Exhibits and Events – May 2018

Compiled  by Bruce Schaefer

 

The following lists a number of photography-related exhibits and events occurring now, or soon, in the extended Washington D.C. area.   These include gallery exhibits, museum exhibits, college exhibits, special events, and sometimes exhibits or events to photograph yourself!  

SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM

Diane Arbus: A box of ten photographs, Apr 6, 2018 – Jan 21, 2019  

May 9, 2018, 5:30 p.m. – Diane Arbus Gallery Talk

In late 1969, Diane Arbus began to work on a portfolio. At the time of her death in 1971, she had completed the printing for eight known sets of A box of ten photographs, of a planned edition of fifty, only four of which she sold during her lifetime. 

This exhibition traces the history of A box of ten photographs between 1969 and 1973, using the set that Arbus assembled for Feitler, which was acquired by SAAM in 1986. The story is a crucial one because it was the portfolio that established the foundation for Arbus’s posthumous career, ushering in photography’s acceptance to the realm of “serious” art. 

 

U.S. BOTANIC GARDEN

Botanical Art Worldwide: America’s Flora – May 4 – October 15, 2018
Opening in May of 2018, the American Society of Botanical Artists (ASBA) in collaboration with the United States Botanic Garden will present a juried exhibition of artworks of native plants, staged in the U.S. Botanic Garden’s gallery space. The exhibition will include approximately 45 original contemporary botanical artworks, juried from a field of over 200 entries. Slated to remain on view at the U.S. Botanic Garden through October 2018, the exhibition will then travel through the end of 2019.
botanical-art-worldwide-americas-flora

 

MCKEE-BESHERS WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AREA

mckeebeshers

Dennis Freeman

Every year, around mid- to late-July, thousand of sunflowers bloom at McKee-Beshers Wildlife Management Area near Poolesville, MD.  It is flower photography heaven!  Timing is everything, so keep track of the blooming.  Here are billions of photos.   

Facebook is one source:  facebook.com/pages/McKee-Beshers-Wildlife-Management-Area

PotomacRiver.org is another: potomacriver.org/news/ 

There are a number of fields, accessed from six different parking locations: Parking Area One,  is the first one you come upon.  It is shown on the top right of this map, near the red arrow.  The other lots are also on this map. If the first lot is full, try the other lots.

 

NEWSEUM

Current Exhibits

“Pictures of the Year: 75 Years of the World’s Best Photography” is a groundbreaking photography show featuring seven decades of award-winning images from the archives of Pictures of the Year International (POYi), one of the world’s oldest and most prestigious photojournalism competitions. On display thru January 20, 2019.

 

MULTIPLE EXPOSURES GALLERY (TORPEDO FACTORY, ALEXANDRIA, VA)

 

NATIONAL MUSEUM OF AFRICAN AMERICAN HISTORY AND CULTURE
15th St. and Constitution Ave., NW – Washington, DC

Everyday Beauty uses the lenses of history, culture, and community to reflect themes of self-representation, social responsibility, and resilience. African Americans have long recognized the power of images and used them to document moments—from the monumental to everyday. Photography and film has also been used to challenge negative perceptions, demonstrate the strength of the human spirit, and promote social reform. This exhibition examines African American history and culture by presenting 100 images spanning 100 years. These selected works highlight the beauty of everyday occasions and feature photography and films by known and lesser-known artists. Permanent display.
everyday-beauty

More Than a Picture: Selections from the Photography Collection: More than 150 photographs and related objects The photography showcases a striking visual account of key historical events, cultural touchstones and private and communal moments to illuminate African American life. From the eras of slavery and Jim Crow to Black Lives Matter, More Than a Picture presents a range of American experiences that look beyond the surface to see the photographs’ significance to history and cultural meaning. May 5, 2017 – TBA
more-than-a-picture

 

NATIONAL AIR AND SPACE MUSEUM

The Barmecide Feast:  Immerse yourself in a fully realized, full-scale reflection of the iconic, neo-classical hotel room from the penultimate scene of Stanley Kubrick’s and Arthur C. Clarke’s landmark film, 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Open now through May 28.

Access (timed) to the installation is free, but reservations are recommended.

 

RENWICK GALLERY
1661 Pennsylvania Avenue, NW – Washington, DC

renwick-gallery/no-spectators-the-art-of-burning-man

FoldHaus, Shrumen Lumen, 2016. Photo by Rene Smith.

No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man – March 30, 2018 – January 21, 2019
The exhibition takes over the entire Renwick Gallery building, bringing alive the maker culture of Burning Man through artworks, room-sized installations, jewelry, costumes, and ephemera that will transport visitors to the gathering’s famed desert location, the “playa.” Immersive works by individual artists and collectives highlight the ingenuity and creative spirit of this cultural movement. Photographs and archival documents drawn from the Burning Man Archives at the Nevada Museum of Art and their exhibition City of Dust: The Evolution of Burning Man will trace Burning Man’s growth and its bohemian, counterculture roots.  americanart.si.edu/exhibitions/burning-man

 

SMITHSONIAN NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY
8th and F Streets NW – Washington, DC 20001

Antebellum Portraits by Mathew Brady–
antebellum-portraits-mathew-brady
Mathew Brady may be best known today for his Civil War–era photographs, but he established his reputation as an internationally acclaimed portrait photographer more than a decade before the war. This Daguerreian Gallery exhibition will trace the trajectory of Brady’s early career through portrait daguerreotypes, ambrotypes and salted-paper prints in the National Portrait Gallery’s collection. Features Mathew Brady’s portraits of twenty celebrities—from showman P.T. Barnum and inventor Samuel Morse to musician Teresa Carreño and clergyman Henry Ward Beecher. Contemporary engravings, as well as several advertising broadsides Brady used to market his portrait enterprise, will also be included. Thru Sun, June 3

 

The following museums are usually a good source of photography exhibits.  These can be good locations for your own photographs too:

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC

The National Geographic frequently has events and exhibitions related to photography.  Check these out here: Events Exhibitions

Visit Nat Geo’s headquarters in DC and leave inspired after hearing from some of the world’s best photographers!  Special offer for FotoDC! Save 50% off tickets to any one these events! Use code FotoDCS18 to redeem.  Good through June 6.

 

THE NATIONAL GALLERY OF ART

Check out the current and upcoming exhibitions here:

For more than forty years, Sally Mann has made experimental, elegiac, and hauntingly beautiful photographs that span a broad body of work including figure studies, still lifes, and landscapes. Some 115 photographs offer both a sweeping overview of Mann’s artistic achievement and a focused exploration on the continuing influence of the South on her work.

HIRSHHORN

Find current and upcoming exhibitions for the Hirshhorn:

  • current-exhibitions
  • Modern Takes on 80s Artwork Hit Washington D.C. Streets In recognition of the innovative new collaborations that abound in Washington’s art community, the Hirshhorn selected three local artists—No Kings Collective, NoMüNoMü, and SUPERWAXX—to create posters inspired by the 1980s for public display in the city’s nearby southwest waterfront neighborhood. The museum’s staging of the posters in the public domain is intended to hark back to the decade’s subversive, democratized art scene. Street art and graffiti, for example, became hugely popular in the 1980s, especially among New York City artists who sought to make artwork accessible outside of the confining walls of museums. 
  • upcoming-exhibitions

WASHINGTON POST

Here is a link to the online Washington Post’s lists of D.C., Maryland, and Virginia photography-related exhibits and museums.  I have found that the various photography-related exhibits appear in different parts of the online paper, making a simple search or link unreliable. You can search within