen botanical models on loan from the National Museum of American History, and a selection of illustrated books and periodicals from Smithsonian Libraries.

June 8, 2019 – May 29, 2023

Cooper Hewitt Design Museum

Iké Udé: Nollywood Portraits

Multimedia artist Iké Udé celebrates the luminescent beauty and mystique of African visionaries.

February 5, 2022 – May 29, 2023

African Art Museum