Past Exhibitions | Smithsonian Institution

Infinite Place: The Ceramic Art of Wayne Higby

See ceramics by Higby, one of the most innovative second-generation artists coming out of the post-World War II American ceramic studio movement.

October 17, 2013 – December 8, 2013

Renwick Gallery

Permanent Collection

Visit the permanent collection of the Renwick Gallery, featuring contemporary American crafts in glass, ceramics, metal, wood, and fiber.

January 28, 1972 – December 8, 2013

Renwick Gallery

Renwick Installation

View jewelry, teapots, stoneware and fiber pieces, earthenware, and wooden bowls.

August 1, 1989 – December 8, 2013

Renwick Gallery

Selections from the Renwick Collection

View 45 masterworks from the museum's permanent collection including the Albert Paley gates, Viktor Schreckengost's Apocalypse '42, Harvey Littleton's Opalescent Red Crown, and James Prestini's turned-wood bowls.

March 6, 1987 – December 8, 2013

Renwick Gallery

Grand Salon Installation: Paintings from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

On view are 70 paintings from the 1840s to the 1930s installed salon style, with paintings hung one-atop-another and side by side.

June 6, 2009 – November 11, 2013

Renwick Gallery

Octagon Room

Visit the Octagon Room, furnished with paintings from SAAM's collection, including impressionism and the Gilded Age period.

January 28, 1972 – October 1, 2013

Renwick Gallery

Thomas Day: Master Craftsman and Free Man of Color

See furniture produced by Thomas Day, a free African American who owned and operated one of North Carolina’s most successful cabinet shops before the Civil War.

April 12, 2013 – July 28, 2013

Renwick Gallery

40 under 40: Craft Futures

To celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Renwick Gallery, the museum presents works by 40 artists under the age of 40.

July 20, 2012 – February 3, 2013

Renwick Gallery

Something of Splendor: Decorative Arts from the White House

This exhibition traces the history of the decorative arts in the nation's foremost home through approximately 100 objects made by celebrated artists of the day.

October 1, 2011 – May 6, 2012

Renwick Gallery

History in the Making: Renwick Craft Invitational 2011

This exhibition features works by four extraordinary artists, who are creating works of superior craftsmanship that address the classic craft notion of function without sacrificing a contemporary aesthetic: Cliff Lee, Matthias Pliessnig, Judith Schaecter, Ubaldo Vitali.

March 25, 2011 – July 31, 2011

Renwick Gallery

The Art of Gaman: Arts and Crafts from the Japanese American Internment Camps, 1942-1946

The exhibit features more than 120 arts-and-crafts objects made by Japanese Americans in U.S. internment camps during World War II, along with photographs illustrating life in the camps.

March 5, 2010 – January 30, 2011

Renwick Gallery

A Revolution in Wood: The Bresler Collection

This exhibition features 66 objects produced in the 1980s and 1990s from the Charles and Fleur Bresler Collection to highlight contemporary wood turning's growing sophistication.

September 24, 2010 – January 30, 2011

Renwick Gallery

Staged Stories: Renwick Craft Invitational 2009

This exhibition features works by four contemporary artists.

August 7, 2009 – January 3, 2010

Renwick Gallery

The Art and Craft of Greene & Greene

On view are approximately 130 objects designed by brothers Charles and Henry Greene, including beautifully inlaid furniture crafted from exotic hardwoods, artfully executed stained glass and metalwork, as well as rare architectural drawings and photographs.

March 13, 2009 – June 7, 2009

Renwick Gallery

George Catlin's Indian Gallery

View 287 portraits, landscapes, and scenes of American Indian life by George Catlin, along with 3 paintings by Thomas Moran.

November 11, 2005 – April 26, 2009

Renwick Gallery

Lino Tagliapietra in Retrospect: A Modern Renaissance in Glass

This exhibition is the first retrospective to thoroughly examine the art of Italian master glass blower Lino Tagliapietra.

October 3, 2008 – January 11, 2009

Renwick Gallery

Ornament as Art: Avant-Garde Jewelry from the Helen Williams Drutt Collection

See 275 pieces of avant-garde jewelry by contemporary artists from around the world, along with a history of jewelry making that honors it as an important craft in the world of fine arts.

March 14, 2008 – July 6, 2008

Renwick Gallery

Going West! Quilts and Community

Consider the essential role that quilts and quilt making played in the lives of women on the frontier and the extraordinary creativity of the individuals who made them in this display of more than 50 quilts.

October 5, 2007 – January 21, 2008

Renwick Gallery

From the Ground Up: Renwick Craft Invitational 2007

See works by contemporary craft artists in this biennial exhibition.

March 9, 2007 – July 22, 2007

Renwick Gallery

Ruth Duckworth, Modernist Sculptor

View approximately 80 of Duckworth's ceramic works, including wall reliefs, freestanding sculpture, and sculptural vessels.

September 1, 2006 – January 15, 2007

Renwick Gallery

Grant Wood's Studio: Birthplace of "American Gothic"

See approximately 160 works by artist Grant Wood (1891-1942) that place his decorative arts and design work within the larger context of his better-known paintings, drawings, and prints.

March 10, 2006 – July 15, 2006

Renwick Gallery

Modernism in American Silver: 20th-Century Design

View more than 200 works to chart the stylistic design history of modern American production silver from 1925 to 2000 and to reintroduce designers working at this time.

September 16, 2005 – January 22, 2006

Renwick Gallery

Treasures from the Smithsonian American Art Museum

View several hundred of the museum's greatest treasures by such artists as Raphaelle Peale, Childe Hassam, John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, and Victor Higgins.

February 27, 2004 – October 22, 2005

Renwick Gallery

High Fiber

View 69 objects -- including many important milestones of the American fiber art movement -- by 61 artists that illustrate the diversity of contemporary crafts created from the mid-20th century to the present.

March 11, 2005 – July 10, 2005

Renwick Gallery

Right at Home: American Studio Furniture

Visit 58 one-of-a-kind, custom-designed works, both functional and whimsical, created by 47 artists mostly from 1990 to the present.

April 2, 2004 – January 23, 2005

Renwick Gallery