Art events in the DMV
Art across the DMV: gallery openings, art festivals, exhibitions, public art and maker markets. DC, Maryland, Northern Virginia.
Fri, Oct 16 to Sun, Oct 18
SaturdaySat SunWomen Artists of the DMV: The Thank You Show at BlackRock10aChalkFest 202610aMason District Art Festival, Annandale11aPotomac Music Fall Fest at Workhouse Arts Center2pGallery Talk: Observer, The Street Photographs of Norman S. Carr3pThe Next Chapter: Art from Vietnam at CreeMos Gallery2 more4 more
Fri, Oct 23 to Sun, Oct 25
Fri, Oct 30 to Sun, Nov 1
Fri, Nov 6 to Sun, Nov 8
Open all season (Not) Strictly Painting 15 at McLean Project for the Arts, Ahn Chang-Hong: noon-mool, Assembly 2026: Dusk in the Dawnland at MoCA Arlington, Assembly 2026: New South, Ground Truth at MoCA Arlington, Avery, Gottlieb & Rothko: By the Sea, Beyond Words: The Sacred Art of Ayesha Kamal
and 15 more
, Carlotta Corpron: Light Is a Plastic Medium, Carnival of Curiosities at Del Ray Artisans, Dean Kessmann: if not obviously, then potentially, Four Seasons in the Piedmont at Artists in Middleburg, IT HAPPENED HERE: REMEMBERING THREE LYNCHINGS, Janet Echelman: Radical Softness at Tephra ICA, Magical Places and Creatures: Donnalynne Lefever at Workhouse, Out of Bounds, Outlaw Printmakers MMXXVI at Pyramid Atlantic, Remember Me: Picturing African Americans in Early Photography, Routed West: Twentieth-Century African American Quilts in California, TRANSFORMATIONS: Lloyd Wolf's Lorton Reformatory Photos, Workhouse, Washington Glass School: 25 Years of Glass & Community, Wayson R. Jones: Color/Slash/Field, Yoshitomo Nara: Sentinels of StillnessSaturday, November 7
10am to 6pm, through Nov 8
Pyramid Atlantic Art CenterExhibition by the Outlaw Printmakers collective, opening during Print-O-Rama weekend (reception Friday, October 16, 7 to 9 pm). Print work on view in Pyramid Atlantic's Helen C. Frederick Gallery in Hyattsville. Gallery open Wednesdays and Thursdays 10 to 8, Fridays through Sundays 10 to 6.
11am to 4pm, through Nov 8Free
American University Museum at the Katzen Arts CenterSolo exhibition of Islamic calligraphy by Ayesha Kamal, part of the museum's fall 2026 season on life, beauty, faith, and sorrow. Runs alongside shows by Ahn Chang-Hong, Norman S. Carr, and Mary Garrard. Free admission.
11am to 4pm, through Nov 8Free
American University Museum at the Katzen Arts CenterMajor solo show by one of South Korea's leading contemporary artists, filling two floors of the museum. The centerpiece Taxidermy series layers paint over large photographs of taxidermied animals, probing memory, mortality, and violence. Free admission.
12 to 5pm, through Nov 8
Gallery BGroup show putting four artists in dialogue across the line between realism and abstraction. Realistic figures dissolve into abstract grounds while bold brushwork and texture carry feeling rather than literal detail. Presented in downtown Bethesda by the Bethesda Urban Partnership. Opening reception Friday, November 6, 6 to 9 pm; gallery open Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, 12 to 5 pm.
1 to 6pm, through Nov 8
Waverly Street GallerySolo show by Noreene Janus built on a saturated palette of red, yellow, orange and blue. The paintings urge viewers to live life to the fullest through fearless color. Reception Friday, October 30, at the member-run Waverly Street Gallery in downtown Bethesda. Gallery open Thursday through Sunday, 1 to 6 pm.
All day, through Nov 7
McLean Community CenterThe 15th iteration of MPA's juried biennial celebrating painting and works related to painting, featuring dozens of mid-Atlantic artists across media. On view in the Emerson and Atrium Galleries at the McLean Community Center, with a Tea and Talk on October 21.
All day, through Nov 7Free
Workhouse Arts CenterDocumentary photographs by Lloyd Wolf record a pioneering drug rehabilitation program inside the Lorton Reformatory from 1989 to 1991. Shown where the events took place, the images trace recovery and resilience among incarcerated men. On view in the McGuireWoods Gallery with an artist reception on October 3.
All day, through Nov 8
Arches GallerySolo exhibition of mythical creatures and magical places by Donnalynne Lefever at the Arches Gallery in the Workhouse. Layered paintings inspired by mythology and dreams, with an artist reception on October 10.
All day, through Nov 8
The Artists in MiddleburgJuried group exhibition at The Artists in Middleburg gallery celebrating the seasons of Virginia's Piedmont region. Opening reception on October 3.
All day, through Nov 30
BlackRock Center for the ArtsPhoto exhibition from the Montgomery County Lynching Memorial Project documenting the nearly erased history of three lynchings in Montgomery County (1880, 1880 and 1896). The show also traces the community process of engagement, reconciliation and healing. At BlackRock Center for the Arts in Germantown, November 3 through 30.
All day, through Dec 20
BlackRock Center for the ArtsSolo photography exhibition by Washington, DC artist Dean Kessmann, exploring the tension between abstraction and representation, objects and digital information. The series captures quotidian DC-area moments that feel untethered from reality. Artist reception December 5 (time not published) at BlackRock Center for the Arts in Germantown.
10am to 5:30pm, through Dec 24Free
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture GardenThree monumental new sculptures by Japanese artist Yoshitomo Nara take over the Hirshhorn's West Lawn in an outdoor installation timed to the sculpture garden's reopening. Sentinels of Stillness places Nara's unmistakable large-headed figures in dialogue with the museum's modern sculpture collection.
10am to 5:30pm, through Dec 24Free
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture GardenA long-overdue survey of American abstract photographer Carlotta Corpron (1901-1988), whose experiments with light, form, and photographic technology helped establish photography as fine art. The show traces six bodies of work made in Texas from the late 1930s to the early 1950s, from nature studies to light drawings, anchored by 48 recent gifts from collector Herbert Lust.
All day, through Dec 24Free
National Gallery of ArtSome 70 early photographs of and by Black Americans, drawn from the 19th and early 20th centuries, chart how portrait photography became a tool of identity, resilience, and self-representation. The exhibition traces the evolving understanding of the medium among African Americans across a century of change.
All day, through Dec 31Free
The Kreeger MuseumSeven Hamiltonian Artists alumni show painting, photography, sculpture, video, and installation at the Kreeger Museum, alongside boundary-pushing works from the museum's permanent collection by Sam Gilliam, Frank Stella, Simmie Knox, and William Christenberry. Curated by Anisa Olufemi and presented under The Collaborative, the Kreeger's program supporting Washington-area artists.
All day, through Jan 17
National Museum of Women in the ArtsThe East Coast debut of a touring exhibition of twentieth-century African American quilts made in California, tracing how migration west shaped a distinct quilting tradition. An NMWA presentation that opened September 18 and runs into the new year.
All day, through Jan 24
The Phillips CollectionThe first exhibition to examine how friendship and shared summers on Cape Ann, Massachusetts, shaped Milton Avery, Adolph Gottlieb, and Mark Rothko. About 90 paintings, watercolors, drawings, and sketches from the 1920s to the mid-1960s trace four decades of artistic exchange; many works have never been on public view. Organized with the Cape Ann Museum.
All day, through Jan 24
Museum of Contemporary Art ArlingtonFive artists with deep ties to Maine's Penobscot Bay coast work across sculpture, textiles, video, and photography. The show traces environmental change and creative resourcefulness along the rugged shoreline. Part of MoCA Arlington's Assembly 2026 biennial.
All day, through Jan 24
Museum of Contemporary Art ArlingtonFour Atlanta-based artists (Sheila Pree Bright, Michi Meko, Paul Stephen Benjamin, Shanequa Gay) examine the Southern landscape as a site of memory, power, and unresolved history. Part of MoCA Arlington's Assembly 2026 biennial marking the nation's 250th anniversary.
All day, through Jan 31Free
Tephra Institute of Contemporary ArtMid-career retrospective of sculptor Janet Echelman spanning four decades, from early drawings and maquettes to full-scale net sculptures. The show presents softness as both material and philosophy, with works shaped by wind, light, and engineered fiber. Free admission.
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