Must See Art Exhibits of 2022

Now that we are in the grip of cold weather season, what are you doing to keep your days full and exciting? It is never too late to learn something new. We are beyond lucky to live in a region dotted with beautiful towns, and near Washington, D.C., Baltimore, and the Eastern Shore, all of which are filled with museums showcasing everything from bay life to art to African American heritage to city culture itself. Spend this winter taking day trips to your favorite local museums and adventure off to some new ones to see temporary exhibits ongoing now. Be sure to check the museum’s website before visiting, for the most up-to-date visitor and COVID-related information.

Banneker-Douglass Museum, Annapolis

Freedom Bound: Runaways of the Chesapeake – Open Through March 1st, 2022 This powerful exhibit tells nine stories of resistance to bondage and servitude in the Chesapeake Region from the Colonial Period to the American Civil War (1728–1864). The Banneker-Douglass Museum invites visitors to consider what resistance and freedom look like in the present day.

Mitchell Gallery, St. John’s College, Annapolis

Floating Beauty: Women in the Art of Ukiyo-E – Through February 25th, 2022 This exhibition of 25 woodblock prints in the ukiyo-e style examines historical perspectives on women and their depiction in art during Japan’s Edo period (1615–1858).

Annapolis Maritime Museum, Annapolis

McNasby’s Oyster Company: An Eastport Landmark – Virtual Exhibit Founded in 1886 by William McNasby Sr., the McNasby Oyster Company began as a single storefront on Compromise Street. The business continued to grow until it became necessary to expand to a packing plant on 723 Second Street in the community of Eastport, the same historic structure where the Annapolis Maritime Museum stands today. The McNasby Oyster Co. left a lasting impression upon Eastport, and a legacy that the Annapolis Maritime Museum continues to uphold in telling the stories of the local watermen.

Arnie Gay: The Father of Annapolis’ Modern Sailing Industry – Virtual Exhibit Discover how Arnie Gay, a hardworking dedicated sailor, transformed the Annapolis waterfront into the Sailing Capital of America. Follow Gay’s story from sailing into Annapolis harbor aboard Delilah through his work with the Annapolis Yacht Club and the many changes Gay inspired in our modern waterfront.

Ward Museum of Waterfowl Art, Salisbury

Pivot! – Through February 13th, 2022 During the COVID-19 pandemic new methods of teaching, shopping, dating, and creating art became the byproducts of necessity. The world was forced to adapt. Artists, along the with rest of the world, had to pivot. Pivot!—a  new exhibit in the Ward Museum’s Welcome Gallery—will feature the work of established local artists whose subject matter and media were approached through the lens of a “new normal,” since the pandemic began.

Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, St. Michaels

18th National Exhibition of the American Society of Marine Arts – Through February 27th, 2022 On the heels of the American Society of Marine Artists’ 40th anniversary, the ASMA biennial exhibition is a juried selection of paintings, drawings, sculptures, scrimshaw, and hand-pulled prints submitted by members. The ASMA 18th National Exhibition will include work by many of the most prominent contemporary marine artists working in the nation today.

Academy Art Museum, Easton

Werner Drewes Retrospective – Through March 2nd, 2022 Werner Drewes (American, born Germany, 1899–1985) was a painter and printmaker who helped shape the role of abstraction in printmaking. The exhibition charts Drewes’ career from the Bauhaus to the United States around World War II, as well as his diverse artistic interests: ubiquitous American landscapes, such as skyscrapers and wheat processing plants; intimate self-portraits as the artist battles cancer and later recovers; and close studies of colorful abstract forms illustrate the rich creative world of a pivotal artist in American modernism. 

Zoe Friedman: Sentient Forest – Through August 31st, 2022 Drawing on her recent experience of becoming a mother, artist Zoe Friedman has created an immersive and layered universe of flora and fauna that explores the exuberant yet mysterious forces of life. Combining drawing, illustration, hand-cut paper, digital illustration and bespoke lighting elements, Friedman’s process mirrors the simultaneous joy and complexity of existence and invites the viewer to reflect on birth and growth.

American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore

A Visionary Spirit for Invention – Through May 23rd, 2022 “A Visionary Spirit for Invention” is a bespoke art exhibition selected from works within the permanent collection of The American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM) and assembled out of a great shared respect and affection between the State of Maryland and the EU, bolstered from a tour of AVAM by all twenty-seven EU Ambassadors to the US, that occurred in December 2019.

Baltimore Museum of Art, Baltimore

The Rembrandt Effect – Through April 10th, 2022 Rembrandt van Rijn (1606–1669, Netherlands) is universally acknowledged as one of history’s greatest etchers, uniquely manipulating the etching needle and ink to create contemplative and affecting prints that have engaged viewers across centuries. His influence on the history of Western printmaking is foundational. This exhibition debuts in the new Nancy Dorman and Stanley Mazaroff Center for the Study of Prints, Drawings and Photographs, connecting extraordinary works by the Dutch master and European and American graphic artists of the 19th and 20th centuries in their potential to convey the interior and exterior worlds through print.

Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History, Washington, D.C.

Genome: Unlocking Life’s Code – Through Summer 2022 Discover how our expanding knowledge of genomes informs everything from personalized medicine to how we think about our human ancestors. This exhibit was developed by the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History in partnership with the National Human Genome Research Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health.

Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C.

One Life: Will Rogers – Virtual Exhibit The humorist and entertainer Will Rogers (1879­–1935) was born to a prominent Cherokee family on a ranch in Indian Territory, near present-day Oologah, Oklahoma. A prolific political commentator whose comedic wit crossed social divides, his career spanned vaudeville, silent films, “talkies,” radio, and newspaper. Rogers was also a great intellect, who authored six books, appeared in seventy-one films, wrote four thousand syndicated newspaper columns, and hosted a popular Sunday evening radio program. The precursor to Mickey Rooney, or today’s Stephen Colbert, Rogers voiced a perspective with broad appeal to the masses in the first half of the twentieth century.