It truly boggles my mind, how many quality museums and galleries we have access to living in the D.C. Metro area, and I’m constantly adding to my list of must-sees as exhibits come and go. Chris and I both had yet to ever visit the Renwick Gallery, so over the long July 4th weekend we decided to go see the WONDER exhibit before its final days.
Part of the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Renwick Gallery houses contemporary crafts and decorative art, and admission is free to the public. And if the free entry isn’t enough of a bonus, photography is encouraged!
The Renwick Gallery completed a huge two-year renovation last year and reopened with the highly Instagrammable exhibition, WONDER, full of large-scale whimsical pieces.
I’ll leave any real critiquing to the true art connoisseurs, but I personally loved this exhibit. As the title suggests, the pieces play with the imagination and inspire wonder. I especially loved Gabriel Dawe’s vivid piece, Plexus A1, constructed of sixty miles of rainbow-colored threads.
A few of the installations will remain as part of a long-term collection including the hanging Volume piece (shown below), but three of the other works will close next weekend on July 10th.
Aside from the WONDER exhibit, there are plenty of interesting and beautiful works of art in the permanent collections.
The gallery is located just a few blocks from the Farragut West metro station so it’s an easy addition to any D.C. day itinerary. We popped in shortly after opening (10am daily), and since it’s a smaller building we spent a little under an hour meandering through the various displays. I highly recommend a visit, and bring your camera!
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