Urgent Museum Notice

Current Exhibitions

Close-up detail of an abstract painting with very thick and gestural brushstrokes of mostly orange paint.

Section Navigation

Featured Current Exhibition

Aug 01, 2020 to Jan 03, 2021
The historical and contemporary photographs in this special pop-up installation delve into humankind’s yearning to experience the outside world, particularly after a period of confinement. They showcase the richly varied approaches women photographers apply to natural subjects.
View Exhibition
Color photograph of a dense forest with a light skin-toned girl with bare feet climing a tree at center. Below her to the right is another light skinned girl sitting against the trunk of a tree. Other figures are scattered throughout the forest in the background.
Justine Kurland, Jungle Gym, 2001; Chromogenic color print, 30 x 40 in.; NMWA, Gift of Heather and Tony Podesta Collection; © Justine Kurland, Courtesy of the artist and Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York
Aug 01, 2020 to Jan 03, 2021

All Current Exhibitions

  • Selections from the Collection

    Aug 01, 2020 to Jun 30, 2021

    NMWA’s collection of more than 5,000 works of art spans from the late sixteenth century through today. Explore the exceptional range of techniques and mediums by global women artists as embodied in paintings, prints, photo-based works, and sculptures.

    Partial gallery view of a young woman in a ponytail and glasses bending down to look at a tiny contemporary sculpture in a glass vitrine. The sculpture is a wooden cage with an object stored inside. On the back wall hangs a photograph of a light-skinned woman in a white dress.
    Aug 01, 2020 to Jun 30, 2021

    Photo credit: Kevin Allen

  • Linda Nochlin: The Maverick She

    Mar 08 to Oct 08, 2020

    Linda Nochlin (1931–2017), award-winning scholar, art historian and critic, devoted her career to forging a new appreciation for the contributions of women in the arts. This collaboration between NMWA’s Library and Research Center and the Smithsonian’s Archives of American Art showcases a selection of Nochlin’s papers and ephemera that illuminate her remarkable contributions to art and culture.

    Open by appointment only.

    A black and white photographic portrait of seated art scholar Linda Nochlin. Dressed in a dark sweater and a print scarf, she gazes with a smile up to her left. An oversized art book is opened on the surface in front of her.
    Mar 08 to Oct 08, 2020

    Linda Nochlin in Paris, 1978; Betty Boyd Dettre Library and Research Center, National Museum of Women in the Arts; Courtesy of Marion Kalter; Photo by Marion Kalter

  • New York Ave Sculpture Project: Betsabeé Romero

    Sep 28, 2018 to May 02, 2021

    The dynamic works of Mexico City-based Betsabeé Romero form the next chapter in the New York Avenue Sculpture Project. To create her four sculptures developed expressly for this installation, Romero assembled carved and painted tires into totemic structures that speak to themes of human migration and the natural environment.

    Close-up photograph of a sculpture made of a truck tire carved with circular designs and painted gold and silver
    Sep 28, 2018 to May 02, 2021

    New York Avenue Sculpture Project: Betsabeé Romero Installation; Photo credit: Mara Kurlandsky, NMWA