NOW ON VIEW AT SAAM

Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies
On view through January 29, 2024
Smithsonian American Art Museum (8th and G Streets, NW)

Immerse yourself in the intersection of video and music

Explore the powerful resonances between recent video art and popular music in Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies, now on view at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. The exhibition celebrates major new acquisitions to SAAM’s media art collection by today's leading contemporary artists and pairs recently added video works by ADÁL, Raven Chacon, Mariam Ghani, Martine Gutierrez, Arthur Jafa, Erin Ellen Kelly, Christine Sun Kim, Liz Magic Laser, Simone Leigh, and Cauleen Smith with immersive installations and compelling photographs, sculptures, and prints.

Musical Thinking focuses on video art that speaks to personal as well as shared aspects of American life through the strategies of musical creation — scores, improvisation, and interpretation — as well as its styles, structures, and lyrics. Rich with cultural references and emotionally evocative, the works in the exhibition use music to call up memories, capture attention, provoke insight, and invite engagement.

In-Person Art Bites Gallery Talk: Christine Sun Kim's The Star-Spangled Banner (Third Verse)
Friday, June 23, 12:15–12:45 p.m.
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Free | Meet in G Street Lobby

Exhibition Credit:
Musical Thinking: New Video Art and Sonic Strategies is organized by the Smithsonian American Art Museum. Generous support has been provided by Michael Abrams and Sandra Stewart, Aida Alvarez, Candy and Michael Barasch, Carolyn and Mo Cunniffe, Roger S. Firestone Foundation, Ed and Kathy Fries, Elizabeth Firestone Graham Foundation, Pamela and David Hornik, Maureen and Gene Kim, Nion McEvoy Publications Endowment, Victoria McManus, V. Joy Simmons, MD, Smithsonian Accessibility Innovation Fund, Lucille and Richard Spagnuolo, Helen and Peter Warwick,and the SJ Weiler Fund.

This exhibition received federal support from the Smithsonian American Women’s History Initiative Pool, administered by the Smithsonian American Women’s History Museum, and the Asian Pacific American Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center.

Image credits:
Cauleen Smith, Sojourner, 2018, digital video, color, sound, 22:41 minutes, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by the SJ Weiler Fund, 2020.54.1, © 2020, Cauleen Smith

Christine Sun Kim, The Star-Spangled Banner (Third Verse), 2020, charcoal on paper, overall: 58 1⁄4 × 58 1⁄4 in. (148 × 148 cm) frame: 60 3⁄4 × 60 3⁄4 in. (154.3 × 154.3 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase and purchase through the Asian Pacific American Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center and through the Julia D. Strong Endowment, 2021.31.1, © 2020, Christine Sun Kim. Courtesy of the artist and François Ghebaly, Los Angeles