Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

John Akomfrah: Five Murmurations

Five Mumurations considers Akomfrah’s insights into post-colonialism, diasporic experience, and memory.

October 14, 2023 – August 24, 2025

Bruce Onobrakpeya: The Mask and the Cross

See early commissioned art, from the late 1960s, for Catholic priests and parishes from the celebrated Nigerian sculptor and printmaker.

June 21, 2024 – July 27, 2025

African Art Museum

From the Deep: In the Wake of Drexciya with Ayana V. Jackson

Jackson creates a series of haunting, yet profoundly beautiful and empowering encounters that draw upon African water spirits from Senegal to South Africa.

April 29, 2023 – January 6, 2025

African Art Museum

Create to Free Yourselves: Abraham Lincoln and the History of Freeing Slaves in America

Adéagbo invites each of us to consider our individual reflections of Abraham Lincoln and the unfinished journey toward emancipation for all.

November 18, 2023 – April 1, 2024

African Art 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

I Am... Contemporary Women Artists of Africa

Taking its name from a 1970’s feminist anthem, I Am… Contemporary Women Artists of Africa draws upon a selection of artworks by women artists from the museum's permanent collection.

June 20, 2019 – December 31, 2022

African Art Museum

Heroes: Principles of African Greatness

Heroes features a selection of masterworks from the the museum's permanent collection in a new, dynamic installation that tells the story of key heroic principles and people in Africa’s arts and history.

November 16, 2019 – August 1, 2022

African Art Museum

Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange across Medieval Saharan Africa

Rare and precious archaeological fragments are seen side by side, bringing new understanding to complete works of art from the medieval period.

July 16, 2021 – February 27, 2022

African Art Museum

Good as Gold: Fashioning Senegalese Women

Good as Gold examines the production, display, and circulation of gold in Senegal as it celebrates a significant gift of gold jewelry to the National Museum of African Art’s collection.

October 24, 2018 – February 2, 2020

African Art Museum

Striking Iron: The Art of African Blacksmiths

Striking Iron reveals the history of invention and technical sophistication that led African blacksmiths to transform one of Earth’s most basic natural resources into objects of life-changing utility, empowerment, prestige, spiritual potency, and astonishing artistry.

April 17, 2019 – October 14, 2019

African Art Museum

Healing Arts

Select pieces from the museum’s permanent collection reveal the skill and range of African artists who create art empowered to counter physical, social, and spiritual problems.

October 3, 2016 – June 27, 2019

African Art Museum

World on the Horizon: Swahili Arts Across the Indian Ocean

World on the Horizon explores Swahili arts as objects of mobility, outcomes of encounter, and as products of trade and imperialism.

May 9, 2018 – September 3, 2018

African Art Museum

Jim Chuchu's Invocations

Kenyan multimedia artist Jim Chuchu’s mesmerizing suite of video projections, Invocation: The Severance of Ties (2015) and Invocation: Release (2015) are on display.

June 21, 2017 – June 24, 2018

African Art Museum

Senses of Time: Video-and Film-based Works of Africa

Six internationally recognized African artists examine how time is experienced—and produced—by the body.Time-based works by Sammy Baloji, Theo Eshetu, Moataz Nasr, Berni Searle, Yinka Shonibare MBE, and Sue Williamson repeat, resist, and reverse the expectation that time must move relentlessly forward.

May 18, 2016 – January 21, 2018

African Art Museum

Emeka Ogboh's Market Symphony

Nigerian artist Emeka Ogboh brings his internationally recognized sound art to the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in the new work Market Symphony.

February 3, 2016 – January 31, 2017

African Art Museum

Artists' Books and Africa

African artists are experimenting with the genre of artists’ books, while international artists are exploring African themes in theirs. Artists’ Books and Africa is the first exhibition to focus on African artists books from the Smithsonian Libraries’ Warren M. Robbins Library and the National Museum of African Art.

September 16, 2015 – September 11, 2016

African Art Museum

Chief S.O. Alonge: Photographer to the Royal Court of Benin, Nigeria

To celebrate the history of Nigerian photography, this exhibition focuses on the collection of Chief Solomon Osagie Alonge, one of Nigeria's premiere early photographers.

September 17, 2014 – July 31, 2016

African Art Museum

Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue

In celebration of the 50th anniversary of the museum in 2014, this exhibition recognizes the museum's unique history and its contributions towards furthering meaningful dialogue between Africa and the African diaspora.

November 9, 2014 – January 24, 2016

African Art Museum

The Divine Comedy: Heaven, Purgatory, and Hell Revisited by Contemporary African Artists

This dramatic multi-media exhibition reveals the ongoing global relevance of Dante Alighieri’s 14th century epic as part of a shared intellectual heritage. Including original commissions and renowned works of art by some of the most dynamic contemporary artists from African nations and the diaspora.

April 8, 2015 – November 1, 2015

African Art Museum

Africa ReViewed: The Photographic Legacy of Eliot Elisofon

Be transported to mid-20th-century Africa through Eliot Elisofon's photographs, collected objects, films, and journals.

November 21, 2013 – December 14, 2014

African Art Museum

Visions from the Forests: The Art of Liberia and Sierra Leone

Learn about the little-known arts of Liberia and Sierra Leone through 70 artworks from the collection of William Siegmann.

April 9, 2014 – August 17, 2014

African Art Museum

Lines, Marks, and Drawings: Through the Lens of Roger Ballen

Experience how artist Roger Ballen organizes visual chaos into visual coherency.

June 19, 2013 – June 30, 2014

African Art Museum

Earth Matters: Land as Material and Metaphor in the Arts of Africa

Learn about the complex and visually rich relationship between African artists and the land upon which they live, walk, and frame their days.

April 22, 2013 – February 23, 2014

African Art Museum

Lalla Essaydi: Revisions

View diverse media works from Moroccan-born artist Lalla Essaydi's photographic series, as well as rarely seen paintings and installations.

May 9, 2012 – February 24, 2013

African Art Museum

African Cosmos: Stellar Arts

See some 90 African art objects that were inspired by astronomical observations and phenomena, including rainbows and eclipses.

June 20, 2012 – December 9, 2012

African Art Museum