Exhibitions

Newsroom of the Smithsonian

View news releases below or see all of our publicly released upcoming exhibitions.

Painting of a man lying on his stomach near a peace lily plant.

Miki Hayakawa, One Afternoon, ca. 1935, oil on canvas, 40 x 40 in., New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, Gift of Preston McCrossen in memory of his wife, the artist, 1954, 520.23P

Nationally Touring Exhibition That Rewrites the History of Modernism in the US Arrives at Smithsonian American Art Museum in November
Exhibition Includes Three Trailblazing Japanese American Women Artists
10.29.2024
Exhibitions
A group of four women wearing blue dresses with feathers stand in a line looking forward.
Celebrate Native American Heritage Month at the Smithsonian
10.23.2024
Exhibitions Public Programs
Giant panda Bao Li in China

Male giant panda Bao Li in his habitat at Shenshuping Base in Wolong, China, May 16. (Photo credit: Roshan Patel, Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute.)

Giant Pandas Arrive at Smithsonian’s National Zoo and Conservation Biology Institute From China
Bao Li and Qing Bao Will Make Their Public Debut Jan. 24, 2025
10.15.2024
National Zoo Exhibitions Public Programs New Acquisitions
Illustrated scene of two men and one woman in traditional Japanese fashion amidst a garden.

Yūzū Nenbutsu Engi (Origins of the Yuzu Nenbutsu Sect) 融通念仏縁起 (detail), Handscroll, Kamakura or period, 14th century, Japan, Ink, color, and gold on paper, National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Freer Collection, Purchase—Charles Lang Freer Endowment, F1959.13.

National Museum of Asian Art Presents Japan in Focus This Fall
Art in the Galleries and Public Programs Will Invite Visitors To Immerse Themselves in Japanese Culture
10.15.2024
Asian Art Museum Exhibitions
Old document on long paper with handwritten caligraphy.

Treaty with the Western Cherokee, 1828. Image courtesy of the National Archives and Records Administration.

Treaty With the Western Cherokee, 1828 To Go On View at the National Museum of the American Indian
10.11.2024
American Indian Museum Exhibitions
Man with dark skin and grayish t-shirt stands with hands clasped.

Portrait of the artist Adam Pendleton. © Adam Pendleton. Photo: Matthew Septimus.

Hirshhorn Announces Landmark Exhibition “Adam Pendleton: Love, Queen” in Honor of Museum’s 50th Anniversary
Artist’s First Solo Exhibition in Washington, D.C., On View April 4, 2025–Jan. 3, 2027
10.08.2024
Hirshhorn Museum Exhibitions
Graphic with black background, white outline of building with front colonnade and large blocky white text.

Credit: “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” presented by the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery.

National Portrait Gallery Announces Artist List and Prizewinners for Museum’s Seventh Triennial Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition
“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” Exhibition To Open May 3, 2025, Followed by a Tour to Other U.S. Cities
10.08.2024
Portrait Gallery Exhibitions
Purple background with large red text and smaller black text underneath.
"Making Home" Opens Nov. 2 with 25 Site-Specific Installations
10.02.2024
Cooper Hewitt Exhibitions
Sculpture of human body with different, colorful patterns covering different sections.

Roberto Lugo, DNA Study Revisited, 2022, urethane resin life cast, foam, wire, and acrylic paint, 66 × 27 × 17 in. (167.6 × 68.6 × 43.2 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase through the Catherine Walden Myer Fund, 2024.19

First Exhibition To Examine the Intertwined Histories of American Sculpture and Race Opens Nov. 8 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum
10.01.2024
American Art Museum Exhibitions
Moving image of a textile with red background and stylized figures.

“The Grim Work of Death” by Christopher Myers. Collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Copyright Christopher Myers.

Nat Turner’s Slave Rebellion Portrayed in Striking Artwork at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture
New Tapestry Recounts the Prophesy, History and Mythology of an Uprising
09.25.2024
African American Museum Exhibitions
Room with a large, curved wall with screens showing data visualizations and other images.

A large Hyperwall—a giant video screen used to display NASA’s Earth Information Center data—will be the centerpiece of “NASA’s Earth Information Center at the National Museum of Natural History.” James Di Loreto, Smithsonian.

Smithsonian and NASA Partner to Open Exhibition Exploring Ever-Changing Earth from Space and on the Ground
“NASA’s Earth Information Center at the National Museum of Natural History” Showcases Larger-than-Life Screen Pairing Real-Time Graphics with Short Feature Videos to Visualize Interconnected Changes on the Planet
09.24.2024
Natural History Museum Exhibitions
Painting with gold background and dark figure with cowboy hat and American flag-patterned button down.

Amy Sherald, “What’s precious inside of him does not care to be known by the mind in ways that diminish its presence (All American),” 2017; private collection, Chicago; Copyright Amy Sherald; photo: Joseph Hyde, courtesy the artist and Hauser & Wirth.

National Portrait Gallery Announces “Amy Sherald: American Sublime”
On view in Washington, D.C., Beginning Sept. 19, 2025
09.16.2024
Portrait Gallery Exhibitions
Painting of a stylized figure and dog against swaths of bright color.

Jean-Michel Basquiat, "Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump," 1982. Acrylic, crayon, and spray paint on canvas; 96 × 164 in. (240 × 420 cm.) Private collection. All images by Jean-Michel Basquiat, all likenesses of Jean-Michel Basquiat, and all use of Jean-Michel Basquiat's name © Estate of Jean-Michel Basquiat. Licensed by Artestar, New York.

Hirshhorn Museum Opens “Basquiat × Banksy”
Focused Exhibition Opens Sept. 29
09.16.2024
Hirshhorn Museum Exhibitions
Small wooden figurine of a man in a long white lab coat and black hat holding a book.

Venezuelan folk sculpture of José Gregorio Hernández, a late 19th- and early 20th-century physician who became a symbol of health-care charity.

D.C. Community Clinic Objects Highlight Philanthropy in Smithsonian Exhibition
National Museum of American History Adds Latino Response to Health-Care Needs to “Giving in America” Exhibition
08.14.2024
American History Museum Exhibitions
Image of flat tapestry with horizontal stripes in varying shades of orange, yellow, pink and red.

DY Begay (Diné, b. 1953), “Intended Vermillion,” 2015. Wool with plant, insect, and synthetic dyes, 49 x 37 ½ in. Denver Art Museum: Commissioned and funded by Kent and Elaine Olson for the Denver Art Museum, 2015.266 

“Sublime Light: The Tapestry Art of DY Begay” Celebrates Three Decades of Groundbreaking Work by Innovative Diné Artist
Tapestries Inspired by Landscape Embody Tradition and Innovation
08.13.2024
American Indian Museum Exhibitions
Image of multicolored, multi-textured jacket with arms outstretched.

Terence Nicholson, Safety Jacket: A Mourning in Chinatown, 2018. Anacostia Community Museum, Smithsonian Institution. Gift of Alexia and Roderick von Lipsey.

Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center Presents “Sightlines: Chinatown and Beyond” at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Opening Sept. 7
Exhibition Celebrates Impact of Asian Americans in Washington, D.C.
08.09.2024
Asian Pacific American Center Exhibitions
Purple background with red blocky letters and thin black typeface beneath.
Cooper Hewitt Announces “Making Home—Smithsonian Design Triennial”
08.06.2024
Cooper Hewitt Exhibitions
Poster with image of a postage stamp of an American flag and text about the stamp issue.

Post Office Department poster for a 5c stamp issue carries a slogan for registering and voting, 1964. Credit: Smithsonian Libraries and Archives.

Smithsonian’s National Postal Museum To Open Voting by Mail Exhibition
“Voting by Mail: Civil War to Covid-19” Opens Aug. 24
07.30.2024
Postal Museum Exhibitions
White plaster mold of woman wearing graduation cap and gown, holding a black rose in one hand and cane in the other.

This original plaster model was used to create the sculpture of Mary McLeod Bethune, which was installed in the National Statuary Hall in the U.S. Capitol. Credit: Collection of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture, gift of Nilda Maria Comas, copyright Nilda Comas.

National Museum of African American History and Culture Announces New Exhibition Exploring the Legacy and Impact of Mary McLeod Bethune
“Forces for Change” Opens Friday, July 19
07.19.2024
African American Museum Exhibitions
Image of a brick street lined with trees, people walking, and string lights in zig zag pattern above.

Credit: “Untitled” (America) (1994), Twelve parts, each: 42 light bulbs, waterproof rubber light sockets, and waterproof electrical cord. Overall dimensions vary with installation. Copyright Estate Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Courtesy Felix Gonzalez-Torres Foundation. Photo: Roberto Ruiz, Image courtesy of Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona. Installed on Las Ramblas, Barcelona, as part of Felix Gonzalez-Torres: The Politics of Relation. Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), Barcelona, Spain. 26 Mar. – 19 Sep. 2021. Cur. Tanya Barson.

National Portrait Gallery and the Archives of American Art Present “Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Always to Return”
On View Oct. 18–July 6, 2025
07.11.2024
Archives of American Art Portrait Gallery Exhibitions
polygraph machine

Polygraph (cardio-pneumo-psychograph); 1921. Gift of City of Berkeley Police Department. Photo by Jaclyn Nash, National Museum of American History.

Smithsonian’s “Forensic Science on Trial” Exhibition Explores What Happens When Science Enters the Courtroom
Crimes and Science Across 150 Years of History On View June 28
06.27.2024
American History Museum Exhibitions
Page of an old book with script on the right side in two columns and a colorful illustration of four figures on the left.

Detail of “Folio from a ‘Shahnama’ (‘Book of Kings’) by Firdawsi (d. 1020); Anushirvan bestowing largess upon his minister Buzurjmihr” / Credit: National Museum of Asian Art, Smithsonian Institution, Freer Collection, Purchase—Charles Lang Freer Endowment, F1942.2 (detail)

National Museum of Asian Art Presents “An Epic of Kings: The Great Mongol Shahnama”
Reuniting More Than 20 Folios From a Dispersed Masterpiece of a Medieval Persian Manuscript—Nearly 700 Years Old
06.17.2024
Asian Art Museum Exhibitions
Painted, stylized portrait with bright yellow background of a man with long oval face.face.

“James Baldwin” by Beauford Delaney, pastel on paper, 1963. National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution. Copyright Estate of Beauford Delaney by permission of Derek L. Spratley, Esquire, Court Appointed Administrator; courtesy of Michael Rosenfeld Gallery LLC, New York.

National Portrait Gallery Announces “This Morning, This Evening, So Soon: James Baldwin and the Voices of Queer Resistance”
On view July 12–April 20, 2025
06.11.2024
Portrait Gallery Exhibitions
Colorful horizontal illustration with orange background and three figures, one carrying cross and another wiping his face.

Bruce Onobrakpeya, b. 1932, Nigeria, Station VI: Veronica wipes the face of Jesus (detail), 1969, linoleum block
print on rice paper, gift of Mr. George A. Naifeh, collection of the High Museum of Art, Atlanta.

National Museum of African Art Presents “Bruce Onobrakpeya: The Mask and the Cross”
Highlights Celebrated Printmaker and His Legacy in Nigeria
06.07.2024
African Art Museum Exhibitions

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