Current Exhibitions

My Visit

Recent Acquisitions, 2023

Recent Acquisitions showcases 21 additions to the National Portrait Gallery’s collection with an exclusive focus on portraits representing women or made by women.

November 3, 2023 – October 19, 2025

Portrait Gallery
My Visit

Galleries for Modern and Contemporary Art

The museum's permanent collection freshly examines the explosion of possibility in American art between the 1940s and today.

September 22, 2023 – Ongoing

American Art Museum
My Visit

Connecting Stories at the National Museum of Asian Art

Let Connecting Stories inspire you to explore our collections further and to develop your own connection to the stories at the museum.

April 29, 2023 – Ongoing

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery
My Visit

Added to My Visit Removed from My Visit

The Art of Knowing in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas Added

~~The Art of Knowing in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas~~ Removed

View My Visit

The Art of Knowing in South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Himalayas

The Art of Knowing brings together highlights from our collections to explore religious and practical knowledge across time, space, and cultures

March 25, 2023 – Ongoing

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery
My Visit

Abraham Lincoln by W.F.K. Travers

The life size portrait of Abraham Lincoln by W.F.K. Travers joins the America's Presidents exhibition.

February 10, 2023 – December 31, 2027

Portrait Gallery
My Visit

A Collector's Eye: Freer in Egypt

Freer acquired a range of works, including the renowned Washington Codex—one of the oldest Bibles in the world—a digital copy of which will be on view along with an exceptional group of New Kingdom Egyptian glass vessels, a Byzantine jewelry set, amulets, and hundreds of beads, many of which will be seen in this exhibition for the first time.

January 28, 2023 – Ongoing

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery
My Visit

Freer's Global Network: Artists, Collectors, and Dealers

This exhibition looks closely at the interconnected web of artists, dealers, and collectors who helped shape the Freer Gallery of Art’s collection amid the shifting political and economic environment of the early twentieth century.

October 15, 2022 – Ongoing

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery
My Visit

The Peacock Room Comes to America

The Peacock Room invites visitors into its captivating environment to to seek out unexpected resonances across cultures and eras.

September 3, 2022 – Indefinitely

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery
My Visit

Ancient Yemen: Incense, Art, and Trade

The fine alabaster statues and metalworks display the masterful skills of artists from ancient Yemen, who blended local ideas and Greek and Roman inspirations into new creations, underscoring the region’s remarkable artistic and cultural cosmopolitanism.

September 3, 2022 – Ongoing

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery
My Visit

The Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room

The Tibetan Buddhist Shrine Room includes more than two hundred bronzes, paintings, silk hangings, and carpets that were created in Tibet, China, and Mongolia between the thirteenth and early twentieth centuries.

March 5, 2022 – Ongoing

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery
My Visit

Prehistoric Spirals: Earthenware from Thailand

Red painted spirals swirl in distinct patterns across the surfaces of these vessels, testifying to the sophisticated material and aesthetic cultures of northeastern Thailand more than two thousand years ago.

December 18, 2021 – Ongoing

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery
My Visit

Artist to Artist

Paired artworks, each representing two figures whose trajectories intersected at a creatively crucial moment.

October 1, 2021 – August 2, 2026

American Art Museum
My Visit

Laurie Anderson: Four Talks

Laurie Anderson has painted directly on the walls of the Hirshhorn in a stream-of-consciousness manner without preparatory sketches.

September 24, 2021 – Ongoing

Hirshhorn Museum
My Visit

Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience.

This exhibition explores how art depicts Black resistance, resilience, and protest.

September 10, 2021 – Ongoing

African American History and Culture Museum
My Visit

Art in Industry

Art in Industry looks back at a time when Americans embraced artistic skills as a way to build a consumer-oriented industrial economy.

March 22, 2018 – TBA

American History Museum
My Visit

Former President Barack Obama by Artist Kehinde Wiley

The official portrait of the 44th President, Barack Obama, from artist Kehinde Wiley is on display.

February 13, 2018 – February 20, 2028

Portrait Gallery
My Visit

Mark Bradford: Pickett's Charge

The exhibtion forms a monumental circular “cyclorama” that transforms historic Gettysburg imagery into a series of eight powerful, abstract paintings.

November 8, 2017 – Ongoing

Hirshhorn Museum
My Visit

Visionary: Viewpoints on Africa's Arts

Visionary offers broad thematic connections between works from across the spectrum of times, places, and media represented in the museum’s holdings.

November 4, 2017 – Permanent

African Art Museum
My Visit

Engaging the Senses: Arts of the Islamic World

Every region, province, and even city developed its own artistic language with rich sensory resonances, many of which are explored in these galleries.

October 14, 2017 – Indefinitely

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery
My Visit

Feast Your Eyes: A Taste for Luxury in Ancient Iran

View highly sophisticated ancient Iranian metalwork ranging from deep bowls to elaborate drinking vessels to objects in gold and silver.

October 14, 2017 – Permanent

Asian Art Museum Sackler Gallery
My Visit

Body Image: Arts of the Indian Subcontinent

This exhibition explores concepts and aesthetics of the body. The theme of the body provides a portal for appreciating how India’s extraordinary culture is woven from distinctive but interrelated traditions.

October 14, 2017 – Indefinitely

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery
My Visit

Added to My Visit Removed from My Visit

Art and Industry: China's Ancient Houma Foundry: Chinese Bronzes Added

~~Art and Industry: China's Ancient Houma Foundry: Chinese Bronzes~~ Removed

View My Visit

Art and Industry: China's Ancient Houma Foundry: Chinese Bronzes

The largest bronze foundry complex from antiquity was excavated at Houma in northern China in the mid-twentieth century. At the two-acre site, archaeologists discovered evidence of extremely sophisticated manufacturing techniques.

October 14, 2017 – Indefinitely

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery
My Visit

Center of the World: China and the Silk Road

This wealthy, worldly hub offered a ready market for exotic imports that local artisans translated into a Chinese style.

October 14, 2017 – Indefinitely

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery
My Visit

Promise of Paradise: Ancient Chinese Buddhist Sculpture

The buddhas, bodhisattvas, and disciples in this exhibition were made to inspire and guide believers on their spiritual path. Their beauty imparted the promise of paradise.

October 14, 2017 – Indefinitely

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery
My Visit

Setting the Bar: Arts of the Song Dynasty

Elegance and refinement in form, line, and color characterize the visual arts of China during the Song dynasty. As new technology enhanced ceramic production and the number of kilns rose, fresh approaches to decoration developed.

October 14, 2017 – Indefinitely

Asian Art Museum Freer Gallery

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