EVENT CATEGORIES
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ART
July 1 to Nov. 25
Water, Wind, and Waves: Marine Paintings from the Dutch Golden Age
The Dutch rose to greatness from the riches of the sea. During the 17th century, water was central to their economic and naval successes, but was also a source of pleasure and enjoyment. This exhibition explores the deep, multifaceted relationship the Dutch had with the water, including their gratitude for the sea’s bounty and their fear of its sometimes destructive power.
National Gallery of Art
July 6 to 30
City, Unfamiliar Landscape: Works by Three Korean Contemporary Artists
This group exhibition showcases painting and mixed media works that reexamine the evolving, complex urban spaces that are home to an increasing number of people worldwide, by three contemporary Korean artists. Presenting about 30 works of unique technique and visual expression, these three artists share a common theme of the city as a communally owned space that is also a haven for individual lives.
Korean Cultural Center
Through July 8
Hung Liu in Print
This spotlight exhibition features 16 prints and a tapestry by painter and printmaker Hung Liu that invites viewers to explore the relationship between Liu’s multi-layered paintings and the palpable, physical qualities of her works on paper. Her multifaceted body of work probes the human condition and confronts issues of culture, identity and personal and national history.
National Museum of Women in the Arts
Through July 8
Cézanne Portraits
Bringing together some 60 examples drawn from collections around the world, this is the first exhibition devoted to the famed post-impressionist’s portraits. The revelatory exhibition provides the first full visual account of Paul Cézanne’s portrait practice, exploring the pictorial and thematic characteristics of his works in the genre, the chronological development of his style and method, and the range and influence of his sitters.
National Gallery of Art
Through July 8
Transformers: New Contemporary Latin American Sculpture by Darío Escobar and Patrick Hamilton
The conceptual sculptures on display in this exhibition explore similar themes through each artist’s distinct aesthetic and thought process. Separately and together, Darío Escobar of Guatemala and Patrick Hamilton of Chile share a penchant for using common materials such as rubber tires, metal fencing, spackling knives and soccer balls. Lightly treated and often simply rearranged or reordered, Escobar and Hamilton’s found objects are transformed from commercial products into newly aestheticized artworks that also provide ideological critiques of globalization and its effects.
OAS Art Museum of the Americas
Through July 9
Vanishing Traditions: Textiles and Treasures from Southwest China
For centuries, minority cultures in southwest China have donned elaborate textiles, jewelry, and accessories for community celebrations. Dazzling festival costumes new to the museum’s collections explore traditions now endangered by modernization.
The George Washington University Textile Museum
Through July 13
Perspectives
Franco Lippi and Luis Falduti use photography to temporally expose the enigmatic layers of Lippi’s paintings to disclose its hidden messages. The aim of these two artists is to re-enact the complete chain of events in which a painter and a photographer collaborate, creating two separate bodies of work, each from his own point of view, that still allows both to reveal the essence of the other.
Embassy of Argentina
July 15 to Jan. 6, 2019
Sense of Humor
Humor may be fundamental to human experience, but its expression in painting and sculpture has been limited. Instead, prints, as the most widely distributed medium, and drawings, as the most private, have been the natural vehicles for comic content. Drawn from the National Gallery of Art’s collection, this exhibition celebrates this incredibly rich though easily overlooked tradition through works including Renaissance caricatures, biting English satires, and 20th-century comics.
National Gallery of Art
July 20 to Nov. 25
Bound to Amaze: Inside a Book-Collecting Career
Curator Emerita Krystyna Wasserman assembled NMWA’s collection of more than 1,000 artists’ books over a 30-year period. This focus exhibition celebrates her vision and features 20 notable artists’ books from the museum’s expansive collection.
National Museum of Women in the Arts
Through July 29
40th Anniversary Exhibition of the Washington Calligraphers Guild
Visitors encouraged to mine ideas expressed through surrealism and the work of surrealist poets as inspiration. This is a complement to “Visions” on the second floor, in which four artists blend realistic components with fantastical elements and imagery, creating distinct and dream-like environments.
Music Center at Strathmore
Through July 29
To Dye for: Ikats from Central Asia
With their brilliant designs, ikats are among the most distinct fabrics produced in Central Asia. Not surprisingly, ikats caught the attention of contemporary designers, most notably Oscar de la Renta. This exhibition brings together about 30 of the finest historical Central Asian ikat hangings and coats from the Freer|Sackler collections, as well as seven of Oscar de la Renta’s iconic creations, to explore the original use and function of these dazzling fabrics and the enduring appeal of their extraordinary designs.
Freer Gallery of Art
Through Aug. 5
Do Ho Suh: Almost Home
Korean-born Do Ho Suh (b. 1962) is internationally renowned for his immersive, architectural fabric sculptures that explore the global nature of contemporary identity. “Do Ho Suh: Almost Home” will transform the museum’s galleries through Suh’s captivating installations, which recreate to scale several of his former homes from around the world. Through these works, Suh investigates the nature of home and memory and the impact of migration and displacement on an individual’s sense of self.
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Through Aug. 5
The Prince and the Shah: Royal Portraits from Qajar Iran
In our age of social media and selfies, it may be difficult to grasp the importance of painted portraits and studio photographs in 19th-century Iran. During this time, known as the Qajar era, rulers such as Fath-Ali Shah, a contemporary of Napoleon, and Nasir al-Din Shah, a contemporary of Queen Victoria, used portraiture to convey monarchical power and dynastic grandeur. Through a selection of about thirty works from the Freer and Sackler collections, this exhibition explores how Persian artists transformed modes of representing royalty and nobility.
Freer Gallery of Art
Through Aug. 5
Sharing Images: Renaissance Prints into Maiolica and Bronze
Inspired by the acquisition of the important William A. Clark maiolica (glazed Italian ceramics) collection from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, this exhibition brings together some 90 objects to highlight the impact of Renaissance prints on maiolica and bronze plaquettes, the two media most dramatically influenced by the new technology of image replication.
National Gallery of Art
Through Aug. 10
Intimate Cartographies: An Approach to Interpersonal Relationships
This contemporary photography features outstanding artists from OAS member states Argentina, Chile, Mexico and Venezuela, as well as OAS permanent observer states Italy and Spain. Cartography and photography are similar in that they both originate from a natural reality. But this representation is not exact; it is subjective. The images in this exhibition hold a subtle informative quality, closely connected with the lyrical documentation of Walker Evans, “where many of his landscapes were not documented but created by him.”
Art Museum of the Americas F Street Gallery
Through Aug. 10
A New League: Shared Pastimes and the Story of U.S.-Japan Baseball
To celebrate the 2018 Major League Baseball All-Star Game coming to D.C. this summer, the Japanese Embassy presents an exhibit that celebrates the bonds between the U.S. and Japan forged through the game of baseball. Featuring baseball-related historical objects and artifacts from Japan, the exhibition will trace the history of the sport in Japan, from its introduction and rapid transformation into Japan’s national sport, as well as explore the fascinating history of sports exchange and “baseball diplomacy” between Japan and the U.S. — avenues of contact that have fostered friendship, goodwill, and reconciliation between the two nations.
Japan Information & Culture Center
Through Aug. 12
Does the Body Rule the Mind, or Does the Mind Rule the Body?
“Does the body” is the museum’s first live performance exhibition, introducing the newest generation of American artists who blend the avant-garde legacy of performance art with pop culture, presented together for the first time.
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Through Aug. 12
Ralph Steadman: A Retrospective
Celebrating the career of one of Britain’s most important graphic artists of the last 50 years, this collection of more than 100 original artworks will take viewers on a journey through Ralph Steadman’s wide-ranging career, from sketches created in the 1950s, to book illustrations, to present-day work. Steadman is famous for his long collaboration with the writer Hunter S. Thompson, most notably providing the illustrations for “Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas” and helping to create what has since become known as “Gonzo” journalism.
American University Museum
Through Aug. 15
Mayas: Spaces of Memory
Documenting Mayan sites throughout Mexico, photographer Javier Hinojosa clearly and forcefully reflects the intimate relationship that exists between the jungle and the Mayas. Over the centuries the Mayas populated, developed and tamed the jungle, leaving behind a vast visual record of their historical and archeological legacy. In the process, they experienced an enormous amount of change, developing from tiny agricultural communities and the first regional centers of power to eventually becoming masters of politics, war and the jungle
Mexican Cultural Institute
Through Aug. 15
Tomb of Christ
Be virtually transported to Jerusalem and discover the fascinating history of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in an immersive 3-D experience unlike anything you’ve seen in a museum before. Groups will be able to virtually visit the church and learn about its storied history and enduring mysteries.
National Geographic
Through Aug. 24
1968: A Time of Uproar in Europe and the U.S.
Riots in Washington, D.C., violent protests in Berlin, a national strike in Paris and the brutal end of the Prague Spring: The year of 1968 was shaped by protest movements and an atmosphere of massive change. On the 50th anniversary of the protests, the Goethe-Institut highlights these historic events with a photo exhibition, offering a view into the movements in these four major cities.
Goethe-Institut
Through Aug. 24
In the Library: The Richter Archive at 75
In celebration of the 1943 arrival of the George M. Richter Archive of Illustrations on Art — the founding collection of 60,000 photographs that formed the nucleus of the department of image collections — this installation presents the history and development of the photographic archives of the National Gallery of Art.
National Gallery of Art
Through Aug. 31
Constructing Mexico68
To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the first Latin American Olympic games, this exhibit takes audiences through a simple and concrete exploration of the sporting venues built for the 1968 Mexico City Summer Olympics and their constant connection to design and urban art. The development of competition sites for the Olympics’ diverse sporting disciplines required not only the adaptation of existing structures, but also the rapid construction of new, modern and functional facilities. In these new spaces, it was possible to implement the use of an applied architecture that met both the needs of the audience and the functional requirements of each sporting event that occupied it.
Mexican Cultural Institute
Through Sept. 3
World on the Horizon: Swahili Arts Across the Indian Ocean
The first major traveling exhibition dedicated to the arts of the Swahili coast reveals the diverse interchanges that break down barriers between Africa and Asia in a space that physically connects the Smithsonian’s African and Asian art museums. The Swahili coast, where East Africa meets the Indian Ocean, has long been a significant cultural, diplomatic and commercial intersection for Africa, Asia and Europe for millennia. “World on the Horizon” offers audiences an unprecedented opportunity to view over 160 artworks brought together from public and private collections from four continents.
National Museum of African Art
Through Sept. 9
Marking the Infinite: Contemporary Women Artists from Aboriginal Australia
Approximately 60 works, drawn from the collection of Miami-based collectors and philanthropists Debra and Dennis Scholl, spotlight nine leading Aboriginal Australian women artists. The artists are from remote Aboriginal communities across Australia, and the subjects of their art are broad, yet each work is an attempt to grapple with fundamental questions of existence, asking us to slow down and pay attention to the natural world.
The Phillips Collection
Through Sept. 16
Baselitz: Six Decades
The first major U.S. retrospective in more than 20 years of Georg Baselitz, one of Germany’s greatest living artists, marks the artist’s 80th birthday. With more than 100 works, including iconic paintings, works on paper, and wood and bronze sculptures, highlighting every phase of Baselitz’s six-decade career from the 1950s to today, this milestone exhibition features work never before seen in the U.S. and cements Baselitz’s reputation as one of the most original and inventive figurative artists of his generation.
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Through Sept. 16
Heavy Metal – Women to Watch 2018
Over 50 works made from silver, copper, bronze, pewter, aluminum and more highlight contemporary women artists working with a variety of metals and techniques to create pieces such as wall-size installations, exquisite jewelry and reinventions of familiar objects.
National Museum of Women in the Arts
Through Sept. 23
Form and Function: The Genius of the Book
Dive deep into one of the world’s greatest technologies: the book. Discover a history beyond what’s printed on the page, seen in the structure, craftsmanship and beauty of this often-overlooked marvel.
Folger Shakespeare Library
Through Nov. 12
Mark Bradford: Pickett’s Charge
For his first solo exhibition in D.C., acclaimed artist Mark Bradford debuts a monumental site-specific commission inspired by Paul Philippoteaux’s 1883 cyclorama depicting the Battle of Gettysburg. Covering the curved walls of the Hirshhorn’s Third Level Inner Circle, “Pickett’s Charge” presents 360 degrees of abstracted historical narrative.
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden
Through Dec. 25
Visionary: Viewpoints on Africa’s Arts
More than 300 works of art from the museum’s permanent collection are on view within this exhibition. Working in media as diverse as wood, ceramics, drawing, jewelry, mixed media, sculpture, painting, photography, printmaking, and video, these works of art reflect the visionary ideas and styles developed by men and women from more than half of Africa’s 55 nations. The installation is organized around seven viewpoints, each of which serve to frame and affect the manner in which African art is experienced.
National Museum of African Art
Through Jan. 6, 2019
Trevor Paglen: Sites Unseen
Trevor Paglen is an award-winning artist whose work blurs the lines between art, science and investigative journalism to construct unfamiliar and at times unsettling ways to see and interpret the world. This is the first exhibition to present Paglen’s early photographic series alongside his recent sculptural objects and new work with artificial intelligence.
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Through Jan. 13, 2019
Fabergé Rediscovered
Designed to delight and surprise, the treasures created by the firm of Carl Fabergé have inspired admiration and intrigue for over a century, both for their remarkable craftsmanship and the captivating stories that surround them. The fascination with Fabergé continues to uncover new discoveries about the storied jeweler to the tsars and his remarkable creations. This exhibit unveils recent research and explore how the 2014 discovery of a long-lost imperial Easter egg prompted new findings about Hillwood’s own collection.
Hillwood Estate, Museum and Gardens
Through Jan. 21, 2019
No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man
Each year in Nevada’s Black Rock Desert, a city of more than 70,000 people rises out of the dust for a single week. During that time, enormous experimental art installations are erected and many are ritually burned to the ground. Cutting-edge artwork created at Burning Man, the annual desert gathering that is one of the most influential events in contemporary art and culture, will be exhibited in the nation’s capital for the first time this spring.
Renwick Gallery
DISCUSSIONS
Mon., July 16, 6:45 p.m.
Making Sense of Climate Change
Meet the first discoverers of human-induced climate change and understand how greenhouse gases cause temperature changes around the globe. Explore why Americans are so divided in their views on climate change as scientist Bert Drake follows the path from climate-change skepticism in the 20th century to denial in the 21st (session one of a three-session evening course). Tickets are $45; for information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org.
S. Dillon Ripley Center
Mon., July 23, 6:45 p.m.
Tesla: The Man, the Mystery and the Inventor of the Modern
Nikola Tesla (1856-1943) was a magnificently bizarre genius. He was strikingly handsome and impeccably dressed; he was germophobic and never shook hands. In his later years, he only ate white food and conversed with pigeons. Tesla, a Serbian immigrant, invented the radio, the induction motor, the neon lamp and the remote control. But his strange persona kept getting in his way. Drawing on his new book, Richard Munson shines a light on the man behind the legend. Tickets are $30; for information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org.
S. Dillon Ripley Center
Thu., July 26, 6:45 p.m.
World Without Mind: The Existential Threat of Big Tech
Franklin Foer, national correspondent at The Atlantic, sits down with Melissa Chiu, director of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, for a discussion about the vexing issues posed by the growing power of “big technology.” Together they explore the tension between technology and privacy with which everyone who has a digital life has to deal. Tickets are $30; for information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org.
S. Dillon Ripley Center
MUSIC
Fri., July 6, 6 p.m.
title
Winners of the 2016 City of Barcelona Award, vocalist Maria Arnal and guitarist Marcel Bagés beautifully blend old and new sounds together.
Kennedy Center Millennium Stage
Sun., July 8, 5 to 8 p.m.
An Evening with Gourmet Symphony: Musical World’s Fare at the Arts and Industries Building
Enjoy a night of fine cuisine, wine and music with Gourmet Symphony in the historic Arts and Industries Building. After the Centennial Exposition of 1876 in Philadelphia — the first World’s Fair held in America — many of its displays were donated to the Smithsonian, and some of the proceeds from the exposition were used to build the structure. Inspired by that historic connection, both the menu and the program celebrate the intersection of ethnic backgrounds. Tickets are $225; for information, visit www.smithsonianassociates.org.
Smithsonian Arts and Industries Building
Fri., July 18, 8 p.m.
Juanes
Hailing from Colombia, this Latin superstar leaves audiences roaring with praise night after night with hits like “Me Enamora,” “La Camisa Negra,” and “Fuego.” Tickets are $40 to $80.
Wolf Trap
Sat., July 28, 8:15 p.m.
National Symphony Orchestra: The Best of Wagner’s Ring
A quartet of internationally renowned Wolf Trap Opera alumni join with the NSO to perform memorable and exhilarating moments from Wagner’s epic “Ring Cycle.” Tickets are $25 to $60.
Wolf Trap
Sun., July 29, 8 p.m.
Yanni
A musical phenomenon, Yanni is a rare artist whose music transcends geographical borders and touches people of all races and nations. Tickets are $35 to $85.
Wolf Trap
Tue., July 31, 10:30 a.m.
Semilla Cultural Bomba! Afro-Puerto Rican Music and Dance
Join Semilla Cultural for traditional Bomba and Plena music, and learn the history that shaped Puerto Rico’s rich musical culture. Tickets are $8; all ages welcome.
Wolf Trap
THEATER
Through July 7
Other Life Forms
Roommates Ben and Jeff couldn’t be more different. Ben is a struggling journalist who can’t get anything to go his way. Jeff is a successful researcher who glides through life with little resistance. At Jeff’s insistence, they both give online dating a try. Ben meets Molly and the results are volatile, while Jeff meets Leslie and they make a connection. Over the course of the evening, a truth is revealed that sets in motion a series of hysterical and illuminating events. Tickets are $45.
Andrew Keegan Theatre
Through July 8
Lerner & Loewe’s Camelot
Amid mystical forests and grand castles, “Camelot” tells a strikingly familiar tale of a leader’s integrity, courage and empathy — a chronicle of the struggle for civilization and goodness in a world accustomed to violence and hate. Please call for ticket information.
Shakespeare Theatre Company
July 11 to Aug. 12
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
A wizard stuck in a land far away from home; a Scarecrow tied to a pole; a Tinman rusted in a forest; and a Lion afraid of his own shadow. Join Synetic Theater’s brand new adaptation of one of the most important cultural texts of the 20th century, L. Frank Baum’s American masterpiece “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.” Tickets start at $35.
Synetic Theater
July 13 to Aug. 19
Dave
From a Tony and Pulitzer Prize Award-winning creative team and adapted from the Oscar-nominated film, “Dave” tells the story of high school teacher (and presidential lookalike) Dave Kovic, who is hired by the Secret Service as a stand-in for the commander-in-chief. Tickets are $40 to $90.
Arena Stage
July 15 to 21
Gounod: Roméo et Juliette
Two young lovers decide to take fate into their own hands after feuding families, bad timing and fatal mistakes tear them apart. Gounod’s music soars in this French Romantic twist on Shakespeare’s most celebrated love story. Tickets are $36 to $92.
Wolf Trap
Through July 22
Ain’t Too Proud – The Life and Times of The Temptations
Don’t miss this electrifying new musical about “the greatest R&B group of all time.” With their signature dance moves and harmonies, they rose to the top of the charts, and their moving story still resonates five decades later. Tickets are $59 to $159.
Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater
July 31 to Aug. 26
The Color Purple
With a soul-raising score of jazz, gospel, ragtime, and blues, this joyous American classic has conquered Broadway in an all-new “ravishingly reconceived production that is a glory to behold” (The New York Times). Tickets are $69 to $149.
Kennedy Center Eisenhower Theater
