Seven fall exhibitions featuring a contemporary ceramic group show, portraits from the Corcoran Legacy Collection, works by local artists, and more open September 10 at the American University Museum. Learn more about the eclectic offerings, which run through December 11, here:
Sitting Pretty: Two Hundred Years of American Portrait Painting from the Collection of the Corcoran Gallery of Art: George Biddle's Terai Hara, 1922, (pictured above, left) is among the nearly 100 oil paintings gifted to the AU Museum by the famed Washington institution in 2014—a selection of which are showcased in this exhibit, organized by Carolyn Kinder Carr, former deputy director and chief curator of the National Portrait Gallery.
More Clay: The Power of Repetition: This exhibition showcases works by eight ceramists that highlight accumulation, repetition, and innovative feats of construction. Among the featured pieces: Bean Finneran's Orange Ring, 2022, (pictured above, middle).
Make-Believe: Drawing on cultural histories like fashion, drag, cinema, animation, furniture, costume jewelry, and interior design, the exhibit—including Winning Love by Daylight, 2022, (pictured above, right)—enables the artists to explore the ways fantasy intersects with camp, queerness, and femininity.
Kallos, Haunted Koreas, Nan Montgomery: Counterpoint, and Singularities and Infinities
Kallos: Maria Karametou’s personal history of migration and displacement influences her art, which explores the societal expectations, pressures, and restrictions—primarily on women—to fulfill norms and models. Karametou used thousands of bobby pins, strands of hair, and mixed media for pieces like Hairloom II, 2022 (pictured above, right).
Haunted Koreas: South Korean artist Mina Cheon partners with her North Korean alter ego, Kim II Soon, to create works deconstructing and reconciling the history and coexistence of the two nations. Pieces include
Umma Rises: Towards Global Peace, 2017, (pictured above center).
Nan Montgomery: Counterpoint: The first major respective of Montgomery’s more than 50-year career highlights her signature geometric abstract style in large-scale paintings like Roundelle, 2007, (pictured above, top right).
Singularities and Infinities: Experimental physicist and writer Michael Albrow collaborated with artist Shanthi Chandrasekar to capture the complexity of the universe through writings and drawings. Featured pieces include Scalar Field—Emergence of Particles, 2021 (pictured above, bottom right).