Note: Please discard previous calendars. This information is current as of December 2024. For more news about the National Museum of Women in the Arts (NMWA), visit the press room.
Upcoming Exhibitions
Uncanny
February 28–August 10, 2025
Unearthly, enigmatic, and psychologically tense, the works in Uncanny give form to women artists’ powerful expressions of existential unease. This exhibition surveys the use of the uncanny from the Surrealist movement to the present. Artists subvert gender stereotypes and explore feminist issues through disquieting spaces, fantastical figures and technology that appears eerily human.
Guerrilla Girls: Making Trouble
April 23–September 28, 2025
The dynamic artist collective known as the Guerrilla Girls (est. 1985), who declared themselves “the conscience of the art world,” mark their fortieth anniversary in 2025. Drawn from NMWA’s extensive holdings of work by the Guerrilla Girls, this exhibition presents an enthralling visual timeline of the group’s progress and ever-expanding subject matter, including gender disparity in the arts as well as politics, the environment and pop culture.
Guerrilla Girls: Making Trouble is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts and generously supported by the members of NMWA.
A Radical Alteration: Women’s Studio Workshop as a Sustainable Model for Art Making
April 25–September 28, 2025
A Radical Alteration: Women’s Studio Workshop as a Sustainable Model for Art Making examines the organization’s rich history as a proponent of book arts for marginalized communities in the U.S., where documentation and critical analysis in the field are still largely devoted to white male artists. Through artists’ books, zines, printed materials, ephemera and archival materials, the exhibition shows how Women’s Studio Workshop’s policies, programming and operations have evolved over the last fifty years, creating a space where the conditions of art-making and institutional support help to build a sustainable and more equitable art ecosystem.
This exhibition is hosted by the National Museum of Women in the Arts and supported in part by a generous bequest from Marjorie B. Rachlin.
Niki de Saint Phalle In Print
May 9–November 30, 2025
Twenty never-before-exhibited prints from the museum’s collection reveal Niki de Saint Phalle’s unique vision of the powers at work in our universe. Her brightly colored and ebulliently drawn images and texts center on romantic love, the mysteries of the Tarot and urgent social issues, illuminating her impassioned engagement with the world.
Niki de Saint Phalle In Print is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts and generously supported by the members of NMWA.
Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1600–1750
September 26, 2025–January 11, 2026
Women were integral participants in the thriving artistic economy of the Low Countries during one of the most dynamic periods in the region’s history. Works by more than forty women artists from the areas of present-day Flanders in Belgium and the Netherlands are on view, including paintings, prints, sculptures, paper cuttings and textiles, many presented for the first time in the United States. Dispelling the notion that Dutch and Flemish women artists of the time were rare or obscure, this exhibition reveals their vital role in shaping the visual culture of the region.
Women Artists from Antwerp to Amsterdam, 1600–1750 is organized in partnership with the Museum of Fine Arts in Ghent, Belgium. The exhibition is made possible by Tara Rudman and a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. Major funding is provided by Lugano Diamonds with additional support from Dutch Culture USA, part of the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York; Kay Woodward Olson; Tavolozza Foundation; The Gladys Krieble Delmas Foundation; and an anonymous donor. Further support is provided by Samuel H. Kress Foundation and The Netherland-America Foundation. Any views, findings, conclusions, or recommendations expressed in this exhibition do not necessarily represent those of the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Tawny Chatmon: Sanctuaries of Truth, Dissolution of Lies
October 15, 2025–March 8, 2026
Through her photography-based art, Tawny Chatmon (b. 1979, Tokyo, Japan) addresses racist myths and elevates cultural truths. She centers and celebrates Black childhood and family bonds while also recontextualizing dehumanizing dolls, figurines and food histories. Chatmon intensifies and embellishes her large-scale photographs through both digital techniques and meticulous handmade elements. She elongates the bodies of her models, heightens their features and adds mosaic-like and embroidered patterns. Presenting these powerful works in ornate frames, Chatmon honors the preciousness of her subjects.
Tawny Chatmon: Sanctuaries of Truth, Dissolution of Lies is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts and generously supported by the members of NMWA.
Current Exhibitions
Suchitra Mattai: Myth from Matter
Through January 12, 2025
In her multifaceted artistic practice, Suchitra Mattai (b. 1973, Georgetown, Guyana) explores and memory. The way certain histories are remembered—or not—is central to much of her art. This exhibition pairs Mattai’s recent work, including mixed-media installation and sculpture, with historical objects sourced from nearby collections in Washington, D.C. For the first time, this exhibition provides the opportunity for a visual call and response between historical objects and Mattai’s contemporary work.
Suchitra Mattai: Myth from Matter is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The exhibition is generously supported by Stephanie Sale and the members of NMWA.
Samantha Box: Confluences
Through March 23, 2025
Bronx-based photographer Samantha Box (b. 1977, Kingston, Jamaica) navigates social and cultural landscapes through complex images exploring race, gender, class and sexuality. Black-and-white documentary photographs from herseries “Invisible” depict New York City’s LGBTQ youth of color. The series reveals community-defined spaces and chosen family bonds that work to counter her subjects’ experiences with homophobia and transphobia. In vibrant staged images, Box’s ongoing studio practice, “Caribbean Dreams,” shifts inward, as the artist articulates her own diasporic Indo-Afro-Caribbean identity through personal and historical narratives.
Samantha Box: Confluences is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts in partnership with the Des Moines Art Center. The exhibition is generously supported by the members of NMWA.
In Focus: Artists at Work
Through April 20, 2025
Enjoy a close-up look into the practices and perspectives of eight contemporary collection artists via short documentary-style videos. Presented in NMWA’s ground-floor Long Gallery, welcoming visitors to the renewed museum, these videos feature Ambreen Butt, Sonya Clark, Colette Fu, the Guerrilla Girls, Graciela Iturbide, Delita Martin, Rania Matar and Alison Saar. The installation’s intimate and immersive design sparks curiosity, inspires advocacy and encourages slow looking during visitors’ exploration of the museum. Dynamic graphic panels include information about each artist and share online resources as well as a map leading to their art on view at NMWA. Presented in two phases, with four artists highlighted in each phase, this series spotlights groundbreaking women artists at work today.
For this project, NMWA partnered with Emmy and James Beard award-winning film production company Smartypants and experiential design firm Art Processors to ensure an accessible and enriching experience.
In Focus: Artists at Work is produced by the National Museum of Women in the Arts in collaboration with Smartypants Pictures and Art Processors. The video series is generously supported by the members of NMWA. Project design is made possible through the generous support of Denise Littlefield Sobel, with additional funding provided by Jamie Gorelick and Richard Waldhorn. Display screens contributed by Sony Corporation of America.
Remix: The Collection
Ongoing
Remix showcases familiar collection favorites as well as never-before-exhibited recent acquisitions. Artworks are grouped around themes, in some cases anchored by a medium and in others by an idea, that resonate among global artists across time, including photography, fiber works, the colors red and purple, nature, domesticity and more.
Remix: The Collection is organized by the National Museum of Women in the Arts. The exhibition is sponsored by Lugano Diamonds. Additional funding provided by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Sue J. Henry and Carter G. Phillips Exhibition Fund, and the Clara M. Lovett Emerging Artists Fund.
Information
Hours: 10 a.m.–5 p.m. Tuesday through Sunday; closed Mondays and select holidays
Location: 1250 New York Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20005, two blocks north of Metro Center
Admission: $16 for adults, $13 for D.C. residents and visitors 70 and over; free for visitors 21 and under and visitors with disabilities. Admission is free the first Sunday and second Wednesday of each month.
Information: nmwa.org, 202-783-5000
Social Media: Broad Strokes blog, Facebook or Instagram