Art This Week in Washington

At the Vanguard is a significant traveling exhibition featuring over 100 rare objects, archival photographs, artwork, and multimedia from five historically Black colleges and universities, celebrating HBCU contributions to American history and culture.

Nick Cave's first solo exhibition in Washington, D.C. and the Smithsonian American Art Museum's largest-ever commission by a single artist, featuring sculpture, video, found objects and a site-specific performance with fantastical mammoth creatures.

An immersive 45-minute exhibition organized by four scientific principles of camouflage—to disappear, to distort, to disguise, and to deceive—featuring historical artifacts, military uniforms, CIA disguise kits, and interactive mixed media environments.

A 75-work survey of Joan Miró's mid-20th-century dialogue with American artists including Alexander Calder, Arshile Gorky, Rufino Tamayo, and the New York School, curated by Elsa Smithgall.

Annual student gallery exhibition showcasing visual arts by underclassmen (grades 9-11) across multiple media including painting, drawing, mixed media, and digital art.

New Smithsonian exhibition on the bison as America's national mammal, opened May 7, 2026 at the National Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC. Artifacts and art trace the species' near-extinction in the late 1800s and its recovery through Indigenous and conservation partnerships. On view through May 2029.

The National Gallery's centenary survey of Mary Cassatt frames the American impressionist as a feminist by conviction, gathering paintings, prints, and the "Modern Woman" mural studies.

The Library of Congress opens The Source, a new experiential gallery for children and teens that hands young visitors hundreds of primary sources from the national collection.

Three-artist show at Gay Street Gallery featuring rural Virginia oil paintings, Brazilian-American figurative work, and fused glass sculpture.

An immersive photography exhibition showcasing endangered and at-risk species from the National Geographic Photo Ark with interactive elements and large-scale projections.

A National Gallery of Art exhibition marking America's 250th anniversary, exploring how artists have used the U.S. flag as patriotic symbol and tool of protest.

An immersive photography exhibition celebrating wildlife diversity and conservation through interactive technology and striking animal portraits.