With the holidays rapidly approaching, now is the perfect time to visit that museum show you’ve been dying to see. Whether you’re on the East Coast or out West, down South, or in the Midwest, we’ve scoured the country for the best shows currently on view across America. So once you’ve opened all your presents and finished the holiday feast, hop in the car and hit check off the exhibitions on our must-see list.

EAST COAST MUSEUMS

“Wangechi Mutu: A Promise to Communicate” at the ICA Boston
Through December 31, 2018

Wangechi Mutu, A Promise to Communicate (2017) installation view, the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, 2017. Photo by Charles Mayer Photography, ©Wangechi Mutu.

The ICA Boston has commissioned Kenya-born artist Wangechi Mutu to make a new hanging wall piece for the museum lobby. The work is a rough, irrational interpretation of a world map, the landmasses formed from the gray rescue blankets distributed by humanitarian aid workers and rearranged. Viewers are invited to engage with the work by writing on the wall beneath the fabric, creating an open forum for conversation, as implied by the piece’s title, A Promise to Communicate.

The ICA Boston is located at 25 Harbor Shore Drive, Boston, Massachusetts. General admission is $15. 

“Ansel Adams in Our Time” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
December 13, 2018–February 24, 2019

Ansel Adams, Moonrise, Hernandez, New Mexico (1941). Photo courtesy of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

The largest privately held trove of Ansel Adams photographs belongs to the Lane Collection, and it is almost never exhibited. Catch highlights of their holdings at the MFA Boston, with works from the 1920s to the ’70s, including mural-sized prints and other rarities.

The MFA Boston is located at the Avenue of the Arts at 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts. General admission is $25.

“Winnie-the-Pooh: Exploring a Classic” at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Through January 6, 2019

An illustration for Winnie-the-Pooh by E.H. Shepherd. Image courtesy of MFA Boston.

The Victoria and Albert Museum has lent a large selection of archival documents connected to the beloved Winnie-the-Pooh children’s book series, including original drawings, letters, photographs, early editions, and assorted ephemera. The first book was published in 1926, by author A.A. Milne with illustrations by E.H. Shepherd, and has since been published in more than 50 languages.

The MFA Boston is located at the Avenue of the Arts at 465 Huntington Avenue, Boston, Massachusetts. General admission is $25.

“Laurie Anderson: Chalkroom & Aloft” and “James Turrell: Into the Light” at MASS MOCA
Through 2019

Laurie Anderson, “The Chalkroom” (2017). VR installation with Hsin-Chien Huang. Photo: Christin DeFord.

MASS MOCA currently has two exhibitions by artists at the forefront of truly “immersive experiences”: Laurie Anderson and James Turrell. Two of Anderson’s virtual reality works are on view, plus an audio archive and a working studio, alongside a selection of light installations by Turrell.

MASS MOCA is located at 1040 MASS MoCA WAY, North Adams, MA. General admission is $20. 

“Thomas Gainsborough: Drawings at the Clark” at the Clark Art Institute, Williamstown, Massachusetts
Through March 17, 2019

Thomas Gainsborough, Landscape with a Clump of Trees on a Hillock (circa early 1760s). Courtesy of the Clark Art Institute, Gift of the Manton Art Foundation in memory of Sir Edwin and Lady Manton.

The Clark is presenting its entire collection of rarely exhibited landscape drawings by Thomas Gainsborough (1727–1788), showcasing the British artist’s imaginative approach to the genre in idealized scenes of the countryside. The museum’s complementary exhibition, “Turner and Constable: The Inhabited Landscape” (December 15, 2018–March 10, 2019), presents landscapes by J.M.W. Turner (1775–1851) and John Constable (1776–1837), who built on Gainsborough’s example to help establish a tradition of great British landscape art.

The Clark Art Institute is located at 225 South Street, Williamstown, Massachusetts. General admission is $20.

“Nature’s Nation: American Art and Environment” at the Princeton University Art Museum
Through January 6, 2019

Albert Bierstadt, Bridal Veil Falls, Yosemite. Courtesy of the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh. (Left.) Valerie Hegarty, Fallen Bierstadt. Courtesy of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, gift of Campari USA. (Right.)

The natural landscape of the US has been an important touchstone throughout the nation’s art history, with stunning views of the great outdoors helping contribute to the environmentalist and conservationist movements as the need for preservation became more widely understood. In this exhibition, curators Karl Kusserow and Alan C. Braddock have brought together 120 works, from canvases from the great Hudson River Valley School to contemporary video art, offering a picture of the country’s environmental history as seen through the lens of American art.

The Princeton University Art Museum is located at Elm Drive, Princeton, New Jersey. Admission is free.

“Little Ladies: Victorian Fashion Dolls and the Feminine Ideal” at the Philadelphia Museum of Art
Through March 3, 2019

Fashion Plate from Godey’s Lady’s Book (March 1874). Courtesy of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Barbie, created in 1959, is widely credited as the first adult fashion doll. But in the mid-19th century, there was “Miss Fanchon,” a toy doll with a bisque head, a leather body, and a 150 clothing items for little girls to play with, preparing them for life as a proper Victorian lady. The Philadelphia Museum is spotlighting four popular Victorian dolls—plus their adorable, incredibly detailed accessories—to demonstrate how girls’ playthings helped mold them into the feminine ideal.

The Philadelphia Museum of Art is located at 2600 Benjamin Franklin Parkway, Philadelphia. General admission is $20. 

“Eye to I: Self-Portraits from 1900 to Today” at the National Portrait Gallery, Washington, DC
Through August 18, 2019

Elaine de Kooning, Self-Portrait, 1968. Courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution; the Ruth Bowman and Harry Kahn Twentieth-Century American Self-Portrait Collection, ©Elaine de Kooning Trust.

In celebration of its 50th anniversary, the National Portrait Gallery has tapped over 75 pieces from its vast collection of self-portraits, from artists including Imogen Cunningham, Elaine de Kooning, Jacob Lawrence, Patricia Cronin, Andy Warhol, and Lucas Samaras, for this exhibition exploring the evolution of the form throughout American history. The early history of photography is represented by an image taken at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair by female photojournalist Jessie Tarbox Beals, while a nude self-portrait completed at age 80 by Alice Neel upends the tradition of the female nude. And for an utterly 21st-century take on the self-portrait, there’s Evan Roth’s Internet Cache Portrait, a 60-foot-long vinyl print out of every image he saw on the internet during a six month period this year.

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery is located at 8th and F Streets, NW, Washington, DC. Admission is free. 

“Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Pulse” at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
Through April 28, 2019

Installation view of “Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Pulse” at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden. Photo courtesy of the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden.

Mexican-Canadian artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, whose work exists at the nexus of art, technology, and design, presents three art installations based on interactive technology. His immersive environments are equipped with heart-rate sensors that record visitors’ biometric data, generating kinetic and audiovisual experiences based on their vital signs.

The Hirshhorn Museum is located at Independence Avenue & 7th Street, Washington, DC. Admission is free. 

“Charline Von Heyl: Snake Eyes” at the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC
Through January 27, 2019

Charline von Heyl, P (2008). Courtesy of the artist and Petzel Gallery.

Charline von Heyl’s paintings range from geometric-abstractions to hazy clouds of color—there is no overarching theme, but there is plenty to marvel at. Throughout this exhibition, the artist’s largest institutional show to date, there are cartoon-like graphics, a range of textures and styles, intricate patterns, and titles that challenge what you think a painting is about.

The Hirshhorn Museum is located at Independence Avenue & 7th Street, Washington, DC. Admission is free. 

“Gordon Parks: The New Tide, Early Work 1940–1950” at the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC
Through February 18, 2019

Gordon Parks, Marva Trotter Louis, Chicago, Illinois (1941). Photo courtesy of the Gordon Parks Foundation.

Noted Civil Rights photographer Gordon Parks (1912–2006) got his start shooting for the Farm Security Administration, Office of War Information, and Standard Oil (New Jersey). In its current exhibition, the National Gallery focuses on the first decade of the great photojournalist’s career, when he began to develop his own artistic style while forging important relationships with the likes of Langston Hughes and Ralph Ellison.

The National Gallery of Art is located on the National Mall between 3rd and 9th Streets along Constitution Avenue NW, Washington, DC. Admission is free.

MIDWESTERN MUSEUMS

“Devastated Lands” at the National WWI Museum and Memorial in Kansas City, Missouri
Through December 22, 2019

Georges Capon, French poster for the Comité Américain pour les Régions Dévastées. Courtesy of the National WWI Museum and Memorial.

The desolation caused by fighting during World War I left whole villages reduced to rubble and much of the Western Front in Europe in ruins, shocking American troops and Red Cross workers. The National WWI Museum draws from its collection to present photographs and illustrations documenting this dark chapter in world history—the effects of which linger even today in the form of live explosives still being recovered in the former battle areas over a century later.

The National WWI Museum and Memorial is located at 2 Memorial Drive, Kansas City, Missouri. General admission is $16. 

“Renaissance Splendor: Catherine de’Medici’s Valois Tapestries” at the Cleveland Museum of Art
Through January 21, 2019

Tournament, from the Valois Tapestries, c. 1576. Gallerie degli Uffizi, Palazzo Pitti, deposit, Florence, Arazzi n. 495.

For the first time, and after an extensive restoration, the Valois Tapestries are on view to North American viewers at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The intricately woven pieces were commissioned by Catherine de’Medici in celebration of the royal dynasty, and are made of silk, wool, and threads wrapped in precious metals.

The Cleveland Museum of Art is located at 11150 East Boulevard Cleveland, Ohio. Tickets for “Renaissance Splendor” are $25. 

“Chicago Works: Jessica Campbell” at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago
Through July 7, 2019

Jessica Campbell, The Brutal Telling (2018). Photo: James Prinz, courtesy of Western Exhibitions.

Canadian-born artist and cartoonist Jessica Campbell has created a series of carpet-based works inspired by the life of another Canadian artist, Emily Carr. The monumentally sized works blend fact and fiction, infused with satirical references to contemporary art that recall the work of social satirist William Hogarth.

The MCA Chicago is located at 220 E Chicago Ave, Chicago, Illinois. Suggested admission is $15. 

“Neapolitan Crèche” at the Art Institute of Chicago
Through January 7, 2019

Crèche, mid-18th century. Naples.

A perennial holiday favorite since its debut in 2013, the delightfully-detailed nativity crèche is back at the Art Institute of Chicago. More than 200 figurines populate the Naples scene, including more than 50 animals and 40 items of food and beverage (count ’em all).

The Art Institute of Chicago is located at 111 S Michigan Ave, Chicago, Illinois. General admission is $25. 

“Elizabeth Price” at the Walker Art Center
Through February 23, 2020

Elizabeth Price, KOHL, (2018). Courtesy the artist.

Earlier this month, British artist Elizabeth Price’s first museum commissions landed at the Walker Art Center: FELT TIP and KOHL are both projected at more than 20 feet, and will remain in the galleries through 2020. The moving-image works are accompanied by scrolling text, with Price’s new works reflecting upon the relationship between the material and the digital, sites of labor, and markers of class.

The Walker Art Center is located at 725 Vineland Place, Minneapolis, Minnesota. General admission is $15. 

“Clarence H. White and His World: The Art and Craft of Photography, 1895–1925” at the Cleveland Museum of Art
Through January 21, 2019

Clarence H. White, The Sea (Rose Pastor Stokes, Caritas Island, Connecticut), 1909. Photo courtesy of the Clarence H. White Collection, Princeton University Art Museum.

Photography by the Pictorialist artist Clarence H. White (1871–1925) is displayed in this show within the context of the Arts and Crafts movement. White’s hazy images capture the quiet of domesticity, and the simple pleasures of childhood and solitude. His impact on the wider artistic community is evident in paintings created by his peers, which show evidence of his aesthetic legacy.

The Cleveland Museum of Art is located at 11150 East Blvd, Cleveland, Ohio. General admission is free.

SOUTHERN MUSEUMS

“K(NO)W Justice K(NO)W Peace” at the Levine Museum of the New South, Charlotte
Through March 26, 2019

An image from “K(NO)W Justice K(NO)W Peace” at the Levine Museum of the New South, Charlotte.

A true community collaboration, “K(NO)W Justice K(NO)W Peace” is a grassroots-based exhibition that reflects on police-involved shootings in the US. The show was created by both law enforcement and activists, and gives a personal perspective to what often feels like a media-frenzy.

The Levine Museum of the New South is located at 200 East 7th Street, Charlotte, North Carolina. General admission is $10.

“Art for a New Understanding: Native Voices, 1950s to Now” at the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas
Through January 7, 2019

Spiderwoman Theater Reverb-ber-ber-rations (1994). From left: Lisa Mayo, Gloria Miguel, Muriel Miguel. Photo courtesy of the Advertiser/Sunday Mail, Adelaide, Australia. Courtesy of Spiderwoman Theater.

Arkansas-based Crystal Bridges Museum has an impressive survey that features works created by Indigenous US and Canadian artists, dating from 1950s through the present. The timely exhibition arrives just as institutions around the world are reckoning with the legacies of colonialism in their collections, and helps to shift the collective understanding of contemporary art.

The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art is located at 600 Museum Way, Bentonville, Arkansas. Admission is free. 

“With Drawn Arms: Glenn Kaino & Tommie Smith” at the High Museum of Art, Atlanta
Through February 3, 2019

A photo of Tommie Smith fellow medalist and John Carlos looking down and raising his fist as he stands on the podium at the 1968 Olympics. Photo ©Time & Life Pictures/Getty Images.

The idea of an athlete protesting racial injustice hardly originated with Colin Kaepernick. At the 1968 Mexico City Olympic Games, American sprinter Tommie Smith won a gold medal and raised his fist in the air, his Black Power salute symbolizing his commitment to the Civil Rights Movement. Along with bronze medal winner John Carlos, he was banned from the rest of the games. Fifty years later, Smith has been collaborating with Los Angeles-based artist Glenn Kaino on a series of drawings and sculptures inspired by his historic gesture as well as the public response to today’s Black Lives Matter movement.

The High Museum of Art is located at 1280 Peachtree St NE, Atlanta. General admission is $14.50.

“Embodying Faith: Imagining Jesus Through the Ages” at the Birmingham Museum of Art
Through April 21, 2019

Jacopo d’Arcangelo del Sellaio, Christ with Instruments of the Passion (ca. 1485). Courtesy of the Birmingham Museum of Art.

The question of how to depict Jesus is one of the most enduring in Western visual art. At the Birmingham Museum, scores of these interpretations are on view, from Haitian quilts to stained glass scenery, for a show that is as much an overview of art’s evolution through time and space as it is a study of religion.

The Birmingham Museum of Art is located at 2000 Rev. Abraham Woods, Jr. Blvd, Birmingham, Alabama. General admission is free.

“Lina Iris Viktor: A Haven. A Hell. A Dream Deferred.” at the New Orleans Museum of Art
Through January 6, 2019

Lina Iris Viktor, First (2017–8). Courtesy the Artist and Mariane Ibrahim Gallery, Seattle.

It’s the first museum solo show for Lina Iris Viktor, who has become known for stunning, richly gilded self portraits that celebrate black identity. Here, she’s created a mythologized history for Liberia, founded following the abolition of slavery in the US as a home for freed slaves, depicting the prophetic figure of the Libyan Sibyl, a figure from Greek mythology who seems to offer a warning against the evils of colonization.

The New Orleans Art Museum is located at One Collins C. Diboll Circle, City Park, New Orleans, Louisiana. General admission is $12.

“Ian Davenport: Horizons” at the Dallas Contemporary
Through March 17, 2019

Ian Davenport, Giardini Colourfall (2005). Courtesy of the artist and Waddington Custot Galleries.

Ian Davenport’s retrospective at the Dallas Contemporary includes a student work created while he was at Goldsmith’s London in 1988, as well as new pieces created for the show. The centerpiece is his monumental poured paint stripe piece, Giardini Colourfall, created for Swiss watchmaker Swatch for display at the 2017 Venice Biennale.

The Dallas Contemporary is located at 161 Glass Street, Dallas, Texas. Admission is free. 

“Imagining Florida: History and Myth in the Sunshine State” at the Boca Raton Museum of Art
Through March 24, 2019

Gleason Waite Romer, Parrot Jungle. Private Collection, courtesy of the Boca Raton Museum of Art.

Miami Art Week might be behind us, but to survive the cold months ahead, Boca Raton’s Museum of Art offers an historical overview of artistic interpretations of the “Sunshine State.” More than 200 works by artists including Milton Avery, John Singer Sargent, Winslow Homer, Purvis Young, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Louis Comfort Tiffany, Garry Winogrand, John James Audubon, and Thomas Moran, cover every aspect of the place, from its native plants and wildlife, to how it is portrayed in popular culture.

The Boca Raton Museum of Art is located in Mizner Park at 501 Plaza Real, Boca Raton, Florida. General admission is $12.

“Christo and Jeanne-Claude: Surrounded Islands, 1980–83 | A Documentary Exhibition” at the Pérez Art Museum Miami
Through February 17, 2019

Christo and Jeanne-Claude. Documentary photograph of Surrounded Islands Biscayne Bay, Greater Miami, Florida (1980–83). Photo: Wolfgang Volz © Christo 1983.

In 1983, Christo and Jeanne-Claude turned 11 man-made uninhabited islands in Miami’s Biscayne Bay into a massive art installation, surrounding them with 6.5 million square feet of floating pink fabric for two weeks. PAMM celebrates the 35th anniversary of the stupendously ambitious piece, and the founding of its predecessor institution, the Center for Fine Arts, with an exhibition of archival materials and artworks related to Surrounded Islands.

PAMM is located at 1103 Biscayne Blvd., Miami. General admission is $16.

WEST COAST MUSEUMS

“In This Imperfect Present Moment” at the Seattle Art Museum
Through June 16, 2019

Amy Sherald, Saint Woman (2015). Courtesy of the artist and Hauser & Wirth, ©Amy Sherald.

This thought-provoking group show exploring issues of faith, labor, and leadership, via an impressive roster of artists including Amy Sherald, Saya Woolfalk, Genevieve Gaignard, and Toyin Ojih Odutola—one of Odutola’s portraits lends its title to the exhibition—all on loan from a local collector.

The Seattle Art Museum is located at 1300 First Avenue, Seattle, Washington. General admission is $24.95. 

“Vija Celmins: To Fix the Image in Memory” at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
December 15, 2018–March 31, 2019

Vija Celmins, House #2 (1965). © Vija Celmins; photo: Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery.

Vija Celmins’s obsessively detailed renderings go on view, at long last, for the most comprehensive retrospective in North America dedicated to the artist in over 25 years. More than 100 paintings, drawings, and sculptural works are on display, each one evidence of her meticulously focused labors.

SFMOMA is located at 151 Third Street, San Francisco, CA. General admission is $25. 

“Deana Lawson: Planes” at the Underground Museum, Los Angeles
Through February 17, 2019

Deana Lawson, Signs (2016). Photo courtesy of the Artist and Sikkema Jenkins & Co.

When Noah Davis, the late founder of LA’s Underground Museum came across Deana Lawson’s photographs in 2009, he could already see her work as a solo exhibition in his yet-to-be-realized art space. Now, years later, Lawson’s work takes its rightful place at the museum in this insightful show.

The Underground Museum is located at 3508 W. Washington Blvd., Los Angeles. Admission is free. 

“Titian’s Portrait of a Lady in White, c. 1561” at the Norton Simon Museum
December 18, 2018–March 25, 2019

Titian (Tiziano Vecellio, Italian, c. 1488/90–1576) Portrait of a Lady in White (c. 1561). Photo by Elke Estel/Hans-Peter Klut, courtesy of the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.

To celebrate the 140th anniversary of the Columbus Museum, Titian’s Portrait of a Lady in White is on view in Ohio, loaned from its esteemed home at the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden, Germany. Like so many Renaissance portraits, the identity of the Lady remains unknown today, though art history buffs will revel in puzzling over the possibilities.

The Norton Simon Museum is located at 411 West Colorado Blvd., Pasadena, California. General admission is $15. 

“Something Revealed; California Women Artists Emerge, 1860–1960” at the Pasadena Museum of History
Through March 31, 2019

Ruth Miller Kempster, Housewife (ca. 1935). Photo by Martin A. Folb, courtesy of the Pasadena Museum of History.

Two years ago, conservator and curator Maurine St. Gaudens published a four-volume reference set, Emerging From the Shadows: A Survey of Women Artists Working in California, 1860–1960, bringing to light the biographies and artwork of more than 300 of California’s women artists. Now, she’s put together an exhibition based on that same research, with over 200 works from historically marginalized figures such as Vivian Springford and Ruth Miller Kempster, shattering existing notions of 19th- and early 20th-century women artists being limited to the realms of craft and “pretty” pictures.

The Pasadena Museum of History is located at 470 Walnut Street, Pasadena, California. General admission is $9.

“The Renaissance Nude” at the J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
Through January 27, 2019

Antonello da Messina, Saint Sebastian (1478–79), detail. Courteys of the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, photo courtesy of bpk Bildagentur/Gemaeldegalerie Alte Meister/Elke Estel/Hans-Peter Klut/Art Resource, NY.

The Getty takes a wide view of art history in this exhibition studying the embrace of the nude in the work of Renaissance artists across Europe. Highlights include Titian’s masterpiece Venus Rising from the Sea, Albrecht Dürer’s engraving of Adam and Eve, and anatomical studies by Leonardo da Vinci

The J. Paul Getty Museum is located at 1200 Getty Center Drive, Brentwood, Los Angeles. Admission is free.

“Anne Brigman: A Visionary in Modern Photography” at the Nevada Museum of Art, Reno
Through January 27, 2019

Anne Brigman, The Breeze (1909/printed 1915). Courtesy of the Wilson Centre for Photography.

In defiance of her Victorian upbringing, poet, critic, and mountaineer Anne Brigman (1869–1950) was making nude photographs of herself decades before feminist art became a genre. Though Brigman’s work was promoted during her lifetime by Alfred Stieglitz, her contributions to the field of photography have been largely overlooked. Now rediscovered by the Nevada Museum of Art, which presents 250 of her works, Brigman here gets the recognition she deserves for her figurative landscape photos. Taken in the Sierra Nevadas back at the turn of the century, these images prefigure later work juxtaposing the female body and the great outdoors by the likes of Ana Mendieta and Judy Chicago, examples of which the museum presents in a companion exhibition, “Laid Bare in the Landscape.”

The Nevada Museum of Art is located at 160 West Liberty St, Reno Nevada. General admission is $10.