Home & Style

10 Cool Art Galleries Around the DC Area

Looking to brush up on the local art scene? Here are a few good places to start.

Friends Artspace. Photograph by Sean Davidson.

1. Addison/Ripley Fine Art

1670 Wisconsin Ave., NW

One of the area’s more diverse galleries shows work as varied as abstract sculptures, impressionist paintings, and landscape photography by local, national, and internationally renowned artists.

2. The Fridge

516½ Eighth St., SE

The hip Eastern Market gallery focuses on street art and hosts graffiti workshops every Sunday.

3. Dupont Underground

19 Dupont Circle, NW

The abandoned trolley station turned arts organization will reopen in March with regular showcases of thought-provoking art by local talent and a pop-up market highlighting women creatives and entrepreneurs.

Friends Artspace. Photograph by Sean Davidson.

4. Friends Artspace

2400 N. Edgewood St., Arlington

This new addition to the local scene (it opened in September) is on its second-ever exhibit: a showcase of dramatic sculptures draped in vibrant floral garments by Baltimore’s Hoesy Corona.

5. Gallery Neptune & Brown

1530 14th St., NW

The well-established contemporary gallery is currently showing a group exhibition of prints and drawings inspired by literature and poetry.

6. Just Lookin’ Gallery

40 Summit Ave., Hagerstown

At this leading space for original Black artwork, you’ll find thousands of prints, paintings, and sculptures by more than 50 artists.

7. Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art

12001 Market St., Suite 103, Reston

A current exhibit of photography by Laurel Nakadate, which touches on the loss of her mother and familial relationships, exemplifies the kind of provocative work you can expect here.

Transformer. Photograph by Farrah Sheiky.

8. Transformer

1404 P St., NW

The nonprofit has been a hub for innovative emerging artists since it opened in 2002. Annual events including the fall auction and the February Heartbreakers Ball are terrific places to score original art.

9. Von Ammon Co

3330 Cady’s Alley, NW

This stark gallery shows edgy work, such as multimedia artist Tabor Robak’s unsettling mini Jumbotron sculptures and Botswana-based Thebe Phetogo’s acid-green paintings of disembodied African political and mythological figures.

Zenith Gallery. Photograph of painting (“Bata Dynamo III”) by Doba Afolabi.

10. Zenith Gallery

1429 Iris St., NW; 1111 Pennsylvania Ave., NW

At the Iris Street location—the private home of owner Margery Goldberg—you’ll see imaginative dolls, impressionist paintings, and sculptures crafted of driftwood. Find presidential-themed collages, paintings, and sculptures at the downtown gallery.

This article appears in the February 2022 issue of Washingtonian.

Damare Baker
Research Editor

Before becoming Research Editor, Damare Baker was an Editorial Fellow and Assistant Editor for Washingtonian. She has previously written for Voice of America and The Hill. She is a graduate of Georgetown University, where she studied international relations, Korean, and journalism.