Recognize! Hip Hop and Contemporary Portraiture

National Portrait Gallery

8th Street NW and F Street NW
Washington, DC 20001
Phone: (202) 633-1000
Fax: (202) 275-1887

Nearby Metro Stops:

Gallery Place-Chinatown

Wheelchair Accessible:

Yes

Kid Friendly:

Yes

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National Portrait Gallery gets hip with this exhibition, which focuses on paintings and photos of hip-hop artists. Photographer David Scheinbaum tailed Public Enemy, Blackalicious, Phar Cyde, and Jurassic-5 to get his shots. Kehinde Wiley painted portraits of LL Cool J and Ice T in a style that’s less 21st century than 18th. There will even be writing on the walls: Two Washington graffiti artists, Tim Conlon and Dave Hupp, have been called in to create murals, and an ode to hip-hop by poet Nikki Giovanni will be visually interpreted. That’s called “It’s Not a Just Situation.”