Jim Sanborn, Kilkee County Clare, Ireland, 1997, large format projection, digital print.
Claude Monet, The Rock Needle and the Porte d’Aval Seen from the West, 1886, oil on canvas.
Fourteen artists from nine countries reflect on our interactions with the natural environment in the Kreeger Museum’s 30th-anniversary exhibition titled Here, in this little Bay: Celebrating 30 Years at the Kreeger. The exhibition is on view from June 1, 2024–October 5, 2024.
Founded by David and Carmen Kreeger, the Kreeger Museum opened in 1994, featuring the couples’ collection of exquisite holdings in American and European modernism and African and Asian art in a stunning travertine and glass building designed by Philip Johnson and Richard Foster. The building, which had functioned as the Kreegers’ home since the 1960s, uniquely combines art, architecture and landscape in intimate galleries, verdant courtyards, and sculpture-filled grounds. This appreciation of the living environment, heightened by the presentation of exceptional land and seascape paintings by Max Beckmann, Pierre Bonnard, Claude Monet, Odilon Redon, Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley and other distinguished artists in the permanent collection, inspired an anniversary exhibition that looks at artists’ changing approaches to the natural world since the French Impressionists worked en plein air during the late 19th-century. “This exhibition introduces a thought-provoking range of creative visions that address environmental disruption and sustainability today. It is an honor to have the work of these artists in our gallery spaces,” says Kreeger Director Helen Chason.
Comprising artists from Argentina, Burma, Chile, Côte d’Ivoire, Greece, Japan, Korea, Iran and the United States, the exhibition includes photographs, paintings, drawings and sculptures with both representational and conceptual approaches considered. Artists who explore the wondrous abstract structures and patterns of nature are complemented by those who more specifically investigate the ways that labor, migration, trade and conflict interface with the environment. Nature is contemplated as a model of endurance and growth, as well as an entity subject to extreme human interventions, including climate change and nuclear devastation.
“A group of ethereal waterscapes by Monet installed in galleries punctuated with windows that let the outside in, inspired me to gather an intergenerational, global group of artists--all now living in Maryland, Washington and Virginia--who view landscape and nature through a 21st-century lens,” observes guest curator Kristen Hileman. Hileman, who brings twenty years of experience as a curator at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and the Baltimore Museum of Art to the project, continues: “The work of creatives such as these has been and will be instrumental to developing more sustainable attitudes towards living together on our shared planet. Our perspectives have changed since 19th-century painters emphasized the untouched beauty of nature in their works. Artists still seek the sublime in the natural world, but they also make human impact visible. Awareness has grown even since the Kreeger opened its doors in 1994. As a point of reference, the well-known climate activist Greta Thunberg wasn’t born until 2003.”
The exhibition’s title is taken from the first line of Victorian poet Coventry Patmore’s (British 1823-1896) work Magna Est Veritas. The poem juxtaposes the ocean with town-life in a meditation on time and truth.
Kendall Buster, Model City (Constraint), 2016, Flashe vinyl paint, paper, cardstock, foam-board, and sewing pins.
The Kreeger Museum and Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art (Tephra ICA) are pleased to present SOLSTICE, a solo exhibition by sculptor Kendall Buster in conjunction with her solo presentation, SEED, concurrently on view at Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art (Tephra ICA) in Reston, Virginia.
This exhibition, curated by Jaynelle Hazard, Executive Director of Tephra ICA, features the single installation Model City "Constraint" which suggests a sprawling landscape of brute forms, referencing both geometric abstraction and modernist architecture. For Buster, the work demonstrates an exploration into ways in which the monumental can be expressed through the miniature. In the exhibition, sunshine filters into the gallery, defining the works’ whorls and chambers in an unpopulated cityscape that seems filled with talking shadows. Feeling nostalgic while simultaneously futuristic, there is a dialogue with nature and a negotiation of light in the space, providing a sense of strange wonderment.
With the installation being perfectly white and its chalky, gouache matte material, the angled models made with cardboard and paper suggest observation towers, enclosures without exits, windows for hidden eyes, or
coliseum-like pits. In alignment with Buster’s practice, there is a push and pull of the interior and exterior, provoking the question of whether the viewer is looking in, looking out, looking up, looking down, or whether
they are being looked at.
“Kendall Buster’s 'Model City "Constraint"' emphasizes the wise phrase –‘Where there is light, there must be shadow, and where there is shadow there must be light.’” – Jaynelle Hazard
This exhibition is presented under The Collaborative, a program developed by The Kreeger Museum in 2021 to support Washington-area artists.
Kendall Buster earned a BFA degree from the Corcoran College of Art and Design in Washington, DC, and an MFA in Sculpture from Yale University. Additionally, she participated in the Independent Study Studio Program at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York, NY.
Her work has been exhibited in numerous venues nationally and internationally including the Hirshhorn Museum, the American University Katzen Museum, and the Kreeger Museum in Washington, DC; Artist’s Space and the American Academy of Arts and Letters in New York, NY; the SCAD Museum of Art in Savannah, GA; the Haggerty Museum in Milwaukee, WI; the Kemper Museum in Kansas City, MI; the Boise Art Museum in Boise, ID; Suyama Space in Seattle, WA; Artyard in Frenchtown, NJ; the Bahnhof Westend in Berlin, Germany; Commune 1 and KZNSA Gallery in South Africa; and more.
Buster has created commissioned sculptures for the DC Convention Center and Wilmer Cutler Hale in Washington, DC; Markel Corporation and Massey Cancer Center in Richmond, VA; The Science Center at The Episcopal School in Alexandria, VA; The Bank of Oklahoma Arena in Tulsa; as well as a roof-top sculpture for The Nevada Museum of Art in Reno. Buster’s work has been reviewed in ArtForum, Sculpture Magazine, The Washington Post, and more. She has been interviewed by Neda Ulaby on NPR’s Morning Edition as part of a series on art and science and was a recipient of the American Academy of Arts and Letters Award in the Arts.
She currently lives and works in Richmond, VA and is a Professor and the Graduate Director in the Department of Sculpture and Extended Media at Virginia Commonwealth University.
Donna M. McCullough, Savannah, 2023, recycled copper with steel base.
“Even when silvery fish after fish comes back belly up, and the country plummets into a crepitating crater of hatred, isn’t there still something singing?”
The Kreeger Museum is pleased to present Still Something Singing, October 21, 2023 - January 27, 2024, with Washington Sculptors Group. Betsy Johnson, Assistant Curator, Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, is the Juror for this exhibition of outdoor work that reflects the role of art in our contemporary moment.
Art can be many things–a message, a balm, an incantation, a game, an expression of emotion, or a manifestation of a system, to name but a few. Above all, art is an invitation to view things from another perspective, if only for a moment. Just as Ada Limón's poem encourages us to find glimmers of hope amidst despair, many artists continue their work in times of conflict, seizing upon the reaffirming act of creation to remind themselves and others that beauty still exists among us if we remember to look for it.
The eight artworks included in Still Something Singing are provocations to look closely and view our surroundings, and perhaps even ourselves, with new eyes. They function in various ways: encouraging us to shift our perspective, exercise compassion, locate beauty in dissonance, gather, and heal. And they encourage us to act because making art is an assertion that one human can create change, however small, in the fabric of our world. It is a belief that no matter how powerless you feel today, there are still things that you can do that will make tomorrow different from today.
Works by:
Adam Bradley
Donna Cameron
Roger Cutler
Hyunsuk Erickson
Barbara Josephs Liotta
Donna M. McCullough
Maryanne Pollock
Steve Wanna
This exhibition is presented under The Collaborative, a program developed by The Kreeger Museum in 2021 to support Washington-area artists.
The Kreeger Museum and Hamiltonian Artists are pleased to present Doing The Work, featuring Kyrae Dawaun, Cecilia Kim, Ara Koh, Samera Paz, and Matthew Russo. On view at The Kreeger Museum May 13 through August 5, 2023, the group exhibition will present new and existing works created by the cohort of 2021-2023 Hamiltonian Artists Fellows.
There are several pockets of contemporary discourse—from social justice to mental health—in which the question often arises: “what does doing The Work look like?” In this group exhibition that includes photos, sculpture, drawings, and video, “The Work” is both personal and collective, theoretical and tangible. It takes shape in various forms, such as domestic labor, self reflection, and methodical construction. Rather than focusing on end results, each piece is evocative of progression, calling attention to the patience, play, and serendipity that occurs within periods of growth and development. In Doing The Work, two fundamental truths emerge at the fore; the work looks different for each of us, and there is always more to be done.
This exhibition is presented under The Collaborative, a program developed by The Kreeger Museum in 2021 to support Washington-area artists.
Presented in collaboration with Hamiltonian Artists.
Curated by Anisa Olufemi.
Digital Exhibition Catalog
This project is supported by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities.
Left: Matthew Mann, Moonlight Sinew, 2022, oil, acrylic, and collage on canvas, Courtesy ofthe artist.
Right: David Urban, Band of Hope, 1996, oil on canvas, Gift from the Trustees of the Corcoran Gallery of Art.
The Kreeger Museum and STABLE are pleased to present INTERLUDE, an exhibition featuring fifteen artists of the STABLE studios - Nancy Daly,Leigh Davis, Rex Delafkaran, Tim Doud, Adrienne Gaither, Claudia "Aziza" Gibson-Hunter, K. Lorraine Graham, Jean Kim, Leah Lewis, Matthew Mann, Katherine Tzu-Lan Mann, Gail Shaw-Clemons, Molly Springfield, Andy Yoder, and Ying Zhu - on view at The Kreeger Museum February 11 through March 25, 2023. These artists meet through their approaches and applications to mirror, respond to, and complement each other. This interlude is the moment in-between collective past and future and the present moment of the artist's practice. Working across mediums, the artists present new work and previously created work to be in conversation with the museum's permanent collection. This exhibition is presented under The Collaborative, a program developed by The Kreeger Museum in 2021 to support Washington-area artists.
Presented in collaboration with STABLE.
Curated by Maleke Glee.
Michael Dax Iacovone, Golden Ratio,
2022, Archival print.
Hamiltonian Artists and The Kreeger Museum are pleased to present Perplexity, an exhibition of the work of seven Hamiltonian Artists Alumni—Amy Boone-McCreesh, Brian Michael Dunn, Michael Dax Iacovone, Sarah Knobel, Joyce Yu-Jean Lee, Helina Metaferia, andJerry Truong—on view at The Kreeger Museum from September 17 through December 10, 2022. Working in a diverse range of mediums, such as paper, textile, mirror, metal, charcoal, waste, and performance, to mimic surfaces, spaces, and objects, the artists explore aesthetic possibilities, enhanced, and manipulated by human interaction – highlighting the malleability of certain materials and textures. The implications of our social environments are reflected on as the artists explore the depths of our sensory experiences.
Presented in collaboration with Hamiltonian Artists.
Curated by Tomora Wright.
Joey Enriquez, fall red Appalachian trail,
traveled north, 2021
Hamiltonian Artists and The Kreeger Museum present Unexpected Occurrences, a contemporary response to a modern collection, featuring the work of Hamiltonian Artists’ seven current fellows—Amber Eve Anderson, Maria Luz Bravo, Jason Bulluck, Joey Enriquez, Stephanie Garon, Madeline Stratton, and Lionel Frazier White III. The exhibition includes new works in video, mixed media, sculpture, photography, encaustic, printmaking, and painting installed throughout the museum.
With unconventional pairings of old and new works, the exhibition challenges the viewer to consider the nuances of medium and subject and how they shift over time. Using sculpture and encaustic, Bulluck explores the meaning of databases, from a Buddhist and Marxist framework, to consider the human contribution to systems through interaction. Enriquez and Garon both use raw material to comment on labor, land, and their connections to society. Stratton’s series of new paintings consider the specific shapes and shadows from the Kreeger terrace and color from the Claude Monet paintings in the collection. Bravo and Anderson utilize new technologies to capture movement and time through photography. White memorializes Black experiences through mixed media assemblage specifically referencing family legacy and spirituality.
Learn more about Hamiltonian Artists here or visit their website.
Presented in collaboration with Hamiltonian Artists.
Curated by Tomora Wright.
Stovall has been based in Washington since 1962, when he arrived as an undergraduate to study at Howard University. Born in Athens, GA and raised in Springfield, MA, Stovall found his home in DC and his devotion to printmaking, which continues to this day. In 1968, he founded Workshop, Inc., a screenprinting studio aimed to reach new audiences, connect with political movements, and create new opportunities for a diverse group of artists, such as Elizabeth Catlett, Gene Davis, Sam Gilliam, Loïs Mailou Jones, Jacob Lawrence, and Robert Mangold. These important collaborations will be represented in the show, which features works by Gilliam, Jones, and Lawrence, among others. A catalogue will be published in conjunction with the exhibition.
Lou Stovall, Sundrinkers are we...the forest, the trees., 1971, screenprint, 40 x 26 inches, Courtesy of the artist.
Curated by Danielle O’Steen, Ph.D.
Download the catalogue essay and conversation with Stovall
Organized to accompany Lou Stovall: On Inventions and Color, this exhibition examines the master printmaker’s 1974 series Of the Land, a collection of interconnected poems, drawings, and prints inspired by the natural world. Guest curated by Will Stovall, the artist’s son and a painter, the show will coincide with a new publication on the series by Georgetown University Press.
Lou Stovall, An Exanthema of Clouds, 1974, 26 x 26 inches, Courtesy of the artist.
Weathering is an installation that brings together a collection of Climate Ponchos– wearable sculptures used in the ongoing performance series Climate Immigrants (2017-present). In it the performers wear Climate Ponchos adorned with images that depict various archetypal travelers. The series expands upon issues of immigration by implicating everyone and not just a select group, addressing one of the most pressing topics of our time: climate-triggered immigration in relation to US-centric xenophobia. The Climate Ponchos are paired with a new series of sculpted heads entitled The Plant People (2021), a mixed media sculptural series utilizing familiar objects with unique handmade elements to depict the blooming heads of The Plant People, a fictional group of cultural influencers who see themselves as stewards of the earth. Weathering considers the plight of climate induced global migration and its effects on people of color and the population at large. In Weathering the artist utilizes pervasive and harmful materials currently in heavy circulation across the world in the form of fossil fuel derived plastics not unlike those found in our quotidian lives including in our homes, plumbing, bank cards, food containers, clothing, and even photographic records. Weathering warns us of idly waiting out the storm as we continue to be worn down by long exposure to the atmosphere. The works on view highlight the artist’s interest in fabulating and remixing mythologies to protest our waged war on nature.