An Art-Filled Weekend in Washington DC
Ahh, springtime in DC. I made it down for peak cherry blossom season a couple years ago as I was finishing up my Pointe of View series. This time, we drove down from Philadelphia the first weekend of April, missing the blooms by a week. But we still had a great weekend down in DC, headlined by the awesome installations at the Renwick Gallery.
Taiwanese American-owned Maketto. Combo clothing shop and cafe/restaurant.
Hello, White House.
Loved visiting “Wonder” at the Renwick Gallery with large-scale installations in every room. It’s no longer up! But you can still visit the Renwick free of charge thanks to it being part of the Smithsonian network of museums. Plexus A1 by Gabriel Dawes was one of my favorites. A rainbow made of threads.
Middle Fork by John Grade. Made of half a million little segments of reclaimed cedar.
The marbles: Folding the Chesapeake by Maya Lin.
ANONYMOUS DONOR made of tires by Chakaia Booker.
1.8 Renwick by Janet Echelman. I had also randomly came across her work last year in Boston (second to last photo).
Untitled, made from index cards by Tara Donovan.
We met up with Justin’s friend whose fiancee works for National Geographic (what a cool place to work) and she let us in to their museum. There was a cool exhibit there called Photo Ark by Joel Sartore: a project to photograph the world’s endangered species before they disappear.
Finally, we visited the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. I love that there are so many free museums in DC!
“Black & White” by Byron Kim and Glenn Ligon (whose America America lighted signs you might recognize). Both artists were struck by the limited pink-white range of “flesh-colored” paint available in art stores. Kim, who is Korean American, painted eight panels of pinkish flesh tone and Ligon , who is African American, painted eight panels using various black pigments. An elegant undermining of racial privilege.
“I Love Your Hair” by Tim Okamura in the Outwin 2016 portrait exhibit.
Anna Wu is a wedding and portrait photographer based in San Francisco but often traveling and working around the world. She creates beautiful, soft, and timeless imagery while capturing the most fleeting of moments. View her work at annawu.com, follow her daily adventures on instagram, or contact her to book your own session today.
