Aug 22: The fall season at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center brings new and vibrant exhibitions of sculpture, photography, calligraphy, and more.
At the fulcrum of the fall season is a major solo showcase by Ahn Chang-Hong, one of South Korea’s most significant contemporary artists as well as works of Islamic calligrapher Ayesha Kamal, urban photographer Norman S. Carr, and unique graphic storytelling by American University Professor Emerita Mary Garrard.
“This fall, the museum brings together four very different artists who ask us to look more closely at the world and at ourselves,” said Jack Rasmussen, C. Nicholas Keating and Carleen B. Keating Director of the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center. “Through painting, sculpture, calligraphy, photography, and digital drawing, they confront mortality and memory, beauty, faith, and sorrow. We are reminded of art’s extraordinary ability to connect us across cultures and experience.”
An opening reception will be held on September 5, 2026, at 6:00 p.m.
The AU Museum is free and open to the public. For the most up-to-date visitor information, please refer to the museum’s website: https://www.american.edu/cas/museum/
September 5, 2026–December 6, 2026
Ahn Chang-Hong: noon-mool
BG Muhn and Jack Rasmussen, Curators
Ahn Chang-Hong is renowned for his unflinching exploration of history, memory, violence, and the fragility of human existence. Ahn works across painting, sculpture, and multimedia and has developed a distinctive visual language that unites formal experimentation with profound psychological and social inquiry. His art confronts mortality while offering a deeply empathetic portrayal of marginalized and wounded lives.
At the center of the exhibition, noon-mool (tears), is Ahn’s acclaimed Taxidermy series, in which he layers paint over large-scale photographs of taxidermied animals. The resulting images are both visually striking and deeply unsettling, transforming each preserved specimen into a poignant reflection on mortality and vulnerability. The exhibition also includes three-dimensional works and selected earlier paintings, allowing visitors to trace the evolution of Ahn's artistic practice across decades.
Occupying two floors of the museum, noon-mool is an immersive and unforgettable exhibition that invites visitors to grapple with some of the most profound questions of our shared humanity.
Beyond Words: The Sacred Art of Ayesha KamalOrganized by Hummingbird Film Studios
Beyond Words: The Sacred Art of Ayesha Kamal showcases the work of internationally exhibited contemporary Islamic calligrapher Ayesha Kamal through a remarkable collection of large-scale mixed-media paintings that explore the enduring relationship between faith, artistic expression, and cultural heritage.
Drawing inspiration from verses of the Holy Qur'an, Asma-ul-Husna (The Beautiful Names of Allah), and centuries of Islamic artistic tradition, Ayesha Kamal transforms sacred text into immersive visual experiences that extend beyond words through intricate calligraphy, expressive textures, luminous metallic elements, and richly layered compositions. Her work invites visitors to experience these sacred texts not simply as language, but as timeless visual expressions that inspire contemplation, reveal beauty, and foster human connection.
Organized by Hummingbird Film Studios, this exhibition celebrates the continuing evolution of Islamic calligraphy as a vibrant contemporary art form while fostering meaningful dialogue across cultures and communities. Whether encountering Arabic calligraphy for the first time or returning to it through lifelong familiarity, visitors are invited on a visual journey where heritage meets innovation and art becomes a universal language that transcends borders, beliefs, and generations.
Observer: The Street Photographs of Norman S. Carr
Presented by the Alper Initiative for Washington Art
Carolyn Carr, Curator
In 2000, after a forty-year career as a lawyer, Norman S. Carr (1936–2025) turned his attention to photography. He was eager to use the “eye” he had employed as a collector of work by important twentieth-century American photographers to capture images that were distinctly his own.
Drawn to the wealth of visual possibilities offered by street life, Carr photographed frequently in Washington, D.C., and during his travels across the United States and abroad, seeking to capture what was both unique and universal about a site. His photographs transform everyday scenes into richly layered compositions, using reflections and light to explore place, perception, and his distinctive way of seeing the world.
Double Feature: Two Graphic Narratives by Mary Garrard
A Project Space Exhibition
Garrard, professor emerita of art history at American University, is renowned for her pioneering scholarship on Artemisia Gentileschi and other Renaissance women artists. After a distinguished scholarly career interpreting the works of other artists, Garrard began playfully exploring digital drawing on her iPhone and iPad, discovering a new way to tell stories. The result is two illustrated narratives—one following an adventurous palm tree, the other offering a feminist reimagining of The Odyssey. The images in the two series stand as both independent works of art and episodes in the story. In this museum presentation, they are shown on two monitors, running sequentially as if the story were a film.
Museum Information:
The American University Museum is a three-story public museum and sculpture garden located within the university’s Katzen Arts Center. The region’s largest university facility for exhibiting art, the museum has a permanent collection that highlights the donors’ holdings and AU’s Corcoran Legacy Collection, Watkins Collection, and Rothfeld Collection. Rotating exhibitions emphasize thought-provoking contemporary art.
The Katzen Arts Center, named for Washington-area benefactors Dr. and Mrs. Cyrus Katzen, brings all the visual and performing arts programs at AU into one space. Designed to foster interdisciplinary collaboration in the arts, this center includes the museum, the Abramson Family Recital Hall, the Studio Theatre, a dance studio, an electronics studio, artists’ studios, rehearsal space and classrooms.