Guide to The Arts in DC: Jan 2018

Art to See in DC

Arts Not To Miss Jan 2018

DC Has a LOT of great art, so much that it would make the calendar impossible to see so each month we will bring you a guide of the shows not to miss!! Click the title line to find tickets!!

 

Marlene Dietrich: Dressed for the Image
Who: Marlene Dietrich
What: Visit the latest exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery, Marlene Dietrich: Dressed for the Image. The new feature showcases the iconic actress and gender-bending role model and celebrates her noteworthy, long career. Please call Exhibitions for More info at (202) 633-8280
Where: National Portrait Gallery 8th St NW & F St NW, Washington, DC 20001
When: June 16,2017 – April 15,2018
Tickets: Get Tickets Here

 

One Life: Sylvia Plath
Who: Sylvia Plath
What: Visit the National Portrait Gallery for an exhibition exploring the personal life and work of poet and writer, Sylvia Plath. Visitors will get a first hand glance at Plath’s personal letters, artwork, and family photographs, alongside a timeline exploring her life as she came of age as an author in the 1950s.
Where: 8th and F St NW, Washington, DC, United States
When: June 30th, 2017 – May 20th, 2018
Tickets: Get Tickets Here

 

Ilya and Emilia Kabakov: The Utopian Projects
Who: Ilya and Emilia Kabakov
What: At first glance, the art of Ilya and Emilia Kabakov is unabashedly joyful, filled with bright colors and sunny scenes. Their optimism is contagious but it also comments on something much darker: the oppression both of the artists encountered while growing up in the Soviet Union. The couple now live and work on Long Island and are the subject of two major exhibitions this fall. London’s Tate Modern hosts their first major show in the U.K. starting in October, spanning the length of their careers, while the Hirshhorn’s exhibit focuses on models for work made after 1985. This includes original plans for “The Man Who Flew Into Space From His Apartment,” an expansive installation and tribute to the human spirit first seen in D.C. in 1990, and “The Ship of Tolerance,” an ongoing installation mounted in different bodies of water around the world with the assistance of children. As visitors explore the exhibit, they’ll begin to understand the Kabakov’s process and, perhaps, they’ll find their spirits lifted as well. The exhibition is on view daily 10 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., to March 4, at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, 7th Street and Independence Avenue SW. Free. (202) 633-4674. hirshhorn.si.edu. (Caroline Jones)
Where: Hirshhorn Museum, Independence Ave SW & 7th St SW, Washington, DC 20560, USA
When: Oct 2,2017 – March 4,2018
Tickets: Get Tickets here

 

Black Artists of Today: Reinventing Tomorrow
Who: Black Artists of Today
What: Opening: “Black Artists of Today: Reinventing Tomorrow.” Zenith Gallery celebrates African Heritage Month with this group show that includes wood sculptures, paintings, and mosaics. Featured artists include Doba Afolabi, Akili Ron Anderson, Mason Archie, Anne Bouie, William Buchanan, Carolyn Goodridge, Bernie Houston, Hubert Jackson, Chris Malone, Christine Mays, Ibou N’Diaye, Preston Sampson, and Curtis Woody.
Where: Zenith Gallery Space, 1111 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington DC 20004
When: Oct 31,2017 – Jan 6,2018

 

Posing for the Camera: Gifts from Robert B. Menschel
Who: Robert B Menschel
What: Pictures by Lewis Carroll, Edward Weston, Man Ray, Robert Frank, and Timothy H. O’Sullivan are presented in this exhibit of photographs donated by Menschel, who helped establish the museum’s photography collection in 1989.
Where: National Gallery of Art, 6th & Constitution Ave NW, Washington, DC 20565, USA
When: Nov 6,2017 – Jan 1,2018
Tickets: Get Tickets Here

 

Health of the Planet
Who: Health of the Planet
What: In the abstract, the exhibition of artworks by Steve Miller at the National Academy of Sciences—billed as a “metaphorical checkup” on the ecological health of the Amazonian rainforest—sounds like a gimmick. But while some of the pieces are needlessly complex, others turn out to be strikingly beautiful. In the former category are a series of large canvases that utilize renderings of satellite imagery and local flora and fauna to communicate the basin’s galloping deforestation and loss of biodiversity. The multiple overlays of imagery confuse rather than clarify. Simpler and more effective is Miller’s use of X-rays to depict animals (some of them still living, a stiff technical challenge). In two triptychs, Miller has assembled X-rays of artfully posed birds, turtles, and iguanas. Their ghostly images, rendered by inkjet on aluminum, seem to jump outward with an eerie shimmer. Meanwhile, in “Law of the Jungle,” Miller etched an X-ray on laminated glass, showing a sinuously curved python with a very dead mouse still being digested in its stomach. Equal parts beautiful and creepy, the work is easily Miller’s finest and the show’s least political. The exhibition is on view Mondays through Fridays 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., to Jan. 31, at the National Academy of Sciences, 2101 Constitution Ave. NW. Free. (202) 334-2415. cpnas.org. —Louis Jacobson
Where: National Academy of Sciences, 2101 Constitution Ave NW, Washington, DC 20418, USA
When: Oct 2, 2017 – Jan 31,2018
Tickets: Get Tickets Here

 

Crazy for You
Who: Ken Ludwig
What: The songs of George and Ira Gershwin are reimagined by playwright Ken Ludwig in this musical about a banker, assigned to shut down a small-town theater, who decides to revive it instead. Featuring favorite songs like “I’ve Got Rhythm,” “Nice Work If You Can Get It,” and “Someone to Watch Over Me,” this musical, arriving at Signature in time for the holidays, is directed by Matthew Gardiner.
Where: Signature Theatre, 4200 Campbell Ave, Arlington, VA 22206, USA
When: Nov 7,2017 – Jan 14,2018
Tickets: Get Tickets Here

 

 

 

Abstract Art by Black Women Artists from 1960s to Today at Women’s Museum
Who: Magnetic Fields
What: Purchase your National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA) tickets. Visit NMWA’s exhibitions and collection pages to see what is on view.Picturing Mary: Woman, Mother, Idea Picturing Mary: Woman, Mother, Idea Admission is $10 for adults, $8 for visitors 65 and over and students, and free for NMWA members and youth 18 years and younger. The first Sunday of every month is a Community Day at NMWA, with free admission to all exhibitions. You do not need to purchase a ticket if you plan to visit on a Community Day. Are you a member? Current members must enter their Membership ID below or present their current membership card at the Museum Shop in order to gain free admission to the museum. Visiting as a Group? Go to book a tour to reserve and purchase tickets. Please note the e-ticket expires six months after the date of purchase. All tickets are one-time use and nonrefundable. For questions, please call 1-800-222-7270.
Where: National Museum of Women in the Arts, New York Avenue Northwest, Washington, DC, United States
When: Oct 13,2017 – Jan 21,2018
Tickets: Get Tickets here

 

Encountering the Buddha: Art and Practice Across Asia
Who: Encountering the Buddha
What: In this interactive exhibition, visitors can explore a Tibetan shrine or Sri Lankan stupa and travel the world with monks and teachers while learning about the principles and images of Buddhism. Art from the Freer and Sackler galleries fills out the exhibit.
Where: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 1050 Independence Ave SW, Washington, DC 20560, USA
When: Nov 20,2017 – Oct 21, 2020

 

 

PARALLEL UNIVERSE
What: Retrospective exhibit for an internationally acclaimed Turkish art studio Ouchhh. A visually and aurally mesmerizing experience, the exhibit presents four independent installations, three world-travelled and one created in collaboration with ARTECHOUSE team specially for this show. rawing inspiration from science, mathematics and even astrology, these enthralling installations explore representations of nature and the reconstruction of space through new digital media. While the 3D motion mapped projections and light installations in the side galleries immerse the viewer in a psychedelic, eye-of-the-storm experience of whirling fractals and light beams, the mapping of circular, geometric and continuous transformations plays out to the tune of an eerily pulsating soundtrack in the main gallery space.The new Augmented Reality experiences and cocktails from ARTECHOUSE’s team will complement the exhibit on view as they explore what can be seen beyond the perceptivity of the human mind.
Where: ARTECHOUSE, 1238 Maryland Ave SW, Washington, DC 20024, USA
When: Jan 18, 2018 – March 4th, 2018
Genre: Museum Exhibit

 

Ann Hamilton, at hand, 2001
What: Ann Hamilton creates site-specific, multimedia installations that are simultaneously immersive and ephemeral. Combining the sounds of mechanization with the motorized release of sheets of translucent white paper, which gently descend from the ceiling, at hand speaks to the decline of manual labor in the wake of technological innovation. Though the paper accrues on the gallery floor in a sculptural “drift,” the effect of the installation remains one of loss and absence; the paper is blank, the movement is random, and the hand of the artist remains invisible.For the current installation, the artist decided to present the poem written on the wall rather than read aloud on an audio track.Hamilton provided some thoughts for your visit: Can you hear the silence of the paper falling through air? The gestures and actions of a hand that might hold and the mouth that might speak from the rimmed space of the page form a litany of possibility. Your presence becomes part of the project—you are free to touch the paper and explore the space but please observe and respect it’s quiet and slow rhythms. Try to listen to the silence of the paper falling through the air.Currently on view in the exhibition What Absence Is Made Of, Hamilton’s installation joins more than 60 works that explore how artists use absence as a means of expression. In their search to represent what is not, they engage in a long tradition of conveying transcendental ideas through art—a tradition which includes art forms as disparate as religious icons and abstract painting.
Where: Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, 7th St Washington Dc
When: Sun, Jan 28th – Sun, Feb 18th,2018
Genre: Museum Exhibit

 

Parallax Gap at Renwick Gallery
What: Parallax Gap transforms the Renwick Gallery’s Bettie Rubenstein Grand Salon into a visual puzzle. This immersive, site-specific installation explores examples of interplay between craft and architecture through a ceiling-suspended structure running the length of the Renwick’s iconic gallery.
Where: Pennsylvania Avenue at 17th Street NW Washington, DC
When: July 1,2017 – Feb 11,2018
Genre: Museum Exhibit

 

 

 

WILD at National Geographic
What: See extraordinary images of wildlife and wild places through the eyes of legendary photographer and former National Geographic magazine Editor at Large for Photography MICHAEL “NICK” NICHOLS in this special exhibition. Visitors will travel to the remotest reaches of the globe through Nick’s stunning, evocative, and technically innovative photos of our natural world. Exhibition organized by the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Where: National Geographic Museum, 1145 17th St NW, Washington, DC 20036, USA
When: Oct 12,2017 – Jan 15th,2018
Genre: Museum Exhibits

 

 

 

Mark Bradford’s “Picket’s Charge”
What: Mark Bradford’s installation is a 45-foot long installation of modern art reimagining the 19th-century cyclorama at the Gettysburg Battlefield. Bradford’s piece raises questions about our history and race.
Where: Hirshhorn Museum, Independence Ave SW & 7th St SW, Washington, DC 20560, USA
When: Nov 8,2017 – Nov 12,2018
Genre: Museum Exhibits

 

 

Subodh Gupta
What: The acclaimed Indian artist installs Terminal, his large piece made from traditional household objects like knobs and stainless steel, in the newly renovated museum
Where: Arthur M. Sackler Gallery, 1050 Independence Ave SW, Washington, DC 20560, USA
When: Dec 11,2017 – Jun 24,2018
Genre: Museum Exhibits

 

 

Visionary: Viewpoints on Africa’s
What: See the largest presentation of the museum’s permanent collection to date in this new exhibit that draws thematic connections across time, place, and medium. Featuring more than 300 objects, the show highlights a broad range of art from across the African diaspora.
Where: Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, 950 Independence Ave SW, Washington, DC 20560, USA
When: Jan 1,2018 – Ongoing
Genre: Museum Exhibits

 

Your Community, Your Story: Celebrating Five Decades of the Anacostia Community Museum, 1967-2017
What: Learn about the Anacostia Community Museum’s founding, its evolution as a neighborhood museum, and the community that has shaped and sustained it in this exhibit that celebrates its 50th anniversary.
Where: Anacostia Community Museum, 1901 Fort Pl SE, Washington, DC 20020, USA
When: Jan 8,2018 – Jan 6, 2019
Genre: Museum Exhibits

 

Tomb of Christ: The Church of the Holy Sepulchre Experience
What: Visitors can virtually venture inside the church where Christ is buried in this exhibition that chronicles its history and its recent restoration. Through thermal imaging, sonar, and laser scanning, preservationists have learned about the building constructed in the 4th century and will share their discoveries in an upcoming issue of the magazine
Where: National Geographic Museum, 1145 17th St NW, Washington, DC 20036, USA
When: Jan 8,2018 – Aug 15,2018
Genre: Museum Exhibits

Making Room: Housing for a Changing America
What: This new exhibition relies on data to explain the ways American housing habits have changed over time. Visitors to the exhibit learn about different ways spaces can be used and can even step into modular unit that can be adapted for a variety of purposes.
Where: National Building Museum, 401 F St NW, Washington, DC 20001, USA
When: Jan 26,2018 – Sep 16,2018
Genre: Museum Exhibits