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Smithsonian American Art Museum
November 8, 2024 – September 14, 2025
Open Daily, 11:30 a.m.–7:00 p.m

SAAM’s groundbreaking exhibition, featuring 82 artworks created between 1792 and 2023, examines for the first time the ways in which sculpture has shaped and reflected attitudes and understandings about race in the United States.

How does American sculpture intersect with the history of race in the United States?

The Shape of Power: Stories of Race and American Sculpture examines the role of sculpture in understanding and constructing the concept of race in the United States. The exhibition brings together 82 sculptures created between 1792 and 2023 and ranging in size from palm-sized coins to monumental statues created from diverse media such as bronze, marble, shoes, paper, and hair. Made by 70 different artists, these sculptures are displayed to allow for juxtapositions of historical and contemporary works that invite dialogue and reflection on notions of power and identity. American sculpture in its many forms also has served as an expression of resistance, liberation, and a vital means for reclaiming identity.

The exhibition draws extensively on works from SAAM’s collection, which is the largest collection of American sculpture in the world. 

The exhibition and related book, published in association with Princeton University Press, contributes new scholarship to the understudied field of American sculpture, which hasn’t been the subject of a major publication survey in more than 50 years. 

The Shape of Power is organized by Karen Lemmey, the Lucy S. Rhame Curator of Sculpture at the Smithsonian American Art Museum; Tobias Wofford, associate professor of art history at Virginia Commonwealth University; and Grace Yasumura, assistant curator at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.  

Opening Reception: Friday, October 25, 6–8 pm

Derek Eller Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of new sculptures and paintings by Jiha Moon. Borrowing imagery, forms, and materials from Asian folklore and traditions, contemporary popular culture, and Western art history, Moon creates a mashed-up globalized dialect that speaks to identity, cultural displacement, and miscommunication.

The ever-expanding vocabulary within Moon’s visual language takes some new and notable turns in this exhibition. She explains: 

“The title Fool’s Moon comes from my childhood memories of making wishes while gazing at the full moon on Lunar New Year’s Day in Korea. During those moments, we hoped for good health and happiness in the days ahead. This ritual has become a habit for me, and every time I see the full moon, I engage in wishful thinking. It’s not religion, totemism, or witchcraft—but in some ways, it might be a little of all three. 

I’m presenting acrylic paintings on Hanji paper, hybrid ceramic paintings, ceramic sculptures, and Korean Bojagi which are quilt painting collaborations I made with my 97-year-old grandmother. I incorporate iconic images, shapes, and colors to convey my wishful thinking during these chaotic times. The powerful Korean Haetae—a mythical hybrid creature—is reimagined as my silly, helpless poodles in a large painting on paper titled Blue Haetae. In my ceramic piece Banana Wreath, rotten banana peels symbolize the aging process, especially that of a woman’s skin, and I seek to glorify this transformation by using crystal glaze. 

In Nocturne (American Beautyberry), I use banana peels as symbols of second-generation Asian Americans—pejoratively compared to bananas, yellow on the outside and white on the inside—who are taught by their elders to survive through assimilation. These figures are camouflaged within night scenes, accented with the hues of American beautyberry. Additionally, I reference the Korean drag queen Kimchi and Keanu Reeves, whose life quotes resonate deeply with me, borrowing their voices to tell my story. 

In today’s vulnerable climate, I feel that we are all fools, clinging to hope and making wishes— sentiments I capture and reflect upon through the works in this exhibition.” 

Jiha Moon (b. 1973) lives and works in Tallahassee, Florida. She received a BFA from Korea University, Seoul, an MFA from Ewha Woman’s University, Seoul, and an MFA from the University of Iowa. She is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Art at Florida State University, Tallahassee. Moon is a 2023 John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellow in Fine Arts. Her work will be featured in the upcoming exhibition The Shape of Power: Stories of Race in American Sculpture at Smithsonian American Art Museum (November 2024). Moon has exhibited in museums and galleries internationally including the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA; Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC; FSU Museum of Fine Arts, Tallahassee, FL; Crystal Bridges Museum, Bentonville, AR; and The Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, PA. Her work is in the collections of the Asian Art Museum, San Francisco, CA; Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC; High Museum, Atlanta, GA; Asia Society and Museum, New York, NY; Mint Museum, Charlotte, NC; and Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, among many others. This will be her third solo exhibition at the gallery.

derekeller.com/

With a deceptively lighthearted touch, Jiha Moon (b. 1973, South Korea) examines the entanglements of, as she puts it, “globalization, identity, and the visual information overload of contemporary society.” Incorporating painting, drawing, collaged Hanji paper, and ceramics, One An Other is now on view in the museum lobby. It represents the most ambitious site-specific installation to date by Moon, who received her MFA degree at the University of Iowa in 2002.

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On April 5, 2023, the Board of Trustees of the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation approved the awarding of Guggenheim Fellowships to a diverse group of 171 exceptional individuals. Chosen from a rigorous application and peer review process out of almost 2,500 applicants, these successful applicants were appointed on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise.

https://www.gf.org/announcements/

This Present Moment: Crafting Better World
May 13, 2022-April 2, 2023 Renwick Gallery, Smithsonian, Washington DC

This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World showcases American craft like never before. The exhibition highlights the role that artists play in our world to spark essential conversations, stories of resilience, and methods of activism—showing us a more relational and empathetic world. It centers more expansive definitions and acknowledgments of often-overlooked histories and contributions of women, people of color, and other marginalized communities. On view at SAAM’s Renwick Gallery, This Present Moment activates two floors of gallery space, highlighting over 150 artworks from the museum’s permanent collection in a range of craft mediums from fiber and ceramics to glass and mixed media. Approximately 135 of the featured artworks are new acquisitions, never before seen at the Renwick Gallery.

This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World - americanart.si.edu