The Grass Has So Little to Do

Upper Gallery
Open by appointment

Exhibition Catalogue

“Taking its title from Emily Dickinson’s poem ‘The Grass so little has to do,’ this exhibition considers close attention to the natural world in an age of distraction and anxiety. Dickinson’s ability to find wonder in the smallest details offers a lens through which to consider artists who engage the natural world through sustained acts of looking, remembering, noticing, and imagining.”

Deborah Goodman Davis, curator

“And then, in Sovereign Barns to dwell—
And dream the Days away,
The Grass so little has to do
I wish I were a hay—”

Emily Dickinson

“Just as Dickinson’s poems seem to be simple and plainspoken at first encounter, Dodd’s images also appear to be simple and plainspoken, but, like the poems, they reveal complexities and subtleties of meaning, evidence of an unfailing ability to discover nuance and the unexpected in the everyday and familiar."

Karen Wilkin

“This is plein-air painting taken to a new level... Katz does not paint even a sliver of sky; there is a feeling of being hemmed in, but it is never oppressive.”

John Yau

“We are part of the natural world and our identity is completely attached to our relationship to our habitat and animals. I am making images for things I think merit attention. It’s a quieter way.”

Kiki Smith

"Craven is driven less to capture a descriptive observation than to record the sensation and feeling of the night sky that evokes its memory."

Greg Lindquist

Beverly Pepper: Ten Monumental Sculptures

June 18, 2026 - June 1, 2027
Washington, DC

Beverly Pepper: Ten Monumental Sculptures on New York Avenue is on view through June 2027 in Washington, DC.

The exhibition is presented in partnership with the National Museum of Women in the Arts, the DowntownDC BID, and the New York Avenue Sculpture Project Executive Committee.

Beverly Pepper: Earthworks opens at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in the fall of 2026.

Pepper pictured with My Circle in 2014
Ara Pacis, Rome

“Obviously we can’t rebuild the monuments of the ancient world, but we can aspire to re-evoke, in however modern a world, some of the enduring and perhaps renewable sensations of amazement, even awe.”

Beverly Pepper

Mike Ousley: Wild Rose of the Mountains

The Cabin
Open by appointment

Exhibition Catalogue

“The Wild Rose of the Mountain is beautiful in bloom. It has a seductive scent; but it also has a tangle full of stinging thorns. I love the idea of that many-layered complexity. The culture of these deep, dark hills in Appalachia is very diverse and complex."

Mike Ousley

“There is a duality to everything in Appalachia. It can at once be breathtakingly beautiful, and also darker and more ominous.”

Mike Ousley

“My depictions come from my mamaw Alice Moore Ousley. She used to take me to the Little Philadelphia Old Regular Baptist Church. They had a unique way of singing in that Church. The Smithsonian Folkways came and did many field recordings of them. They preached apocalyptic things, visions of Hell and Heaven. ”

Mike Ousley

“Ousley’s jewel-like paintings tell narratives that are ostensibly playful, even whimsical, like the parables of Heironymous Bosch.”

Michael Rooks

“Egg tempera brings a mystical quality to things. It’s slow, reverent work for a person who has great reverence for this region and its people.”

Mike Ousley

Italian Glass: 1955 - Present

Lower Gallery
Open by appointment

Exhibition Catalogue

Cristiano Bianchin
Michele Burato
Massimo Micheluzzi
Massimo Nordio
Yoichi Ohira
Tristano di Robilant
Laura de Santillana
Claudio Tiozzo
Ermanno Toso
Fratelli Toso

“[Ohira’s pieces] reward the eye, exploit their medium and are not preoccupied with crossing over to the category of fine art, which greatly enhances their chances of doing so.”

Roberta Smith

“[Ohira’s vases] push the ancient technique of multicolored glass canes to new extremes of intricacy and jewel-like chromatic richness.”

Roberta Smith

"The floors of St. Mark's Basilica have always been and still are my greatest source of inspiration."

Massimo Micheluzzi

“The works are defined by barely perceivable details—a line of light, a depressed area, the curve of a hip. These flat pieces are ultimately screens on which light is at play. Light pierces them and emanates from them, and together, the piece is brought to life.”

Laura de Santillana

"The purity of the single color, in its direct relation with shape, makes the latter more defined, almost exalting it."

Cristiano Bianchin