Exhibitions

With nine gallery spaces and a large lawn suitable for public art, the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington is one of the largest non-federal venues for contemporary art in the Washington, DC area. Through its rotating exhibitions and dynamic related programming, the Museum connects the community with artists from around the world, launches the careers of emerging artists, provides established artists with opportunities to experiment, and showcases Arlington’s position within a global contemporary art sector to the public.

The Museum’s exhibitions program presents solo and group exhibitions featuring artwork by local, national, and international artists. The program prioritizes originality of vision and strives to present artwork by a diverse range of artists, with the goal of connecting communities in Arlington and beyond to contemporary art that is innovative and boundary-pushing. Exhibitions are organized by Blair Murphy, the Museum’s curator of exhibitions, Amanda Jíron-Murphy, curator and artist/ collector liaison, and by guest curators drawn from across the visual arts.

Assembly, the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington’s biennial exhibition program, brings together artists from across the country to highlight the material and conceptual trends being explored by contemporary artists in the present moment. The artists included in Assembly are selected through a multi-step process. Curators from peer organizations across the country are invited to nominate two artists to be considered and, from the group of nominated artists, a final group is selected to participate in the exhibition.

The Museum’s long-running SOLOS program features solo exhibitions by artists based in the mid-Atlantic, who are selected by a panel of outside jurors from an open call for proposals. The call for SOLOS is issued once a year and the solo shows that are selected from the call take place throughout the year, alongside the Museum’s other exhibition programs.

The Wyatt Resident Artists Gallery presents solo exhibitions by the Museum’s resident artists and the Jenkins Community Gallery features exhibitions presented in collaboration with various partners, including local schools, universities, and community groups.

The Museum is open to the public Wednesday through Sunday, 12pm to 5pm and admission is always free.