The U.S. capital this winter is brimming with cultural treasures perfect for a one-day or three-day itinerary, depending on how fast you want to move. While the charming festive atmosphere and the Christmas market outside the Smithsonian American Art Museum add to the allure, the true draw for art enthusiasts lies in the exceptional exhibitions across D.C.’s major institutions. Observer took a day trip to uncover the best of what D.C. has to offer this holiday season and curated an itinerary of the must-see art exhibitions you won’t want to miss, now and into 2025.
Start your visit at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, celebrated not only for their impressive collections but also for the beauty of the Old Patent Office Building, a stunning historic structure blending classical, Beaux-Arts and modernist architectural styles.
On the first floor, visitors are greeted by artist and filmmaker Isaac Julien’s Lessons of the Hour (2019), a masterful multi-screen installation recently acquired jointly by the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery and Smithsonian American Art Museum. This audiovisual art piece intricately weaves text, sound and images to explore the life of 19th-century activist, writer, orator and philosopher Frederick Douglass (1818-1895). Through rigorous research, fictional reenactment and poetic cinematic techniques, Julien vividly brings Douglass’ enduring messages of justice, abolition and freedom to life.
Continuing through the first floor of the National Portrait Gallery, visitors encounter a deliberate effort to rebalance the narrative of its collection by giving greater prominence to Native American figures. Among the highlights is the work of George Catlin, an artist who undertook five expeditions to the nation’s frontiers to document what he perceived as the vanishing cultures of Native American tribes.
Catlin’s art, rooted in a political commitment, sought to preserve and celebrate Native American cultures rather than let them fade into obscurity. Immersing himself within the tribes, he painted them from an insider’s perspective, capturing their dignity and individuality. His goal was to challenge European American misconceptions, portraying Indigenous Americans not as savages but as complex, multifaceted human beings. The gallery features his series of portraits of leaders from the Sioux, Assiniboine and Seminoles, each depicted with a distinct personality, underscoring their humanity and leadership.
Continuing through the galleries, visitors encounter the temporary exhibition “Always to Return,” a compelling tribute to legendary Cuban artist Felix Gonzalez-Torres. The exhibition delves into Gonzalez-Torres’s revolutionary approach to portraiture, exploring identity’s construction and its deep entanglement with cultural and historical legacies. By juxtaposing his conceptual, often ephemeral installations with the museum’s historical works, the show sparks captivating dialogues that challenge traditional notions of portraiture and identity.
The exhibition defies the idea of a ‘general audience,’ instead emphasizing Gonzalez-Torres’s vision of hyper-democratic art that invites participation. During our visit, a school group freely interacted with his iconic stacks of imprinted paper, embodying the artist’s concept of relational art through playful appropriation. “There is no general public. We, real individuals, encounter art and do our best to be true to American ideals on which we often disagree,” writes Josh T Franco, head of collecting at the Archives of American Art, in the exhibition’s introduction. Franco concludes with the hope that visitors leave feeling connected to everything. The show’s thoughtful curation elicits an immediate response from visitors, even if only out of curiosity.
One striking pairing features a late-life photograph of poet Walt Whitman (1819-1892) alongside Gonzalez-Torres’s candy work, Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A.), reuniting the two as they were shown in the National Portrait Gallery’s “Hide/Seek: Difference and Desire in American Portraiture” (2010-2011). This juxtaposition highlights the shared strategies of Whitman as a queer ancestor and Gonzalez-Torres as a contemporary voice. Another poignant work, Untitled (Portrait of Dad), created in 1991 following the artist’s father’s death, reveals layered connections between words like patron, patriot, patria and “pater,” or father.
Marking the most extensive presentation of Gonzalez-Torres’s work in Washington, D.C., in over three decades, the show extends beyond the gallery. His iconic light string installation Untitled (America) (1994) is displayed across three prominent locations: the museum’s façade, the first floor of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library and along 8th Street NW near the museum, in partnership with the Downtown DC BID.
Nearby on the same floor, the National Portrait Gallery presents the exhibition “Brilliant Exiles: American Women in Paris, 1900-1939,” a celebration of talented and trailblazing American women who carved out their legacies in early twentieth-century Paris. The galleries feature iconic works such as the portrait of Gertrude Stein, alongside enchanting photographs of Peggy Guggenheim and captivating illustrations documenting Josephine Baker’s groundbreaking and seductive performances.
The exhibition offers an insightful exploration of these extraordinary women who defied societal constraints to express their talents with remarkable freedom. It prompts thought-provoking questions about how liberties and tolerances have evolved over time, particularly in light of today’s global conservative shifts. By spotlighting the audacity and creativity of these women, the exhibition asks whether the freedoms they sought have truly materialized, particularly in the U.S., or if theirs remains a work in progress in contemporary society.
On the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s side, “The Shape of Power: Race and American Sculpture” offers a masterfully curated examination of how the concept of race in the United States has been shaped through the evolution of sculpture. The exhibition explores the tension between outdated Western classical representation and revolutionary new approaches that experiment with materials to reflect changing depictions of bodies and identities. Featuring 82 works spanning 1792-2023, it juxtaposes Sanford Biggers’s provocative Chimera series—merging African masks with Classical busts—with neoclassical sculptures, Pepón Osorio’s wild assemblages, and Nicholas Galanin’s unsettling staging of objectified Indigenous totems embedded in the wall as mere “decorations.”
Continuing through the galleries and into the museum’s notable contemporary art collection, visitors encounter The Island (2017), a video work by Vietnamese artist Tuan Andrew Nguyen, displayed for the first time alongside Bidong Spirit I, a sculpted headdress made for the film. The piece imagines a fictional future of survival and resilience, collapsing temporal boundaries to link this narrative with the real historical events on Pulau Bidong, a Malaysian island that became a refuge for Vietnamese boat people after the fall of South Vietnam in 1975. With an omnipresent narrator guiding the story, Nguyen transforms the island’s past into an oneiric memorial exploration, questioning whether its lessons can provide hope for the future.
Downstairs, the Smithsonian features “Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi and Miné Okubo,” an intimate exhibition spotlighting three pioneering Japanese American artists of the mid-20th century: Miki Hayakawa (1899-1953), Hisako Hibi (1907-1991) and Miné Okubo (1912-2001). Long excluded from narratives of American modernism, the show retraces their artistic journeys before, during and after World War II, offering a nuanced exploration of how they navigated personal and collective histories while continuing to experiment with new artistic expressions. Among the highlights are paintings depicting the concentration camps where Japanese Americans were confined after Pearl Harbor, serving as vital historical documents of a chapter that remains underrepresented in institutional contexts.
Expanding on the Smithsonian’s effort to challenge traditional narratives of 20th-century American art, “Subversive, Skilled, Sublime: Fiber Art by Women” at the Renwick Gallery presents works by women artists who redefined textile art. Using everyday materials like cotton, felt, and wool, these artists subverted traditional associations with weaving and craft to create deeply personal, innovative, and expressive works that defy conventional boundaries of art and design.
Just a 15-minute walk away, the Hirshhorn Museum offers a fresh take on its collection with exciting exhibitions and innovative presentations. On the first floor, “Revolutions: Art from the Hirshhorn Collection, 1860-1960” charts a century of artistic innovation and stylistic revolutions. Featuring 208 works by 117 artists from the museum’s permanent collection alongside nineteen contemporary artists, the exhibition highlights how revolutionary ideas born during a century of societal, political, and aesthetic upheaval remain profoundly relevant today.
The show opens with an inspired dialogue between Amoako Boafo’s portrait and John Singer Sargent, tracing the evolution of modern portraiture through both painting and sculpture. Elsewhere, Nathaniel Mary Quinn’s fragmented portraits converse with Picasso’s Portrait of Marie-Thérèse, while Loie Hollowell’s sensual abstractions resonate with Georgia O’Keeffe’s iconic explorations of organic forms. Rashid Johnson’s Anxious Men series is juxtaposed with the raw gestural intensity of Arshile Gorky, Jackson Pollock and the psychological unease of Francis Bacon’s work. The exhibition reaches a crescendo in its exploration of organic abstraction, where Flora Yukhnovich’s lush depictions of nature and feminine forms are paired with the lyrical expanses of Joan Mitchell, Helen Frankenthaler and Lee Krasner, creating a powerful dialogue between past and present visions of abstraction.
On the same floor, Jessica Diamond’s “Wheel of Life” takes over the iconic circular architecture of the Hirshhorn with a series of witty and reflective writing murals, marking the artist’s largest installation to date. Blending ruminations on daily life with moments of profound epiphany, the work invites visitors to consider deeper connections with a broader cosmic order within the museum’s unique spatial dynamics.
Also on view is “OSGEMEOS: Endless Story?,” the first career survey of the Brazilian twin brothers, following their acclaimed solo show at Lehmann Maupin in New York. This vibrant exhibition brings their psychedelic universe to life with over 1,000 paintings, photographs and archival materials, showcasing the depth of their boundless imagination and spiritual vision. Tracing their journey from compulsive childhood doodling to pioneering street art, the show culminates in their most recent multisensory and multimedia works. The exhibition creates an immersive narrative that transports viewers to alternative worlds while staying rooted in the rhythms and soul of Brazilian culture, especially their enduring love for music.
Expanding their dreamy and epiphanic universe, OSGEMEOS have embraced fully three-dimensional forms, exemplified by altarlike constructions at either end of the gallery. These pieces feature figures in streetwear, posed like deities or extraterrestrials, blending mystical and sacred geometry with Afrofuturist hip-hop aesthetics. The duo invites viewers to explore a multicultural, fluid approach to contemporary spirituality. The exhibition concludes with a series of collaborations between OSGEMEOS and contemporary artists like JR, Banksy and José Parlá, underscoring their immersion and pivotal influence within the global street art scene.
Banksy also appears at the Hirshhorn in an unprecedented dialogue with Jean-Michel Basquiat in the exhibition “Basquiat × Banksy.” This show juxtaposes significant paintings by both artists, exploring their distinct yet interconnected responses to street culture and society. Completing the narrative are twenty smaller works on paper and wood by Basquiat, created between 1979 and 1985 from the collection of Larry Warsh, demonstrating Basquiat’s deep engagement with art history. The exhibition also features the film Downtown 81, further reinforcing the ties between these two trailblazing geniuses of the streets.
In 2022, the Miami mega-collectors Don and Mera Rubell unveiled their second venue in D.C., transforming the former Randall Junior High School—a historically Black public school in Southwest D.C.—into a jaw-dropping museum showcasing their unmatched and ever-expanding collection of more than 7,700 contemporary artworks. The couple then set out to host art exhibitions that not only intersected with the day’s most pressing issues but also actively contributed to the conversations shaping the national stage.
The annual “American Vignettes: Symbols, Society, and Satire” exhibition, on view through the fall of 2025, exemplifies this ambitious vision. Nearly 100 artworks—ranging from pieces by the most established artists of our time to works by emerging talents whose careers have often been buoyed by the couple’s support—fill the galleries. Together, they probe today’s shifting notions of “America.” The exhibition is elegantly divided into four thematic sections: “Symbols,” “Society,” and “Satire,” each dissecting the interplay between these facets of American life and the nation’s ever-present political and propaganda machinery.
Artists like Sterling Ruby, Vaughn Spann and Natalie Ball take aim at the myths and illusions surrounding the American flag, unraveling its symbolism with sharp, incisive works. Meanwhile, Glenn Ligon and David Hammons confront the racial omissions that have systematically excluded entire populations from the nation’s narrative and history. On the next floor, the contradictions of the American family take center stage in Karon Davis’s poignant pieces, while artists like Danie Cansino, Njideka Akunyili Crosby and Kerry James Marshall expand this dialogue to encompass their communities and the daily battles they endure.
The critique sharpens on the final floor, where satire cuts even deeper into the fabric of American identity. Robert Colescott’s boldly satirical works dissect race, class, gender and politics with a dark humor he described as a weapon. “It’s satire. It’s the satire that kills the serpent, you know,” he once said when asked why he gravitated toward such fraught territory. The chorus of criticism grows louder with contributions from Kara Walker, Josh Kline, William Pope.L and Richard Prince, whose works collectively challenge today’s America to reckon with its past while interrogating its present awareness—or lack thereof. Together, these artists form a blistering and deeply necessary critique of a nation still wrestling with its contradictions.
Balancing intimate, personal narratives with broader collective concerns—and oscillating between satire, provocation, and resilience—the exhibition masterfully captures the complexity of the American experience. Through a rich, multilayered chorus of diverse voices, it explores the collision of individual and shared realities amidst the unraveling of the American dream. Yet, within this chaos lies the glimmer of possibility: the birth of a new America that embraces its multicultural diversity as its true strength and identity.
