Nmwa Exhibitions

View of the museum from outside showing the Neoclassical building from one corner. The building is a tan-colored stone with an arched doorway, long vertical windows, and detailed molding around the roof.
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Off the Wall with MISS CHELOVE: Part 3

Posted: July 12, 2022
Category: Nmwa Exhibitions
In the final segment of a three-part interview, artist MISS CHELOVE, whose newest work is on view on NMWA's building exterior, speaks about her process and the role of community...
A woman’s head and shoulders are partially obscured by leaves, flora, and abstract graphics. She has medium-light skin tone and black hair worn in a high bun, and she looks up and to the side in a regal pose.

Off the Wall with MISS CHELOVE: Part 2

Posted: May 18, 2022
Category: Nmwa Exhibitions
In the second of a three-part interview, artist MISS CHELOVE speaks about the influences that inform her work, including her monumental mural now on view on NMWA's building exterior.
A woman with medium skin tone with long dark hard, sunglasses, and a black shirt stands in front of the exterior of the museum and the large, colorful mural on the front.

Positive Fragmentation: Time and (Sub)text

Posted: May 11, 2022
Category: Nmwa Exhibitions
Learn about artists in Positive Fragmentation, including Julie Mehretu, Barbara Takenaga, and Ellen Gallagher, who use the act of deconstruction to explore concepts of time.
Alternating strands of white, black, and rust-colored orbs resembling beads emanate from a central point. They create a mesmerizing design and the shape of a X in the middle.

Off the Wall with MISS CHELOVE: Part 1

Posted: March 28, 2022
Category: Nmwa Exhibitions
In the first of a three-part interview, artist MISS CHELOVE speaks about the motifs and themes in her new, monumental artwork now on view on NMWA's building exterior.
A woman’s head and shoulders are partially obscured by leaves, flora, and abstract graphics. She has medium-light skin tone and black hair worn in a high bun, and she looks up and to the side in a regal pose.

Positive Fragmentation: Wangechi Mutu on the Black Body

Posted: March 23, 2022
Category: Nmwa Exhibitions
In the NMWA-organized exhibition Positive Fragmentation, Wangechi Mutu's collages of Black female hybrid figures illuminate inequities at the intersection of race and gender.
A group of twelve images in a grid shows faces that are collaged together from various separate images showing facial features, internal organs, and ambiguous elements. Most of the faces appear to show women with dark skin tone, and the other images evoke medical illustrations.Any detail must be accompanied by a grid image of all works in series

Positive Fragmentation: Built Environments

Posted: February 23, 2022
Category: Nmwa Exhibitions
Several artists in Positive Fragmentation address the built spaces we inhabit. Learn about the works of Nicola López (b. 1975), Sarah Morris (b. 1967), and Swoon (b. 1977).
Mixed media work on paper depicts a tangle of colorful forms in the center of the paper. Some forms are printed abstracted architectural structures and pipes. Other forms are made out of mylar and represent hoses and plastic fencing.

Positive Fragmentation: Making New Meaning

Posted: February 2, 2022
Category: Nmwa Exhibitions
In the NMWA-organized exhibition Positive Fragmentation, Betye Saar and Wendy Red Star construct new meanings and iconographies through assemblage of repurposed imagery.
This colorful collage/print features cut-out photographs of three pickup trucks covered in vibrant, geometric-patterned, Native American blankets atop a blue, pink, and red geometric background. A few men and women populate the vehicles, some sitting on the back bumper, others on the roof. Above and below this segment are alternating layers of green, red, and orange stripes, and red stars on a muted yellow background.

Women Artists of the DMV: Suzanne Coley

Posted: September 22, 2021
Category: Nmwa Exhibitions
Learn about the work of Suzanne Coley, a featured artist in the online exhibition DMV Color and one of few African American full-time book artists working today.
A book made from colorful print fabrics collaged and stitched together is laid flat and open to a spread that features an stencil cut image of a woman's face overlaid with an intricate flower positioned on her hair.

RECLAMATION Welcomes More Voices

Posted: June 30, 2021
Category: Nmwa Exhibitions
Starting July 5, submit your favorite summer recipes to the online exhibition RECLAMATION: Recipes, Remedies, and Rituals. Learn about the project’s genesis from curator Melani N. Douglass.
Circular glass, wood, and ceramic plates and bowls arranged on a red and white checkered tablecloth, seen from above. The plates and bowls are filled with blueberries, long carrot stems, halved avocados, an onion and onion peels, and a cups of tea and teabags on saucers.

Sonya Clark’s Resistance and Revolution

Posted: June 23, 2021
Category: Nmwa Exhibitions
Writer A’Lelia Bundles, who is the great-great-granddaughter of famed hair care entrepreneur Madam C. J. Walker, reflects on Sonya Clark: Tatter, Bristle, and Mend.
A sculpted portrait of a woman in partial profile with short hair, depicted from the chest up. The portrait is sculpted from black plastic pocket combs, whose teeth have been removed in varying quantities to create the image of the woman.