Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery Announces Upcoming Exhibitions through Winter 2023

I Dream a World: Selections from Brian Lanker's Portraits of Remarkable Black Women
Part I: July 8, 2022–Jan. 29, 2023
Part II: Feb. 10, 2023–Sept. 10, 2023

Featuring portraits by Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Brian Lanker, from his 1989 book “I Dream a World: Portraits of Black Women Who Changed America,” this exhibition presents more than 25 photographs of remarkable Black women. Installed in two parts, the exhibition will feature likenesses of women who have made a difference across the disciplines of the arts, activism, literature and politics. Sitters in the first installation will include Maya Angelou, Septima Poinsette Clark, Lena Horne, Barbara Jordan, Rosa Parks, Leontyne Price, Wilma Rudolph, and Alice Walker. Sitters featured in the second part will include Althea Gibson, Odetta, Cicely Tyson, and Oprah Winfrey. “I Dream a World” is co-curated by Ann Shumard, senior curator of photographs, and Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw, former senior historian and director of history, research and scholarly programs.  Part I of “I Dream a World: Selections from Brian Lanker's Portraits of Remarkable Black Women” will be on view July 8, 2022, through Jan. 29, 2023, and Part II will be on view Feb. 10, 2023, through Sept. 10, 2023. 

One Life: Maya Lin
Sept. 30–April 16, 2023

“One Life: Maya Lin” is the first biographical exhibition of the architect, sculptor and environmentalist. Lin, who catapulted to global prominence in 1983 for her design of the Vietnam Veterans’ Memorial, has spent more than four decades making work that centers on history and human rights with a particular focus on how we experience and relate to landscape. Lin describes her practice as “a systematic ordering of the land that is tied to history, time and language.” The exhibition will trace Lin from her days as a Yale student to today, presenting a range of photographs, sculptures, personal ephemera, sketchbooks, architectural models and images of her completed works. Also on view will be an element of Lin’s project “What Is Missing?” which addresses the biodiversity crisis by inviting viewers to use a multimedia platform to share memories of natural elements that have vanished during their lifetimes. “One Life: Maya Lin” is curated by Dorothy Moss, curator of painting and sculpture, and will be on view Sept. 30, 2022, through April 16, 2023, in the Portrait Gallery’s “One Life” gallery, newly relocated to the museum’s second floor. This is the museum’s first “One Life” exhibition dedicated to an Asian American since the series was founded in 2006.

“One Life: Maya Lin” has been made possible by the Guenther and Siewchin Yong Sommer Endowment Fund and Bloomberg Philanthropies. This project also received support from the Smithsonian Asian Pacific Americans Initiative Pool.

Kinship
Oct. 28, 2022–Jan. 7, 2024

“Kinship” presents more than forty artworks by eight contemporary artists whose work explores the notion of “kinship” and the closeness that bonds us. The exhibition spotlights artists Njideka Akunyili Crosby, Ruth Leonela Buentello, Jess T. Dugan, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Jessica Todd Harper, Thomas Holton, Sedrick Huckaby, and Anna Tsouhlarakis. Featuring contemporary portraits in various mediums, “Kinship” explores the ways intergenerational dynamics change in response to physical and symbolic thresholds and borders, including those between life and death; childhood and adulthood; normative gender roles; and geographic regions. The upcoming exhibition will visualize the complex, often paradoxical, and deeply moving ways in which interpersonal relationships endure and change. “Kinship” is the latest in the museum’s “Portraiture Now” series dedicated to contemporary artists and is curated by the Portrait Gallery’s curators Dorothy Moss and Leslie Ureña with Robyn Asleson, Taína Caragol, and Charlotte Ickes. The exhibition will have an accompanying catalogue.

Two live performances by artist Anna Tsouhlarakis will take place as part of the exhibition in May and Nov. 2023 in the museum’s Kogod Courtyard. Admission is free.

Portrait of a Nation: 2022 Honorees
Nov. 10, 2022–Oct. 22, 2023

This intimate exhibition will feature the portraits of the seven individuals who have been selected to receive one of the museum’s 2022 Portrait of a Nation Awards. In recognition for their abilities to create transformative change in their respective fields, this year’s honorees are José Andrés, Clive Davis, Ava DuVernay, Marian Wright Edelman, Anthony S. Fauci, M.D., Serena Williams, and Venus Williams. The exhibition will include the premiere of new commissions. “Portrait of a Nation: 2022 Honorees” will be on view on the museum’s first floor from Nov. 10, 2022, through Oct. 22, 2023, and is curated by the Portrait Gallery’s curators Taína Caragol, Rhea Combs, Charlotte Ickes and Ann Shumard.

Additional Spring and Summer Exhibitions

Watergate: Portraiture and Intrigue
Ongoing–Sept. 5, 2022

The Obama Portraits Tour
Ongoing–Oct. 2022

The Outwin 2022: American Portraiture Today
April 30, 2022–Feb. 26, 2023

Out of Many: Portraits from 1600 to 1900
July 1, 2022–Ongoing

Powerful Partnerships: Civil War-Era Couples
July 1, 2022–May 18, 2025

Family Ties: Daguerreotype Portraits
July 1, 2022–June 11, 2023

Note to editors: The National Portrait Gallery is located at Eighth and G streets N.W. Refer to npg.si.edu/visit for the latest on visiting hours and visitor safety guidelines pertaining to COVID-19. For film crews, contact the Portrait Gallery’s press office to arrange access and escorts for all crews wishing to film in the galleries. Additional exhibition information is available via the museum’s online press room: http://npg.si.edu/about-us/press-room.