Art Exhibits in DC to Check Out Before They Disappear

Of the many national treasures to be found in DC, some of the most impressive are housed in the city’s world-class museums. From coveted gems in the National Mall’s Smithsonian Museum of Natural History to presidential renderings at the National Portrait Gallery, the local art scene here is unparalleled with inspirational works that can appeal to a wide range of interests.

For your next art-inspired outing, we’ve got all the details on trippy immersive exhibits, an examination into ceiling art, and the magic of the Panamanian jungle. Here are the best art exhibits to check out in DC right now.

This aptly-named exhibit calls upon the viewer to more closely examine the sometimes hard-to-see details of ceiling art, perfected over centuries in Europe. This exhibit, featuring around 30 examples of ceiling decoration from 1550 to 1800, showcases some of the most ambitious works of art ever painted dozens of feet above the viewer. Find both preliminary studies of works as well as large-scale models that mimic the intended final composition, and take a while to look up.
Dates: Until July 9
How to visit: The museum is open daily from 10 am–5 pm

This exhibit highlights five decades of Philip Guston’s career, featuring more than 150 paintings and drawings of one of the country’s most influential modern artists. From muralism to abstract expressionism to figuration, the artist’s impressive oeuvre is on display and raises critical questions around the relationship of art and key facets of our society today.
Dates: Until August 27
How to visit: The museum is open daily from 10 am–5 pm

DC’s favorite immersive art experience is a subterranean cavern that plays home to an ever-rotating series of lights and projections, and just in time for spring, Artechouse DC has debuted “PIXELBLOOM: Timeless Butterflies.” This celebration of the cherry blossom season in DC features cherry blossoms and butterflies in a kaleidoscopic exhibit with an original soundscape. Plus, the Artechouse Bar is a great place for adults to grab a beverage while watching their children below.
Dates: Until June 11
How to visit: Purchase timed-entry tickets here. Artechouse is open daily from 10 am–10 pm.

The American Art Museum has some of the longest hours of the Smithsonian museums, which gives you ample time to explore Artist to Artist, a rotating group of eight pairings of art. Each pairing represents two figures whose lives came together at an integral moment—as student and teacher, colleagues, lovers, or friends.
Dates: Until September 3
How to visit: The museum is open daily from 11:30 am–7:00 pm

This exhibit uses both still and moving images to explore India’s changing natural and built environments. Intended to encourage viewers to examine and consider the environmental and social issues affecting not only India, but the world at large, this beautiful exhibit pays homage to water and the importance it plays in our lives.
Dates: Now through June 11
How to visit: The museum is open daily (except Tuesdays) from 10 am–5:30 pm

This captivating exhibit showcases relationships through portraiture in various mediums of art such as paintings and sculpture. Explore the works of eight different artists including Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Ruth Leonela Buentello, and Jess T. Dugan.
Dates: Until January 2024
How to visit: The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday from 11:30 am–7 pm

The inaugural in-person exhibition at the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Library in downtown DC highlights more than 20 Black women activists whose local work influenced national policy from the turn of the 20th century through the civil rights and Black Power movements. This exhibit is the result of a unique partnership between the National Women’s History Museum—an online-first institution – and Martin Luther King Jr. Library.
Dates: March 30 running through September 2024
How to visit: The museum is open on Monday through Thursday from 9:30 am–9:00 pm, Friday and Saturday from 9:30 am–5:30 pm, and Sunday from 1:00 pm–5:00 pm

This new exhibit seeks to answer the question: Why do Indigenous populations commit to the military and represent a country that overran their homelands, suppressed their cultures, and confined them to reservations? Through personal stories, this new exhibit examines that question while honoring the service of Native people in the military over the past 250 years.
Dates: Until November 30
How to visit: Open Tuesday through Sunday from 10 am–5:30 pm

The first survey of photography from Chinese artists whose work emerged in the last three decades, this exhibit showcases more than 180 pieces created between 1993 and 2022. Multigenerational artists have recently embraced print and digital photography, recorded performance, and video art as part of a broader cultural shift from group-based thinking toward greater individualism. Works from artists including Cang Xin, Cao Fei, Chen Shaoxiong, Cui Xiuwen, Gu Dexin, and Hai Bo will be on display as part of this exhibit.
Dates: Until January 2024
How to visit: The museum is open daily from 10 am–5:30 pm

This exhibit pays homage to the centennial of Barro Colorado Island Research Station in Panama by immersing visitors in a Panamanian jungle. This research institute is now home to 1,200 scientists from 50 countries and helps to train young biologists (including, perhaps, some of the young visitors to this exhibit) on how to look for jaguar tracks and learn how lightning strikes may change the rainforest.
Dates: Until January 2024
How to visit: The museum is open every day from 10 am–5:30 pm

“Afrofuturism: A History of Black Futures” explores the past, present, and future of the ever-evolving concept of Afrofuturism, exploring the people, themes, and artistry that comprise its foundation. Whether it’s a platform for new forms of expression, a new way of seeing the world, or a guiding theory, this exhibit allows viewers to draw their own conclusions about what Afrofuturism means to them.
Dates: Special exhibit opening March 2023
How to visit: The museum is open on Monday from 12 pm–5:30 pm, and Tuesday through Sunday from 10 am–5:30 pm. Free timed-entry passes are required for admission

This massively underrated museum deserves a visit any time of year, but now that a delayed exhibit paying homage to America’s favorite pastime is on display, there’s no better time to visit the National Postal Museum. “Baseball: America’s Home Run” features hundreds of stamps celebrating some of baseball’s brightest stars like Jackie Robinson and Babe Ruth, as well as objects loaned by other Smithsonian museums and the National Baseball Hall of Fame, plus some memorabilia making its first public debut.
Dates: Until January 2025
How to visit: The museum is open daily from 10 am–5:30 pm

At long last, the National Air and Space Museum in DC has opened, joining its Virginia outpost (the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center) as a mecca for all things aeronautical. Check out Early Flight in the museum to explore how the 11 years from 1903 and 1914 jumpstarted aviation in the United States and beyond, with artifacts including the Lilienthal Glider, 1909 Wright Military Flyer, and the Blériot XI.
Dates: Ongoing
How to visit: The museum is open daily from 10 am–5:30 pm

This exhibit recognizes the importance of water not only to our existence, but to many of the art forms in Africa. Many origin stories in African culture revolve around water, sometimes with this key element taking the form of spirits who can be both protective and dangerous. This powerful exhibit, part of the museum’s permanent collection, highlights the potency of water and the art that it inspires.
Dates: Ongoing
How to visit: The museum is open daily (except Tuesdays) from 10 am–5:30 pm

With an entrance that is appropriately concealed by a vault door, this exhibit explores the origins of money, new monetary technologies, the political and cultural messages money conveys, numismatic art and design, and the practice of collecting money. Objects in the collection are among the rarest monetary items in the world, including a 1860 Japanese Oban coin that belonged to President Ulysses S. Grant and a $1 dollar silver certificate from 1896 featuring Martha Washington.
Dates: Ongoing
How to visit: The museum is open daily from 10 am–5:30 pm

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