Past Exhibitions

  • Small white packages on a hardwood floor.

    Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Always to Return

    October 18, 2024 - July 6, 2025

    The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery and the Archives of American Art will present “Felix Gonzalez-Torres: Always to Return,” an exhibition focused on the artist’s deep engagement with portraiture and the construction of identity, as well as how history is told and inherited. 

  • Daguerreotype of a man seated in a chair

    Picturing the Presidents: Daguerreotypes and Ambrotypes from the National Portrait Gallery’s Collection

    May 31, 2024 - June 8, 2025

    To mark the 2024 presidential election year, this exhibition features some of the earliest photographic images of eleven men who attained the nation’s highest office. 

  • full length individual portraits of a man and woman

    Powerful Partnerships: Civil War-Era Couples

    July 1, 2022 - May 18, 2025

    Long before the term “power couple” found its way into English lexicon, dynamic duos had been making their mark on U.S. history. 

  • Bust length portrait of a man painted in bright yellow hues

    This Morning, This Evening, So Soon: James Baldwin and the Voices of Queer Resistance

    July 12, 2024 - April 20, 2025

    James Baldwin, who considered himself “a witness, about literature, about his works, about America and about history,” often spoke out against injustice. At a time when he and his queer contemporaries had to keep their sexuality at least partly hidden, they could fight openly for civil rights.

  • bust-length photo of a woman in a feathered hat

    Brilliant Exiles: American Women in Paris, 1900–1939

    April 26, 2024 - February 23, 2025

    During the early twentieth century, Paris was the destination of choice for talented and independent American women who were determined to move beyond the limitations that restricted them at home. 

    Tour Schedule:

    Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY
    March 29–June 22, 2025

    Georgia Museum of Art, Athens, GA
    July 19–November 2, 2025

  • full length portrait of a woman in a purple gown in a lush landscape

    Commissioned Portrait of Oprah Winfrey

    December 13, 2023 - December 15, 2024

    Oprah Winfrey’s portrait is now on display at the National Portrait Gallery. 

  • two men standing on the edge of the Grand Canyon

    Forces of Nature: Voices that Shaped Environmentalism

    October 20, 2023 - September 2, 2024

    Forces of Nature presents U.S. scientists, politicians, activists, writers, and artists who have shaped attitudes toward the environment from the mid-nineteenth century to today. These individuals represent diverse aspects of environmental thought.

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