What’s On

Following Space: Thaddeus Mosley & Alexander Calder

Nov 20 2024–Jun 1 2025

Selections from the Shirley Family Calder Collection

Nov 20 2024–Jun 1 2025

Deities & Demons: Supernatural In Japanese Art

Oct 20 2022–May 19 2025

Bethany Collins: At Sea

Nov 14 2024–May 4 2025

Meot: Korean Art from the Frank Bayley Collection

Aug 28 2024–Mar 9 2025

John Grade: Middle Fork

Feb 10 2017–Feb 2 2025

Joyce J. Scott: Walk a Mile in My Dreams

Oct 17 2024–Jan 19 2025

Art and Commerce

Jul 27 2024–Jan 12 2025

Jacob Lawrence: American Storyteller

Jun 28 2024–Jan 5 2025

Calder: In Motion, The Shirley Family Collection

Nov 8 2023–Oct 20 2024

Remember the Rain

Aug 18 2023–Oct 13 2024

Poke in the Eye: Art of the West Coast Counterculture

Jun 21–Sep 2 2024

Material Presence

Jan 18–Jul 14 2024

Anida Yoeu Ali: Hybrid Skin, Mythical Presence

Jan 18–Jul 7 2024

Elizabeth Malaska: All Be Your Mirror

Nov 17 2023–Jun 16 2024

Jaune Quick-to-See Smith: Memory Map

Feb 29–May 12 2024

Honoring 50 Years of Papunya Tula Painting

Apr 15 2022–Apr 28 2024

Body Language

Dec 22 2018–Mar 17 2024

France: Inside and Out

Mar 15 2014–Mar 17 2024

Hokusai: Inspiration and Influence from the Collection of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston

Oct 19 2023–Jan 21 2024

Be/Longing: Contemporary Asian Art

Feb 8 2020–Dec 10 2023

Renegade Edo and Paris: Japanese Prints and Toulouse-Lautrec

Jul 21–Dec 3 2023

Reverberations: Contemporary Art and Modern Classics

Dec 22 2022–Oct 29 2023

Femme Noire

Aug 21–Sep 30 2023

Amoako Boafo: Soul of Black Folks

Jul 13–Sep 10 2023

Benin Art: Collecting Concerns

Sep 15 2021–Aug 28 2023

Kenzan Tsutakawa-Chinn: Gather

May 7 2021–Aug 13 2023

Howard L. GATO Mitchell: Forgive Us Our Debts

Feb 8–Aug 6 2023

Beyond the Mountain: Contemporary Chinese Artists on the Classical Forms

Jul 22 2022–Jul 2 2023

Ikat: A World of Compelling Cloth

Mar 9–May 29 2023

Anthony White: Limited Liability

Aug 5 2022–Jan 29 2023

Emblems of Encounter: Europe and Africa Over 500 Years

Jan 23 2016–Jan 29 2023

Dawoud Bey & Carrie Mae Weems: In Dialogue

Nov 17 2022–Jan 22 2023

Indigenous Matrix: Northwest Women Printmakers

Jun 15–Dec 11 2022

Frisson: The Richard E. Lang and Jane Lang Davis Collection

Oct 15 2021–Nov 27 2022

Alberto Giacometti: Toward the Ultimate Figure

Jul 14–Oct 9 2022

Folding Into Shape: Japanese Design and Crafts

Sep 18 2021–Sep 25 2022

Lauren Halsey

Feb 4–Jul 17 2022

Semiotics of the Street

Feb 4–Jul 17 2022

Embodied Change: South Asian Art Across Time

Jan 14–Jul 10 2022

Avian Avatars: Birds in Northwest Coast Prints from the Colwell Collection

Dec 15 2021–Jun 12 2022

Abstract Visions

Aug 6 2021–Jun 7 2022

New York to Seattle: Case Studies in American Abstraction & Realism

Jan 15 2020–Jun 7 2022

Northwest Modernism: Four Japanese Americans

Mar 20 2021–Jun 7 2022

Our Blue Planet: Global Visions of Water

Mar 18–May 30 2022

Pure Amusements: Wealth, Leisure, and Culture in Late Imperial China

Dec 24 2016–May 15 2022

Walkabout: The Art of Dorothy Napangardi

May 5 2018–Apr 3 2022

Imogen Cunningham: A Retrospective

Nov 18 2021–Feb 6 2022

Barbara Earl Thomas: The Geography of Innocence

Nov 20 2020–Jan 2 2022

INKED! Northwest Coast Silkscreen Prints from the Colwell Collection

Mar 5–Dec 12 2021

Monet at Étretat

Jul 1–Oct 17 2021

Dawn Cerny: Les Choses

Apr 9–Sep 26 2021

Exceptionally Ordinary: Mingei 1920–2020

Dec 14 2019–Sep 6 2021

Jacob Lawrence: The American Struggle

Mar 5–May 23 2021

Paintings and Drawings of the European Avant-Garde: The Rubinstein Bequest

Apr 23 2014–May 16 2021

Storied Objects

Nov 13 2019–Apr 26 2021

Big Picture: Art After 1945

Jul 23 2016–Apr 26 2021

On the Edge

Aug 16 2018–Apr 26 2021

Material Difference: German Perspectives

Mar 1 2019–Apr 11 2021

Lynne Siefert: Ark

Oct 16 2020–Mar 28 2021

Michael Nicoll Yahgulanaas: Carpe Fin

Nov 1 2019–Mar 7 2021

City of Tomorrow: Jinny Wright and the Art that Shaped a New Seattle

Oct 23 2020–Jan 18 2021

YOU ARE ON INDIGENOUS LAND: places/displaces

Apr 6 2019–Dec 6 2020

Claire Partington: Taking Tea

Dec 7 2018–Nov 15 2020

Aaron Fowler: Into Existence

Dec 13 2019–Oct 25 2020

Danny Lyon: Dissenter in His Own Country

Nov 13 2019–Oct 25 2020

Georgia O'Keeffe: Abstract Variations

Mar 5–Sep 7 2020

John Akomfrah: Future History

Mar 5–Sep 7 2020

A Cultural Legacy: A Series of Paintings from the Allen Family Collection

Jul 24 2019–Mar 23 2020

Regina Silveira: Octopus Wrap

May 11 2019–Mar 8 2020

Sound Affect

Apr 27 2019–Feb 2 2020

Flesh and Blood: Italian Masterpieces from the Capodimonte Museum

Oct 17 2019–Jan 26 2020

American Modernism

Aug 22 2018–Jan 15 2020

Gentleman Warrior: Art of the Samurai

Mar 16–Dec 1 2019

Natalie Ball: Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Snake

Aug 10–Nov 17 2019

Zanele Muholi: Somnyama Ngonyama, Hail the Dark Lioness

Jul 10–Nov 3 2019

Victorian Radicals: From the Pre-Raphaelites to the Arts & Crafts Movement

Jun 13–Sep 8 2019

Hear & Now

Apr 24–Jul 15 2019

In This Imperfect Present Moment

Jul 21 2018–Jun 16 2019

Jeffrey Gibson: Like a Hammer

Feb 28–May 12 2019

New Topographics

Jun 30 2018–Apr 14 2019

Pacific Currents

Mar 14 2015–Mar 17 2019

Spencer Finch: The Western Mystery

Apr 1 2017–Mar 17 2019

Noble Splendor: Art of Japanese Aristocrats

Jul 28 2018–Mar 3 2019

Peacock in the Desert: The Royal Arts of Jodhpur, India

Oct 18 2018–Jan 21 2019

Extreme Nature: Two Landscape Paintings from the Age of Enlightenment

Dec 15 2017–Dec 9 2018

Double Exposure: Edward S. Curtis, Marianne Nicolson, Tracy Rector, Will Wilson

Jun 14–Sep 9 2018

Basquiat—Untitled

Mar 21–Aug 13 2018

Close-Ups

Aug 17 2016–Aug 6 2018

Project 42: Molly Vaughan

Apr 21–Aug 6 2018

Talents and Beauties: Art of Women in Japan

Nov 4 2017–Jul 15 2018

Sondra Perry: Eclogue for [in]HABITABILITY

Dec 8 2017–Jul 8 2018

Everyday Poetics

Nov 18 2017–Jun 17 2018

Billabong Dreams

Mar 14 2015–May 20 2018

Figuring History: Robert Colescott, Kerry James Marshall, Mickalene Thomas

Feb 15–May 13 2018

African Renaissances

May 6 2016–Feb 25 2018

Andrew Wyeth: In Retrospect

Oct 19 2017–Jan 15 2018

Views From Venice

Dec 10 2016–Dec 10 2017

Sam Gilliam

May 6–Nov 19 2017

Denzil Hurley: Disclosures

May 20–Nov 5 2017

Common Pleasures: Art of Urban Life in Edo Japan

Apr 15–Oct 22 2017

Christopher Paul Jordan: Latent Home Zero

Jun 23–Oct 2 2017

Yayoi Kusama: Infinity Mirrors

Jun 30–Sep 10 2017

Seeing Nature

Feb 16–May 23 2017

Jennifer West: Film is Dead . . .

Nov 19 2016–May 7 2017

Jacob Lawrence: The Migration Series

Jan 21–Apr 23 2017

Victoria Haven: Blue Sun

Apr 2 2016–Mar 5 2017

Wendy Red Star: 2016 Betty Bowen Award Winner

Nov 10 2016–Mar 5 2017

Ai Weiwei: Colored Vases

Apr 5 2014–Feb 26 2017

Awakened Ones: Buddhas of Asia

Mar 5 2016–Feb 26 2017

Tabaimo: Utsutsushi Utsushi

Nov 11 2016–Feb 26 2017

Terratopia: The Chinese Landscape in Painting and Film

Jul 2 2016–Feb 26 2017

Yves Saint Laurent: The Perfection of Style

Oct 11 2016–Jan 8 2017

Go Tell It: Civil Rights Photography

Apr 30 2016–Jan 2 2017

Europe Imagines the East

Mar 15 2014–Nov 27 2016

Light and Space

Aug 15 2015–Nov 6 2016

GOLD: Japanese Art from the Collection

Apr 9–Oct 9 2016

Mood Indigo: Textiles from Around the World

Apr 9–Oct 9 2016

Tamiko Thiel: Gardens of the Anthropocene

Jun 25–Oct 3 2016

Graphic Masters: Dürer, Rembrandt, Hogarth, Goya, Picasso, R. Crumb

Jun 9–Aug 28 2016

Glass at Pilchuck: Making History

Mar 8 2014–Jul 31 2016

The Duchamp Effect

Jan 10 2015–Jul 24 2016

Remains of the Day

Feb 28 2015–Jul 10 2016

Martha Rosler: Below the Surface

Dec 19 2015–Jul 4 2016

Rebel Rebel

Aug 29 2015–Jul 4 2016

Robert Rauschenberg: Art and Life in Real Time

Aug 29 2015–Jul 4 2016

Journey To Dunhuang: Buddhist Art Of The Silk Road Caves

Mar 5–Jun 12 2016

Kehinde Wiley: A New Republic

Feb 11–May 8 2016

Brenna Youngblood: abstracted realities

Nov 13 2015–Apr 17 2016

Paradox of Place: Contemporary Korean Art

Oct 31 2015–Mar 13 2016

Jack Daws: Inconvenient Truths

Nov 16 2015–Mar 6 2016

Sam Vernon

Mar 28 2015–Mar 6 2016

Conceal/Reveal: Making Meaning in Chinese Art

Dec 20 2014–Feb 14 2016

Intimate Impressionism from the National Gallery of Art

Oct 1 2015–Jan 10 2016

Samuel F. B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre

Sep 16 2015–Jan 10 2016

Guido van der Werve: "Nummer veertien, home"

Jul 16–Nov 29 2015

Alejandro Guzman's Creative Misunderstandings

Jun 18–Nov 1 2015

Calligraphic Abstraction

May 9–Oct 4 2015

Chiho Aoshima: Rebirth of the World

May 2–Oct 4 2015

African Art Takes a Stretch

May 24 2014–Sep 7 2015

Disguise: Masks & Global African Art

Jun 18–Sep 7 2015

Dan Webb: Break it Down

Jun 25–Sep 5 2015

Cool Objectivity

Jan 10–Aug 16 2015

Out of the Box: Joseph Cornell and Ken Price

Feb 28–Aug 16 2015

From Abstract Expression to Colored Planes

Mar 16 2013–Aug 1 2015

Harun Farocki

Mar 19–Jul 12 2015

Indo-Persian Art at the Crossroads

Dec 20 2014–Jun 21 2015

Indigenous Beauty

Feb 12–May 17 2015

Seattle Collects Northwest Coast Native Art

Feb 12–May 17 2015

Personal Histories

Jul 5 2014–May 3 2015

Nature and Pattern in Japanese Design

Dec 21 2013–Apr 19 2015

Live On: Mr.’s Japanese Neo-Pop

Nov 22 2014–Apr 5 2015

Sol Lewitt: Seven Cubes

Mar 15 2014–Mar 8 2015

Visual Vertigo

May 4 2013–Mar 1 2015

City Dwellers: Contemporary Art from India

Aug 30 2014–Feb 16 2015

Ralph Pugay: 2014 Betty Bowen Award Winner

Oct 17 2014–Jan 18 2015

Pop Departures

Oct 9 2014–Jan 11 2015

American Art Masterworks

Oct 11–Dec 7 2014

Chen Shaoxiong: Ink. History. Media.

Jul 19–Dec 7 2014

Mughal Painting: Power and Piety

Jul 19–Dec 7 2014

Trimpin: YOU ARE HEAR

Jun 14–Oct 30 2014

Deco Japan: Shaping Art and Culture, 1920–1945

May 10–Oct 19 2014

Modernism in the Pacific Northwest: The Mythic and the Mystical

Jun 19–Sep 7 2014

Hometown Boy: Liu Xiaodong

Aug 31 2013–Jun 29 2014

Inked: Wan Qingli

Aug 31 2013–Jun 29 2014

LaToya Ruby Frazier: Born By a River

Dec 13 2013–Jun 22 2014

Broncho Buster

Mar 12–Jun 15 2014

Miró: The Experience of Seeing

Feb 13–May 26 2014

William Cordova: machu picchu after dark (pa' victoria santa cruz, macario sakay y aaron dixon) 2003 – 2014

Sep 20 2013–May 11 2014

A Fuller View of China, Japan and Korea

Aug 10 2013–Apr 13 2014

Light in the Darkness

May 14 2009–Mar 9 2014

Leo Berk: 2013 Betty Bowen Award Winner

Nov 7 2013–Feb 23 2014

Robert Davidson: Abstract Impulse

Nov 16 2013–Feb 16 2014

Sandra Cinto: Encontro das Águas (Encounter of Waters)

Apr 14 2012–Feb 9 2014

Peru: Kingdoms of the Sun and the Moon

Oct 17 2013–Jan 5 2014

Going for Gold

Nov 3 2012–Dec 8 2013

In a Silent Way

May 18–Dec 1 2013

Minimal Art and its Legacy

Mar 16–Nov 3 2013

The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection: Fifty Works for Fifty States

Mar 16–Oct 27 2013

The Western Oracle: We Will Tear the Roof Off the Mother: Heather Hart

Jun 22–Oct 13 2013

Future Beauty: 30 Years of Japanese Fashion

Jun 27–Sep 8 2013

Artful Reproductions

Apr 30 2011–Aug 4 2013

Legends, Tales, Poetry: Visual Narrative in Japanese Art

Dec 22 2012–Jul 21 2013

Together Again: Nuxalk Faces of the Sky

Dec 5 2012–Jun 23 2013

Veils and Vesper

Jun 14–21 2013

European Masters: The Treasures of Seattle

Feb 14–May 19 2013

Rembrandt, Van Dyck, Gainsborough: The Treasures of Kenwood House, London

Feb 14–May 19 2013

Morality Tales: American Art and Social Protest, 1935-45

Jun 29 2012–May 5 2013

The distant relative who calls at midnight

Apr 28 2012–Apr 21 2013

Elles: SAM: Singular Works by Seminal Women Artists

Oct 11 2012–Feb 17 2013

Elles: Women Artists from the Centre Pompidou, Paris

Oct 11 2012–Jan 13 2013

Many Arrows from Rama's Bow: Paintings of the Ramayana

Sep 1–Dec 2 2012

Women's Paintings from the Land of Sita

Sep 1–Dec 2 2012

Order and Border

Mar 6 2010–Oct 21 2012

Jenny Heishman: 2011 Betty Bowen Award Winner

Oct 20 2011–Oct 1 2012

Sarah Bergmann: Portal to the Pollinator Pathway

Jun 27–Sep 16 2012

Ancestral Modern: Australian Aboriginal Art from the Kaplan & Levi Collection

May 31–Sep 2 2012

Sarah Rapson: Eastcliff

Aug 1–31 2012

American Art in the 1930s and 1940s

Jul 30 2011–Aug 26 2012

Burden of History

Apr 9 2011–Aug 26 2012

Here and Now: New Ceramic Acquisitions

Jan 21–Aug 26 2012

Colors of the Oasis: Central Asian Ikats

Mar 15–Aug 5 2012

Picturing The Artist

Mar 14 2011–Jul 1 2012

Theaster Gates: The Listening Room

Dec 9 2011–Jul 1 2012

SAM Next: Mika Tajima: After the Martini Shot

Jul 16 2011–Jun 17 2012

Gauguin and Polynesia: An Elusive Paradise

Feb 9–Apr 29 2012

A Better Promise

Aug 28 2010–Mar 4 2012

Painting Seattle: Kamekichi Tokita and Kenjiro Nomura

Oct 22 2011–Feb 19 2012

Adrian Paci: Video Work

Dec 5 2011–Feb 14 2012

Live Long and Prosper: Auspicious Motifs in East Asian Art

Aug 20 2010–Feb 12 2012

Looking West, Finding East

Aug 20 2010–Feb 12 2012

Here and Now: Location, Location, Location: Tea and Coffee Services by John Marshall

Aug 20 2011–Jan 15 2012

Luminous: The Art of Asia

Oct 13 2011–Jan 8 2012

Our National Game

Jul 16–Nov 27 2011

Seattle as Collector: Office of Arts and Cultural Affairs Turns 40

May 11–Oct 23 2011

Ellen Lesperance: 2010 Betty Bowen Award Winner

Oct 18 2010–Oct 3 2011

On-Site

Jun 5–Sep 30 2011

Beauty & Bounty: American Art in an Age of Exploration

Jun 30–Sep 11 2011

Behind the Scenes: The Real Story of the Quileute Wolves

Aug 14 2010–Aug 14 2011

Save the Indian and Kill the Man: New Photographs by Matika Wilbur

Jan 10–Aug 14 2011

Alden Mason

Nov 6 2010–Jul 17 2011

Freeing the Figure

Nov 5 2009–Jul 3 2011

SAM Next: Cris Brodahl

Jul 3 2010–Jul 3 2011

Rineke Dijkstra: Ruth Drawing Picasso, Tate Liverpool

Nov 2 2010–Apr 24 2011

Amy Blakemore: Photographs 1988–2008

Sep 4 2010–Feb 27 2011

A Quartet of Suits

Oct 7 2008–Feb 14 2011

Picasso: Masterpieces from the Musée National Picasso, Paris

Oct 8 2010–Jan 17 2011

Fleeting Beauty (Reprise)

Jul 29 2010–Jan 16 2011

David Wojnarowicz: A Fire in My Belly

Dec 21–31 2010

New Old and New New

Dec 12 2009–Oct 31 2010

Gretchen Bennett: I Don't Blame You

Mar 3–Oct 27 2010

James Ensor and Georg Baselitz: Graphic Works

Apr 10–Oct 24 2010

Summer Projects

Jun 12–Oct 3 2010

Everything Under the Sun: Photographs by Imogen Cunningham

Jul 11 2009–Aug 22 2010

Geoff McFetridge: in The Mind

Mar 29 2008–Aug 8 2010

The End of the Ancestors: The Narrative Art of Bruce subiyay Miller

Dec 2 2009–Aug 1 2010

SAM Next: Heide Hinrichs

Nov 7 2009–Jun 13 2010

Annual Ikebana Exhibition 2010: Ikebana International Seattle Chapter 19

May 15–15 2010

Alexander Calder: A Balancing Act

Oct 15 2009–Apr 11 2010

Nicolas Provost: Selected Works

Sep 16 2009–Feb 28 2010

Transforming Traditions: Japanese and Korean Art Since 1800

May 23 2009–Feb 21 2010

A Bead Quiz

Aug 5 2008–Feb 12 2010

Michelangelo Public and Private: Drawings for the Sistine Chapel and Other Treasures from the Casa Buonarroti

Oct 15 2009–Jan 31 2010

A Black-and-White World: The Art and Lessons of Chinese Rubbings

Apr 10–Nov 29 2009

Andrew Wyeth: Remembrance

Jun 25–Oct 18 2009

SAM Next: Corin Hewitt

Apr 4–Oct 18 2009

Target Practice: Painting Under Attack 1949–78

Jun 25–Sep 7 2009

Titus Kaphar: History in the Making

Apr 3–Sep 7 2009

Young Americans: Video Installation

Mar 19–Aug 30 2009

George de Forest Brush: The Indian Paintings

Feb 26–May 25 2009

Tack and Jibe

Nov 21 2008–May 4 2009

Black Art

May 2 2008–Mar 15 2009

SAM Next: Enrico David

Nov 8 2008–Mar 15 2009

Edward Hopper's Women

Nov 13 2008–Mar 1 2009

Thermostat: Video and the Pacific Northwest

Aug 5 2008–Feb 5 2009

Inspired Simplicity: Contemporary Art from Korea

Jul 19–Dec 7 2008

Su-Mei Tse: East Wind

Apr 5–Dec 7 2008

Dennis Oppenheim: Safety Cones

May 17–Oct 26 2008

SAM Next: Oscar Tuazon and Eli Hansen

Apr 19–Oct 26 2008

Fresh Impressionism

May 27–Sep 21 2008

Re+Vision Final Projects Student Installation: Re+Vision: Design Your (Neighbor)hood

Aug 6–22 2008

The Gates of Paradise: Lorenzo Ghiberti's Renaissance Masterpiece

Jan 26–Apr 6 2008

Su-Mei Tse: East Wind

Apr 5–5 2008

Gaylen Hansen: Three Decades of Paintings

Oct 11 2007–Jan 6 2008

Ink in Motion:The Art of Sio Ieng Ng

Aug 9–Dec 2 2007

Shu: Reinventing Books in Contemporary Chinese Art

Aug 9–Dec 2 2007

Five Masterpieces of Asian Art: The Story of their Conservation

May 5–Sep 9 2007

SAM at 75: Building a Collection for Seattle

May 5–Sep 9 2007