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Home>Exhibitions>Room-Like: Contemporary Art from the Collection

Room-Like: Contemporary Art from the Collection

Now on View

Ongoing from March 20, 2025
East Building, Upper Level — Gallery 404

Immerse yourself in works that reimagine room-like spaces. This installation brings us to familiar places—a bathtub, a kitchen, a laundromat—and surprises us with unexpected viewpoints. Liza Lou’s beaded closet transforms everyday household items into art. Mel Chin turns a museum gallery into a microcosm of the globe. Abelardo Morell and Carrie Mae Weems create intimate moments in their photographs that invite close looking.

In the final gallery, find yourself surrounded by works that include the color yellow, a favorite among artists. A storefront by Christo, wallpaper by Lee Hager, a light fixture by Olafur Eliasson—these works and more allow us to explore the effect of yellow on our vision.

Liza Lou, Closet, 1997 - 1998, glass beads, wood, and New York couple's empty bottles and unwanted household objects, Gift of Sherry and Joel Mallin, 2022.187.1

William Eggleston, Untitled, c. 1971-1973, printed 1980, dye imbibition print, Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase with the aid of funds from the National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, D.C., a Federal Agency, and The Polaroid Corporation), 2015.19.4253

Jo Ann Callis, Parrot and Sailboat (#98), 1980, printed 2023, inkjet print, Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase), 2015.19.4224

James Casebere, Fork in the Refrigerator, 1975, printed 2000, gelatin silver print, Gift of the Heather and Tony Podesta Collection, 2009.131.14

Abelardo Morell, Camera Obscura: View of Lower Manhattan, Sunrise, 2022, inkjet print, Gift of Abelardo Morell, 2024.35.5

Christo, Yellow Store Front, 1965, wood, Plexiglas, fabric, brown paper, galvanized metal, pegboard, corrugated cardboard, and electric light, Gift of Jeanne-Claude Christo-Javacheff Trust, 2023.79.1

Mel Chin, Landscape, 1990, sheetrock cut to topography of 30th parallel, dirt from local landfill, plywood, oil on canvas, tempera and silver on paper, ground azurite, malachite and other pigments on silk, gold, Gift of the Collectors Committee, 2023.8.1

Thomas Demand, Junior Suite, 2012, chromogenic print, Gift of the Heather Podesta Collection, 2021.99.1

John Divola, Zuma #3, 1978, chromogenic print, Charina Endowment Fund, in Honor of the 25th Anniversary of Photography at the National Gallery of Art, 2014.80.2

Olafur Eliasson, Thinking Sphere, 2011, stainless steel dark gray backside mirror and colored glass, Gift of The Tony and Trisja Podesta Collection, Washington, DC, 2023.80.2
Twelve lines of black text in all capital letters are printed on a square, beige-colored sheet of paper. The lines are centered down the page and divided into four groups set in progressively smaller type sizes. Near the top, the largest text reads, “THE KITCHEN TABLE SERIES.” In smaller text below, “CARRIE MAE WEEMS.” Immediately below that, again in smaller text, “A PORTFOLIO OF TWENTY PLATINUM PRINTS, FOURTEEN TEXT SHEETS, EDITION OF TEN, TWO ARTIST’S PROOFS, WINTER 2003.” The remaining text is printed in five lines at the bottom center of the sheet: “DESIGNED WITH PAMELA VANDERZWAN, PHOTOGRAPHS PRINTED BY JOHN MARCY OF NORTHAMPTON PHOTOGRAPHIC, TEXT PRINTED BY PETER KRUTY EDITIONS, FUNDED WITH GENEROUS SUPPORT, BY PETER NORTON.” Between the text at the center of the sheet and the five lines along the bottom, the artist signed the sheet in graphite: “Carrie M. Weems 9/10.”

Carrie Mae Weems, Kitchen Table Series, 1990, printed 2003, portfolio of 20 platinum/palladium prints and 14 screenprints, Gift of the Collectors Committee, and Robert B. Menschel and the Vital Projects Fund, 2017.4.1.1-34

Jonas Wood, Helen's Room, 2017, oil and acrylic on canvas, Purchased as the Gift of Stuart Barr, Sarah MacKey, and TSL, a Private Asian Collector, 2020.13.1

Christina Fernandez, Lavanderia #1, 2002, printed 2021, inkjet print, Gift of David Knaus, 2022.46.1

Sam Gilliam, Yellow Edge, 1972, acrylic on canvas, Gift of Elinor K. Farquhar, 2023.17.1

Lee Hager, Wallpaper Border, 1935/1942, watercolor, graphite, and gouache on paperboard, Index of American Design, 1943.8.17381

Robert Mangold, Yellow Wall (Section I + II), 1964, oil and acrylic on plywood and metal, The Nancy Lee and Perry Bass Fund, 2004.124.1

Sylvia Plimack Mangold, Opposite Corners, 1973, acrylic and graphite on Strathmore paper, The Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection, Ailsa Mellon Bruce Fund, Patrons' Permanent Fund and Gift of Dorothy and Herbert Vogel, 1991.241.122

Anne Ryan, Figures in a Yellow Room, 1945/1947, color woodcut on black wove paper, Gift of Jacob Kainen, 2002.98.179

Organization
Organized by the National Gallery of Art, Washington

Passes
Admission is always free and passes are not required

Banner detail: William Eggleston, Untitled, c. 1971-1973, printed 1980, dye imbibition print, Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase with the aid of funds
from the National Endowment for the Arts, Washington, D.C., a Federal Agency, and The Polaroid Corporation), 2015.19.4253