The Phillips Collection Announces 2024–25 Exhibition Schedule
WASHINGTON, DC—The Phillips Collection announces its upcoming exhibitions and programmatic highlights through summer 2025. Featuring an array of contemporary and historic art by leading international and DC-based artists, the schedule includes the recently announced Multiplicity: Blackness in Contemporary American Collage (opening July 6), the first large-scale exhibition dedicated to contemporary collage by Black American artists; the first exhibition in Washington, DC devoted to US social realist artist William Gropper (opening October 12); and Breaking It Down: Conversations from the Vault, which showcases the museum’s unique collecting practice of establishing deep relationships with emerging and established artists in its community and of its time (opening November 2). Other highlights in 2025 include exhibitions dedicated to the seminal Art Nouveau artist and graphic illustrator Alphonse Mucha (opening February 22, 2025), poet and activist Essex Hemphill (opening May 10, 2025), and painter and educator Vivian Browne (opening June 28, 2025), who worked across diverse media and representational and abstract styles and developed a deeply personal language of expression.
“The Phillips has always been known for its leadership role in championing artists, emerging and established, who are courageously independent in their vision and approach,” says Vradenburg Director & CEO Jonathan P. Binstock. “In this time of deep division, we want guests to make meaningful connections with friends, family, and the broad range of artworks we present, and to open their eyes and hearts to the artist’s perspective, which can foster greater understanding.”
“The Phillips has an exciting array of exhibitions in its next season that will give guests a chance to dive deep into beloved artists while discovering others for the first time,” says Chief Curator Elsa Smithgall. “Our season includes exhibitions that shine a light on influential, yet understudied figures, including Vivian Browne, William Gropper, and Essex Hemphill, artist-activists who used their distinctive voices to raise awareness about civil rights issues we still wrestle with today.”
EXHIBITIONS (FALL 2024–SUMMER 2025)
William Gropper: Artist of the People
October 17, 2024–January 5, 2025
William Gropper (b. 1897, New York, NY; d. 1977, Manhasset, NY) was a leading US social realist artist whose work fervently addressed pressing socio-political issues of the 20th century. The son of impoverished immigrants from Romania and Ukraine, Gropper used his art to call attention to social injustice, contributing thousands of satirical illustrations to radical publications such as the New York Tribune, New Masses, and The Sunday Worker. The first exhibition dedicated to Gropper in Washington, DC, this presentation features more than 30 works that reveal his biting commentary on human rights, anarchy, labor, freedom, and democracy.
This exhibition is organized by The Phillips Collection.
Breaking It Down: Conversations from the Vault
November 2, 2024–January 19, 2025
The Phillips Collection, from its inception, has focused on creating what founder Duncan Phillips called “units:” groups of works of art that represent key aspects of an artist’s vision or spirit. Leaders in championing the independent-minded artist, Duncan and Marjorie Phillips gave many their first museum exhibitions and acquisitions. This presentation offers a deep dive and new take on several artists who are cornerstones of the collection, including Georges Braque, Richard Diebenkorn, Arthur Dove, Sam Gilliam, Paul Klee, and Georgia O’Keeffe, alongside a growing collection of works by trailblazers of our time, including Sean Scully, Sylvia Snowden, Renée Stout, Joyce Wellman, and more.
This exhibition is organized by The Phillips Collection.
Timeless Mucha: The Magic of Line
February 22–May 18, 2025
Timeless Mucha: The Magic of Line reappraises the work of Art Nouveau pioneer Alphonse Mucha (b. 1860, Ivančice, Moravia, Austrian Empire; d. 1939, Prague, Czechoslovakia) and explores his impact on graphic art since the 1960s. This exhibition provides an opportunity to survey the development of Mucha’s style, and to explore how his art was rediscovered by later generations of artists. Mucha was a key influence on Psychedelic Art of the 1960s–70s, as well as on a wide range of visual culture from the late 20th century to today, exemplified by American comics, Japanese manga, and street murals.
This exhibition is organized by the Mucha Foundation.
Essex Hemphill: Take care of your blessings
May 17–August 31, 2025
This exhibition charts the relationship between the writings of poet and activist Essex Hemphill (b. 1957, Chicago, IL; d. 1995, Philadelphia, PA) and contemporary visual art. Raised in Washington, DC, Hemphill emerged as a luminary in the DC arts scene of the 80s and 90s. He self-published chapbooks including Earth Life (1985) and Conditions (1986), before publishing his full-length collection Ceremonies: Prose and Poetry (1992). Whereas Hemphill died of AIDS-related illness at just 38, his work persists, reflected in visual dialogues with his contemporaries such as Lyle Ashton Harris and Isaac Julien, and a new generation of artists such as Diedrick Brackens and Tiona Nekkia McClodden.
This exhibition is organized by The Phillips Collection.
Vivian Browne: My Kind of Protest
June 28–September 28, 2025
Drawing upon previously unknown works and archival findings, this exhibition recovers the depth and variety of the more than three-decade career of Vivian Browne (b. 1929, Laurel, FL; d. 1993, New York, NY). The exhibition features paintings, prints, and works on paper across seven bodies of work, as well as ephemera that highlight Browne’s pioneering activism and influential teaching career. Browne was a founder of the Black Emergency Cultural Coalition, an organization that fought for Black representation in New York museums; a founder of SoHo20, one of the first women’s art cooperatives in Manhattan; and a professor at Rutgers University (1971–92). Browne’s signature approach to color and form challenged the neatly defined categories of abstraction and figuration, and art and politics, revealing a more nuanced approach to art-making that is part of Browne’s unique contribution to 20th-century art of the US.
This exhibition is co-organized by The Phillips Collection and the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati.
PROGRAMMING & INITIATIVES
Phillips Music 2024–25 Season
For more than 80 years, Phillips Music has presented an exceptional roster of performers in the intimate, art-filled setting of the museum’s Music Room. The 84th season’s Sunday Concerts and projects continue to advance the programmatic threads that have made Phillips Music unique, with imaginative programming of the core chamber music repertoire, and the best of new music. The 2024–25 season will be announced later this summer. Visit phillipscollection.org/music for more information.
Phillips@THEARC
The Phillips Collection’s workshop and gallery at the Town Hall Education Arts Recreation Campus (THEARC) in Southeast DC provides a space to view, discuss, make, and exhibit art to encourage community participation and action. In the 2024–25 season, Phillips@THEARC will present work by Washington, DC-based, multidisciplinary artists including mixed media portraitist Zsudayka Nzinga (opening June 26), and participants in the 2023 CARD Fellowship (opening October 23), with more to be announced.
Phillips after 5
On the first Thursday of every month from 5 to 8:30 pm, enjoy Phillips after 5, a lively mix of art, live music, gallery talks, films, interactive activities, craft cocktails, tastings, and more. Admission: $20. Members are admitted free to Phillips after 5; no reservation required.
Third Thursday and Pay-What-You-Wish
On the third Thursday of each month, The Phillips Collection offers free extended hours from 5–8 pm for guests to explore the galleries and enjoy 15-minute Spotlight Talks from Phillips Educators focused on an artwork within the collection. The museum offers Pay-What-You-Wish admission from 4 pm–close.
IMAGE GALLERY
High-resolution press images are available upon request. Please contact lcantrell@phillipscollection.org
IMAGES: (L to R) Alphonse Mucha, The Arts: Dance, 1898, Color lithograph, 60 x 38 in., The Mucha Foundation;Vivian Browne, Umbrella Plant, 1971, Oil on canvas, 48 3/4 x 40 3/4 in., Courtesy of Adobe Krow Archives, CA and RYAN LEE Gallery, NY; Sam Gilliam, April, 1971, Acrylic on canvas, 60 x 60 x 2 1/2 in., The Phillips Collection, Bequest of Mercedes H. Eichholz, 2013
ABOUT THE PHILLIPS COLLECTION
The Phillips Collection, America’s first museum of modern art, was founded in 1921. The museum houses one of the world’s most celebrated Impressionist and American modern art collections and continues to grow its collection with important contemporary voices. Its distinctive building combines extensive new galleries with the former home of its founder, Duncan Phillips. The Phillips’s impact spreads nationally and internationally through its diverse and experimental special exhibitions and events, including its award-winning education programs for educators, students, and adults; renowned Phillips Music series; and dynamic art and wellness and Phillips after 5 events. The Phillips Collection’s extensive community partnerships include Phillips@THEARC, the museum’s satellite campus in Southeast DC. The Phillips Collection is a private, non-government museum, supported primarily by donations.