Sir Isaac Julien’s moving image installation Lessons of the Hour (2019) interweaves period reenactments across five screens to create a vivid picture of nineteenth-century activist, writer, orator, and philosopher Frederick Douglass. Through critical research, fictional reconstruction, and a marriage of poetic image and sound, Julien asserts Douglass’ enduring lessons of justice, abolition, and freedom that […]

Artist Tuan Andrew Nguyen creates multimedia installations that blend fact, memory, myth, and mysticism and use lush imagery to draw out these entanglements. By digging deep into archives and collaborating with communities, his projects weave together many voices to reveal other truths about — and strategies of repair from — colonial violence. In this Washington, DC debut, his video work […]

For the Smart’s 50th anniversary, South Side artist Robert Earl Paige creates a multi-part pattern-based installation and sprawling public art project that invites communities into a collective experience of space.

Recent Acquisitions presents newly acquired artworks by artists with deep connections to the Pacific Northwest. Some artists were born here, others are transplants—all have meaningfully shaped our artistic community. Reflecting the artistic production in our region, the gathered artworks defy genre conventions, often pushing the boundaries of their mediums. Ellen Lesperance (born 1971, lives and works […]