The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District has announced a Call for Artists for the second phase of their Signal Box Public Art Project in downtown Bethesda, MD.  The A&E District will select 10 artists whose original designs will be printed onto a vinyl wrap to adorn 10 Signal Boxes located throughout downtown Bethesda.  This new project will beautify the signal boxes, provide an opportunity to local artists (including high school artists) and bring more public art to our community. 

Artists must be 14 years of age or older and residents of Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Virginia. Each selected artist will be paid $650 for the use of their design, and the deadline to apply is Thursday, April 30, 2026.

More info here.

submittable.com/submit" target="_blank">Application here.

From the WPA:

We're pleased to announce the 10 grant recipients for the 2026 funding cycle of Wherewithal Grants, providing financial support and peer mentorship for DC-area artists in areas of research and project presentations. Six artists and collectives have been awarded with research grants of $5,000 each, and four artists and collectives have been awarded with project & presentation grants of $7,500 each, for a total disbursement of $60,000 this cycle.

Research grantees: Gia Harewood, Jackie Hoysted, Brooke Jay & Chrystal Seawood, Christopher Kardambikis, Adriana Monsalve, and Kat Thompson.

Project & Presentation grantees: abdu ali mongo & Maleke Glee, Sobia Ahmad & Benny Shaffer, Ama BE, and Shariq Shah.

Over the next year, artists from this cohort will organize projects including: a multi-genre publication inspired by the Black queer body in motion; a three-day symposium bringing together a cohort of artists, filmmakers, and poets whose work probes land and film as reciprocal sites of encounter; a performance dinner; and an intergenerational cooking workshop. Others will conduct research around fascinating topics such as: soil memory, mycology, diasporic memories and language, and the history of DIY publishing in the 21st century.

Throughout the yearlong grant cycle, grantees will produce their work independently and in dialogue with one another, convening regularly as a group facilitated by Nathalie von Veh, Wherewithal Regrants Manager.

An independent panel of four artists and curators reviewed 113 applications and are awarding 10 grants. The adjudication panel consisted of: Jenna Crowder, Writer and Editor (Washington, DC); Krista Green, Grit Fund Program Manager, The Peale (Baltimore, MD); Rex Delafkaran, Artist and Wherewithal Alum (Chicago, IL); and Sara O’Keeffe, Senior Curator, Art Omi (Ghent, NY). They evaluated each proposal based on the criteria of Artistic Impact, Context/Audience, Collaboration, Feasibility, and Budget.

 National Portrait Gallery Announces Winners of the Seventh Outwin

Boochever Portrait Competition and Opening of

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today”

Kameron Neal Receives $25,000 and New Commission 

as First-Prize Winner of the National Triennial

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has announced Brooklyn-based artist Kameron Neal as the first-prize winner of the seventh national Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Neal’s two-channel video installation “Down the Barrel (of a Lens)” (2023) draws upon his time as a public artist in residence at New York City’s Department of Records, and it places the audience between two screens of declassified New York Police Department surveillance footage filmed between 1960 and 1980. As the first-prize winner, Neal will receive $25,000 and a commission to create a portrait of a living individual for the museum’s permanent collection. “Down the Barrel (of a Lens)” will be on view as part of “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” exhibition, co-curated by the competition’s director Taína Caragol, the Portrait Gallery’s senior curator of painting and sculpture, and Charlotte Ickes, the Portrait Gallery’s curator of time-based media art and special projects.

Held every three years, the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition is dedicated to supporting the next wave of contemporary portraiture in the U.S. “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” will be on view at the museum Jan. 24 through Aug. 30, 2026. From the exhibition’s opening through April 5, 2026, visitors—in person and online—can vote for their favorite artwork to receive the People’s Choice Award.

Previous first-prize winners of the national competition include David Lenz (2006), Dave Woody (2009), Bo Gehring (2013), Amy Sherald (2016), Hugo Crosthwaite (2019) and Alison Elizabeth Taylor (2022).

Second prize for the 2025 competition was awarded to Jared Soares of Washington, D.C., for his photograph “Misidentified by Artificial Intelligence: Alonzo and Carronne” (2023), a portrait of a Maryland resident who was falsely accused of a crime and arrested based on facial recognition software. Third prize was awarded to David Antonio Cruz of New York City for his painting “isaiditoncebefore,butnowIfeelitevenmore_feelin’pretty,pretty,pretty” (2023). Part of the artist’s “chosenfamilies” series, the painting shows the artist with Archel, one of his lifelong friends. Soares and Cruz will receive $10,000 and $7,500, respectively.

“As the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition rounds the corner on two decades since its founding in 2006, it continues to highlight contemporary artists working in portraiture who push to expand preconceived notions of the centuries-old genre,” Caragol said. “The 2025 competition-based triennial invites visitors to explore how artists are engaging with portraiture, sometimes embracing its tradition and other times redrawing the boundaries of the genre, with the intent of examining what it means to be human.”    

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” includes 34 portraits (by 35 artists) in mediums ranging from painting, photography and sculpture to immersive, time-based media installations. The artworks were chosen from more than 3,300 submissions to an anonymous open call, which was juried by experts in the fields of portraiture and contemporary art. The finalists include portraits by artists based in 12 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

Jurors for the 2025 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition were Carla Acevedo-Yates, curator, writer and member of the artistic team for documenta 16; Huey Copeland, the Andrew W. Mellon Chair and Professor of Modern Art and Black Study, Department of History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh; LaToya Ruby Frazier, artist; and Daniel Lind-Ramos, artist. “The Outwin 2025” co-curators Caragol and Ickes also served on the jury with Rhea L. Combs, the Portrait Gallery’s former director of curatorial affairs. The full list of exhibiting artists is below.

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog available at the museum’s store or online.  

The competition and exhibition are made possible by the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition Endowment, which was established by Virginia Outwin Boochever, a longtime docent at the National Portrait Gallery. The endowment is sustained by her family.

As part of the Spotlight on the Arts closing day celebrations, May 3rd, the Fairfax  Commission on the Arts is teaming up to create a vibrant Art Walk throughout downtown Fairfax!

Artists, performers, dancers, painters, poets, fashionistas — all art forms and mediums are invited to participate. This is a community-wide art social, networking, and connection event designed to bring together our local businesses and creative tribes for an unforgettable day of artful energy.

Keep it simple or go big — bring a sketchbook and picnic blanket, set up a table, pop up an easel — it’s all welcome!

A limited number of tent spaces are available, along with flexible sidewalk space throughout the downtown area. They"re partnering with local businesses, boutiques, and shops to create a vibrant, walkable experience that encourages visitors to explore and support the entire community. 

The Call for entry form is a preliminary information gathering system. More information will be sent out to participating members who enter by 3-15-26. Get the form from Cheryl Neway, Commissioner for COA, Designer, Artist and owner of Perfect Mistakes ®️

If you watched the scam jurying at the Olympics,  it brought back memories of when the Soviet block judges used to screw all other athletes...

Jezabel Dabouis: fuck you!

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District has announced a Call for Artists for the second phase of their Signal Box Public Art Project in downtown Bethesda, MD.  The A&E District will select 10 artists whose original designs will be printed onto a vinyl wrap to adorn 10 Signal Boxes located throughout downtown Bethesda.  This new project will beautify the signal boxes, provide an opportunity to local artists (including high school artists) and bring more public art to our community. 

Artists must be 14 years of age or older and residents of Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Virginia. Each selected artist will be paid $650 for the use of their design, and the deadline to apply is Thursday, April 30, 2026.

More info here.

submittable.com/submit" target="_blank">Application here.

From the WPA:

We're pleased to announce the 10 grant recipients for the 2026 funding cycle of Wherewithal Grants, providing financial support and peer mentorship for DC-area artists in areas of research and project presentations. Six artists and collectives have been awarded with research grants of $5,000 each, and four artists and collectives have been awarded with project & presentation grants of $7,500 each, for a total disbursement of $60,000 this cycle.

Research grantees: Gia Harewood, Jackie Hoysted, Brooke Jay & Chrystal Seawood, Christopher Kardambikis, Adriana Monsalve, and Kat Thompson.

Project & Presentation grantees: abdu ali mongo & Maleke Glee, Sobia Ahmad & Benny Shaffer, Ama BE, and Shariq Shah.

Over the next year, artists from this cohort will organize projects including: a multi-genre publication inspired by the Black queer body in motion; a three-day symposium bringing together a cohort of artists, filmmakers, and poets whose work probes land and film as reciprocal sites of encounter; a performance dinner; and an intergenerational cooking workshop. Others will conduct research around fascinating topics such as: soil memory, mycology, diasporic memories and language, and the history of DIY publishing in the 21st century.

Throughout the yearlong grant cycle, grantees will produce their work independently and in dialogue with one another, convening regularly as a group facilitated by Nathalie von Veh, Wherewithal Regrants Manager.

An independent panel of four artists and curators reviewed 113 applications and are awarding 10 grants. The adjudication panel consisted of: Jenna Crowder, Writer and Editor (Washington, DC); Krista Green, Grit Fund Program Manager, The Peale (Baltimore, MD); Rex Delafkaran, Artist and Wherewithal Alum (Chicago, IL); and Sara O’Keeffe, Senior Curator, Art Omi (Ghent, NY). They evaluated each proposal based on the criteria of Artistic Impact, Context/Audience, Collaboration, Feasibility, and Budget.

 National Portrait Gallery Announces Winners of the Seventh Outwin

Boochever Portrait Competition and Opening of

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today”

Kameron Neal Receives $25,000 and New Commission 

as First-Prize Winner of the National Triennial

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has announced Brooklyn-based artist Kameron Neal as the first-prize winner of the seventh national Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Neal’s two-channel video installation “Down the Barrel (of a Lens)” (2023) draws upon his time as a public artist in residence at New York City’s Department of Records, and it places the audience between two screens of declassified New York Police Department surveillance footage filmed between 1960 and 1980. As the first-prize winner, Neal will receive $25,000 and a commission to create a portrait of a living individual for the museum’s permanent collection. “Down the Barrel (of a Lens)” will be on view as part of “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” exhibition, co-curated by the competition’s director Taína Caragol, the Portrait Gallery’s senior curator of painting and sculpture, and Charlotte Ickes, the Portrait Gallery’s curator of time-based media art and special projects.

Held every three years, the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition is dedicated to supporting the next wave of contemporary portraiture in the U.S. “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” will be on view at the museum Jan. 24 through Aug. 30, 2026. From the exhibition’s opening through April 5, 2026, visitors—in person and online—can vote for their favorite artwork to receive the People’s Choice Award.

Previous first-prize winners of the national competition include David Lenz (2006), Dave Woody (2009), Bo Gehring (2013), Amy Sherald (2016), Hugo Crosthwaite (2019) and Alison Elizabeth Taylor (2022).

Second prize for the 2025 competition was awarded to Jared Soares of Washington, D.C., for his photograph “Misidentified by Artificial Intelligence: Alonzo and Carronne” (2023), a portrait of a Maryland resident who was falsely accused of a crime and arrested based on facial recognition software. Third prize was awarded to David Antonio Cruz of New York City for his painting “isaiditoncebefore,butnowIfeelitevenmore_feelin’pretty,pretty,pretty” (2023). Part of the artist’s “chosenfamilies” series, the painting shows the artist with Archel, one of his lifelong friends. Soares and Cruz will receive $10,000 and $7,500, respectively.

“As the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition rounds the corner on two decades since its founding in 2006, it continues to highlight contemporary artists working in portraiture who push to expand preconceived notions of the centuries-old genre,” Caragol said. “The 2025 competition-based triennial invites visitors to explore how artists are engaging with portraiture, sometimes embracing its tradition and other times redrawing the boundaries of the genre, with the intent of examining what it means to be human.”    

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” includes 34 portraits (by 35 artists) in mediums ranging from painting, photography and sculpture to immersive, time-based media installations. The artworks were chosen from more than 3,300 submissions to an anonymous open call, which was juried by experts in the fields of portraiture and contemporary art. The finalists include portraits by artists based in 12 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

Jurors for the 2025 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition were Carla Acevedo-Yates, curator, writer and member of the artistic team for documenta 16; Huey Copeland, the Andrew W. Mellon Chair and Professor of Modern Art and Black Study, Department of History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh; LaToya Ruby Frazier, artist; and Daniel Lind-Ramos, artist. “The Outwin 2025” co-curators Caragol and Ickes also served on the jury with Rhea L. Combs, the Portrait Gallery’s former director of curatorial affairs. The full list of exhibiting artists is below.

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog available at the museum’s store or online.  

The competition and exhibition are made possible by the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition Endowment, which was established by Virginia Outwin Boochever, a longtime docent at the National Portrait Gallery. The endowment is sustained by her family.

As part of the Spotlight on the Arts closing day celebrations, May 3rd, the Fairfax  Commission on the Arts is teaming up to create a vibrant Art Walk throughout downtown Fairfax!

Artists, performers, dancers, painters, poets, fashionistas — all art forms and mediums are invited to participate. This is a community-wide art social, networking, and connection event designed to bring together our local businesses and creative tribes for an unforgettable day of artful energy.

Keep it simple or go big — bring a sketchbook and picnic blanket, set up a table, pop up an easel — it’s all welcome!

A limited number of tent spaces are available, along with flexible sidewalk space throughout the downtown area. They"re partnering with local businesses, boutiques, and shops to create a vibrant, walkable experience that encourages visitors to explore and support the entire community. 

The Call for entry form is a preliminary information gathering system. More information will be sent out to participating members who enter by 3-15-26. Get the form from Cheryl Neway, Commissioner for COA, Designer, Artist and owner of Perfect Mistakes ®️

If you watched the scam jurying at the Olympics,  it brought back memories of when the Soviet block judges used to screw all other athletes...

Jezabel Dabouis: fuck you!

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District has announced a Call for Artists for the second phase of their Signal Box Public Art Project in downtown Bethesda, MD.  The A&E District will select 10 artists whose original designs will be printed onto a vinyl wrap to adorn 10 Signal Boxes located throughout downtown Bethesda.  This new project will beautify the signal boxes, provide an opportunity to local artists (including high school artists) and bring more public art to our community. 

Artists must be 14 years of age or older and residents of Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Virginia. Each selected artist will be paid $650 for the use of their design, and the deadline to apply is Thursday, April 30, 2026.

More info here.

submittable.com/submit" target="_blank">Application here.

From the WPA:

We're pleased to announce the 10 grant recipients for the 2026 funding cycle of Wherewithal Grants, providing financial support and peer mentorship for DC-area artists in areas of research and project presentations. Six artists and collectives have been awarded with research grants of $5,000 each, and four artists and collectives have been awarded with project & presentation grants of $7,500 each, for a total disbursement of $60,000 this cycle.

Research grantees: Gia Harewood, Jackie Hoysted, Brooke Jay & Chrystal Seawood, Christopher Kardambikis, Adriana Monsalve, and Kat Thompson.

Project & Presentation grantees: abdu ali mongo & Maleke Glee, Sobia Ahmad & Benny Shaffer, Ama BE, and Shariq Shah.

Over the next year, artists from this cohort will organize projects including: a multi-genre publication inspired by the Black queer body in motion; a three-day symposium bringing together a cohort of artists, filmmakers, and poets whose work probes land and film as reciprocal sites of encounter; a performance dinner; and an intergenerational cooking workshop. Others will conduct research around fascinating topics such as: soil memory, mycology, diasporic memories and language, and the history of DIY publishing in the 21st century.

Throughout the yearlong grant cycle, grantees will produce their work independently and in dialogue with one another, convening regularly as a group facilitated by Nathalie von Veh, Wherewithal Regrants Manager.

An independent panel of four artists and curators reviewed 113 applications and are awarding 10 grants. The adjudication panel consisted of: Jenna Crowder, Writer and Editor (Washington, DC); Krista Green, Grit Fund Program Manager, The Peale (Baltimore, MD); Rex Delafkaran, Artist and Wherewithal Alum (Chicago, IL); and Sara O’Keeffe, Senior Curator, Art Omi (Ghent, NY). They evaluated each proposal based on the criteria of Artistic Impact, Context/Audience, Collaboration, Feasibility, and Budget.

 National Portrait Gallery Announces Winners of the Seventh Outwin

Boochever Portrait Competition and Opening of

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today”

Kameron Neal Receives $25,000 and New Commission 

as First-Prize Winner of the National Triennial

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has announced Brooklyn-based artist Kameron Neal as the first-prize winner of the seventh national Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Neal’s two-channel video installation “Down the Barrel (of a Lens)” (2023) draws upon his time as a public artist in residence at New York City’s Department of Records, and it places the audience between two screens of declassified New York Police Department surveillance footage filmed between 1960 and 1980. As the first-prize winner, Neal will receive $25,000 and a commission to create a portrait of a living individual for the museum’s permanent collection. “Down the Barrel (of a Lens)” will be on view as part of “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” exhibition, co-curated by the competition’s director Taína Caragol, the Portrait Gallery’s senior curator of painting and sculpture, and Charlotte Ickes, the Portrait Gallery’s curator of time-based media art and special projects.

Held every three years, the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition is dedicated to supporting the next wave of contemporary portraiture in the U.S. “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” will be on view at the museum Jan. 24 through Aug. 30, 2026. From the exhibition’s opening through April 5, 2026, visitors—in person and online—can vote for their favorite artwork to receive the People’s Choice Award.

Previous first-prize winners of the national competition include David Lenz (2006), Dave Woody (2009), Bo Gehring (2013), Amy Sherald (2016), Hugo Crosthwaite (2019) and Alison Elizabeth Taylor (2022).

Second prize for the 2025 competition was awarded to Jared Soares of Washington, D.C., for his photograph “Misidentified by Artificial Intelligence: Alonzo and Carronne” (2023), a portrait of a Maryland resident who was falsely accused of a crime and arrested based on facial recognition software. Third prize was awarded to David Antonio Cruz of New York City for his painting “isaiditoncebefore,butnowIfeelitevenmore_feelin’pretty,pretty,pretty” (2023). Part of the artist’s “chosenfamilies” series, the painting shows the artist with Archel, one of his lifelong friends. Soares and Cruz will receive $10,000 and $7,500, respectively.

“As the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition rounds the corner on two decades since its founding in 2006, it continues to highlight contemporary artists working in portraiture who push to expand preconceived notions of the centuries-old genre,” Caragol said. “The 2025 competition-based triennial invites visitors to explore how artists are engaging with portraiture, sometimes embracing its tradition and other times redrawing the boundaries of the genre, with the intent of examining what it means to be human.”    

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” includes 34 portraits (by 35 artists) in mediums ranging from painting, photography and sculpture to immersive, time-based media installations. The artworks were chosen from more than 3,300 submissions to an anonymous open call, which was juried by experts in the fields of portraiture and contemporary art. The finalists include portraits by artists based in 12 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

Jurors for the 2025 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition were Carla Acevedo-Yates, curator, writer and member of the artistic team for documenta 16; Huey Copeland, the Andrew W. Mellon Chair and Professor of Modern Art and Black Study, Department of History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh; LaToya Ruby Frazier, artist; and Daniel Lind-Ramos, artist. “The Outwin 2025” co-curators Caragol and Ickes also served on the jury with Rhea L. Combs, the Portrait Gallery’s former director of curatorial affairs. The full list of exhibiting artists is below.

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog available at the museum’s store or online.  

The competition and exhibition are made possible by the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition Endowment, which was established by Virginia Outwin Boochever, a longtime docent at the National Portrait Gallery. The endowment is sustained by her family.

As part of the Spotlight on the Arts closing day celebrations, May 3rd, the Fairfax  Commission on the Arts is teaming up to create a vibrant Art Walk throughout downtown Fairfax!

Artists, performers, dancers, painters, poets, fashionistas — all art forms and mediums are invited to participate. This is a community-wide art social, networking, and connection event designed to bring together our local businesses and creative tribes for an unforgettable day of artful energy.

Keep it simple or go big — bring a sketchbook and picnic blanket, set up a table, pop up an easel — it’s all welcome!

A limited number of tent spaces are available, along with flexible sidewalk space throughout the downtown area. They"re partnering with local businesses, boutiques, and shops to create a vibrant, walkable experience that encourages visitors to explore and support the entire community. 

The Call for entry form is a preliminary information gathering system. More information will be sent out to participating members who enter by 3-15-26. Get the form from Cheryl Neway, Commissioner for COA, Designer, Artist and owner of Perfect Mistakes ®️

If you watched the scam jurying at the Olympics,  it brought back memories of when the Soviet block judges used to screw all other athletes...

Jezabel Dabouis: fuck you!

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District has announced a Call for Artists for the second phase of their Signal Box Public Art Project in downtown Bethesda, MD.  The A&E District will select 10 artists whose original designs will be printed onto a vinyl wrap to adorn 10 Signal Boxes located throughout downtown Bethesda.  This new project will beautify the signal boxes, provide an opportunity to local artists (including high school artists) and bring more public art to our community. 

Artists must be 14 years of age or older and residents of Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Virginia. Each selected artist will be paid $650 for the use of their design, and the deadline to apply is Thursday, April 30, 2026.

More info here.

submittable.com/submit" target="_blank">Application here.

From the WPA:

We're pleased to announce the 10 grant recipients for the 2026 funding cycle of Wherewithal Grants, providing financial support and peer mentorship for DC-area artists in areas of research and project presentations. Six artists and collectives have been awarded with research grants of $5,000 each, and four artists and collectives have been awarded with project & presentation grants of $7,500 each, for a total disbursement of $60,000 this cycle.

Research grantees: Gia Harewood, Jackie Hoysted, Brooke Jay & Chrystal Seawood, Christopher Kardambikis, Adriana Monsalve, and Kat Thompson.

Project & Presentation grantees: abdu ali mongo & Maleke Glee, Sobia Ahmad & Benny Shaffer, Ama BE, and Shariq Shah.

Over the next year, artists from this cohort will organize projects including: a multi-genre publication inspired by the Black queer body in motion; a three-day symposium bringing together a cohort of artists, filmmakers, and poets whose work probes land and film as reciprocal sites of encounter; a performance dinner; and an intergenerational cooking workshop. Others will conduct research around fascinating topics such as: soil memory, mycology, diasporic memories and language, and the history of DIY publishing in the 21st century.

Throughout the yearlong grant cycle, grantees will produce their work independently and in dialogue with one another, convening regularly as a group facilitated by Nathalie von Veh, Wherewithal Regrants Manager.

An independent panel of four artists and curators reviewed 113 applications and are awarding 10 grants. The adjudication panel consisted of: Jenna Crowder, Writer and Editor (Washington, DC); Krista Green, Grit Fund Program Manager, The Peale (Baltimore, MD); Rex Delafkaran, Artist and Wherewithal Alum (Chicago, IL); and Sara O’Keeffe, Senior Curator, Art Omi (Ghent, NY). They evaluated each proposal based on the criteria of Artistic Impact, Context/Audience, Collaboration, Feasibility, and Budget.

 National Portrait Gallery Announces Winners of the Seventh Outwin

Boochever Portrait Competition and Opening of

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today”

Kameron Neal Receives $25,000 and New Commission 

as First-Prize Winner of the National Triennial

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has announced Brooklyn-based artist Kameron Neal as the first-prize winner of the seventh national Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Neal’s two-channel video installation “Down the Barrel (of a Lens)” (2023) draws upon his time as a public artist in residence at New York City’s Department of Records, and it places the audience between two screens of declassified New York Police Department surveillance footage filmed between 1960 and 1980. As the first-prize winner, Neal will receive $25,000 and a commission to create a portrait of a living individual for the museum’s permanent collection. “Down the Barrel (of a Lens)” will be on view as part of “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” exhibition, co-curated by the competition’s director Taína Caragol, the Portrait Gallery’s senior curator of painting and sculpture, and Charlotte Ickes, the Portrait Gallery’s curator of time-based media art and special projects.

Held every three years, the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition is dedicated to supporting the next wave of contemporary portraiture in the U.S. “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” will be on view at the museum Jan. 24 through Aug. 30, 2026. From the exhibition’s opening through April 5, 2026, visitors—in person and online—can vote for their favorite artwork to receive the People’s Choice Award.

Previous first-prize winners of the national competition include David Lenz (2006), Dave Woody (2009), Bo Gehring (2013), Amy Sherald (2016), Hugo Crosthwaite (2019) and Alison Elizabeth Taylor (2022).

Second prize for the 2025 competition was awarded to Jared Soares of Washington, D.C., for his photograph “Misidentified by Artificial Intelligence: Alonzo and Carronne” (2023), a portrait of a Maryland resident who was falsely accused of a crime and arrested based on facial recognition software. Third prize was awarded to David Antonio Cruz of New York City for his painting “isaiditoncebefore,butnowIfeelitevenmore_feelin’pretty,pretty,pretty” (2023). Part of the artist’s “chosenfamilies” series, the painting shows the artist with Archel, one of his lifelong friends. Soares and Cruz will receive $10,000 and $7,500, respectively.

“As the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition rounds the corner on two decades since its founding in 2006, it continues to highlight contemporary artists working in portraiture who push to expand preconceived notions of the centuries-old genre,” Caragol said. “The 2025 competition-based triennial invites visitors to explore how artists are engaging with portraiture, sometimes embracing its tradition and other times redrawing the boundaries of the genre, with the intent of examining what it means to be human.”    

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” includes 34 portraits (by 35 artists) in mediums ranging from painting, photography and sculpture to immersive, time-based media installations. The artworks were chosen from more than 3,300 submissions to an anonymous open call, which was juried by experts in the fields of portraiture and contemporary art. The finalists include portraits by artists based in 12 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

Jurors for the 2025 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition were Carla Acevedo-Yates, curator, writer and member of the artistic team for documenta 16; Huey Copeland, the Andrew W. Mellon Chair and Professor of Modern Art and Black Study, Department of History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh; LaToya Ruby Frazier, artist; and Daniel Lind-Ramos, artist. “The Outwin 2025” co-curators Caragol and Ickes also served on the jury with Rhea L. Combs, the Portrait Gallery’s former director of curatorial affairs. The full list of exhibiting artists is below.

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog available at the museum’s store or online.  

The competition and exhibition are made possible by the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition Endowment, which was established by Virginia Outwin Boochever, a longtime docent at the National Portrait Gallery. The endowment is sustained by her family.

As part of the Spotlight on the Arts closing day celebrations, May 3rd, the Fairfax  Commission on the Arts is teaming up to create a vibrant Art Walk throughout downtown Fairfax!

Artists, performers, dancers, painters, poets, fashionistas — all art forms and mediums are invited to participate. This is a community-wide art social, networking, and connection event designed to bring together our local businesses and creative tribes for an unforgettable day of artful energy.

Keep it simple or go big — bring a sketchbook and picnic blanket, set up a table, pop up an easel — it’s all welcome!

A limited number of tent spaces are available, along with flexible sidewalk space throughout the downtown area. They"re partnering with local businesses, boutiques, and shops to create a vibrant, walkable experience that encourages visitors to explore and support the entire community. 

The Call for entry form is a preliminary information gathering system. More information will be sent out to participating members who enter by 3-15-26. Get the form from Cheryl Neway, Commissioner for COA, Designer, Artist and owner of Perfect Mistakes ®️

If you watched the scam jurying at the Olympics,  it brought back memories of when the Soviet block judges used to screw all other athletes...

Jezabel Dabouis: fuck you!

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District has announced a Call for Artists for the second phase of their Signal Box Public Art Project in downtown Bethesda, MD.  The A&E District will select 10 artists whose original designs will be printed onto a vinyl wrap to adorn 10 Signal Boxes located throughout downtown Bethesda.  This new project will beautify the signal boxes, provide an opportunity to local artists (including high school artists) and bring more public art to our community. 

Artists must be 14 years of age or older and residents of Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Virginia. Each selected artist will be paid $650 for the use of their design, and the deadline to apply is Thursday, April 30, 2026.

More info here.

submittable.com/submit" target="_blank">Application here.

From the WPA:

We're pleased to announce the 10 grant recipients for the 2026 funding cycle of Wherewithal Grants, providing financial support and peer mentorship for DC-area artists in areas of research and project presentations. Six artists and collectives have been awarded with research grants of $5,000 each, and four artists and collectives have been awarded with project & presentation grants of $7,500 each, for a total disbursement of $60,000 this cycle.

Research grantees: Gia Harewood, Jackie Hoysted, Brooke Jay & Chrystal Seawood, Christopher Kardambikis, Adriana Monsalve, and Kat Thompson.

Project & Presentation grantees: abdu ali mongo & Maleke Glee, Sobia Ahmad & Benny Shaffer, Ama BE, and Shariq Shah.

Over the next year, artists from this cohort will organize projects including: a multi-genre publication inspired by the Black queer body in motion; a three-day symposium bringing together a cohort of artists, filmmakers, and poets whose work probes land and film as reciprocal sites of encounter; a performance dinner; and an intergenerational cooking workshop. Others will conduct research around fascinating topics such as: soil memory, mycology, diasporic memories and language, and the history of DIY publishing in the 21st century.

Throughout the yearlong grant cycle, grantees will produce their work independently and in dialogue with one another, convening regularly as a group facilitated by Nathalie von Veh, Wherewithal Regrants Manager.

An independent panel of four artists and curators reviewed 113 applications and are awarding 10 grants. The adjudication panel consisted of: Jenna Crowder, Writer and Editor (Washington, DC); Krista Green, Grit Fund Program Manager, The Peale (Baltimore, MD); Rex Delafkaran, Artist and Wherewithal Alum (Chicago, IL); and Sara O’Keeffe, Senior Curator, Art Omi (Ghent, NY). They evaluated each proposal based on the criteria of Artistic Impact, Context/Audience, Collaboration, Feasibility, and Budget.

 National Portrait Gallery Announces Winners of the Seventh Outwin

Boochever Portrait Competition and Opening of

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today”

Kameron Neal Receives $25,000 and New Commission 

as First-Prize Winner of the National Triennial

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has announced Brooklyn-based artist Kameron Neal as the first-prize winner of the seventh national Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Neal’s two-channel video installation “Down the Barrel (of a Lens)” (2023) draws upon his time as a public artist in residence at New York City’s Department of Records, and it places the audience between two screens of declassified New York Police Department surveillance footage filmed between 1960 and 1980. As the first-prize winner, Neal will receive $25,000 and a commission to create a portrait of a living individual for the museum’s permanent collection. “Down the Barrel (of a Lens)” will be on view as part of “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” exhibition, co-curated by the competition’s director Taína Caragol, the Portrait Gallery’s senior curator of painting and sculpture, and Charlotte Ickes, the Portrait Gallery’s curator of time-based media art and special projects.

Held every three years, the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition is dedicated to supporting the next wave of contemporary portraiture in the U.S. “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” will be on view at the museum Jan. 24 through Aug. 30, 2026. From the exhibition’s opening through April 5, 2026, visitors—in person and online—can vote for their favorite artwork to receive the People’s Choice Award.

Previous first-prize winners of the national competition include David Lenz (2006), Dave Woody (2009), Bo Gehring (2013), Amy Sherald (2016), Hugo Crosthwaite (2019) and Alison Elizabeth Taylor (2022).

Second prize for the 2025 competition was awarded to Jared Soares of Washington, D.C., for his photograph “Misidentified by Artificial Intelligence: Alonzo and Carronne” (2023), a portrait of a Maryland resident who was falsely accused of a crime and arrested based on facial recognition software. Third prize was awarded to David Antonio Cruz of New York City for his painting “isaiditoncebefore,butnowIfeelitevenmore_feelin’pretty,pretty,pretty” (2023). Part of the artist’s “chosenfamilies” series, the painting shows the artist with Archel, one of his lifelong friends. Soares and Cruz will receive $10,000 and $7,500, respectively.

“As the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition rounds the corner on two decades since its founding in 2006, it continues to highlight contemporary artists working in portraiture who push to expand preconceived notions of the centuries-old genre,” Caragol said. “The 2025 competition-based triennial invites visitors to explore how artists are engaging with portraiture, sometimes embracing its tradition and other times redrawing the boundaries of the genre, with the intent of examining what it means to be human.”    

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” includes 34 portraits (by 35 artists) in mediums ranging from painting, photography and sculpture to immersive, time-based media installations. The artworks were chosen from more than 3,300 submissions to an anonymous open call, which was juried by experts in the fields of portraiture and contemporary art. The finalists include portraits by artists based in 12 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

Jurors for the 2025 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition were Carla Acevedo-Yates, curator, writer and member of the artistic team for documenta 16; Huey Copeland, the Andrew W. Mellon Chair and Professor of Modern Art and Black Study, Department of History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh; LaToya Ruby Frazier, artist; and Daniel Lind-Ramos, artist. “The Outwin 2025” co-curators Caragol and Ickes also served on the jury with Rhea L. Combs, the Portrait Gallery’s former director of curatorial affairs. The full list of exhibiting artists is below.

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog available at the museum’s store or online.  

The competition and exhibition are made possible by the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition Endowment, which was established by Virginia Outwin Boochever, a longtime docent at the National Portrait Gallery. The endowment is sustained by her family.

As part of the Spotlight on the Arts closing day celebrations, May 3rd, the Fairfax  Commission on the Arts is teaming up to create a vibrant Art Walk throughout downtown Fairfax!

Artists, performers, dancers, painters, poets, fashionistas — all art forms and mediums are invited to participate. This is a community-wide art social, networking, and connection event designed to bring together our local businesses and creative tribes for an unforgettable day of artful energy.

Keep it simple or go big — bring a sketchbook and picnic blanket, set up a table, pop up an easel — it’s all welcome!

A limited number of tent spaces are available, along with flexible sidewalk space throughout the downtown area. They"re partnering with local businesses, boutiques, and shops to create a vibrant, walkable experience that encourages visitors to explore and support the entire community. 

The Call for entry form is a preliminary information gathering system. More information will be sent out to participating members who enter by 3-15-26. Get the form from Cheryl Neway, Commissioner for COA, Designer, Artist and owner of Perfect Mistakes ®️

If you watched the scam jurying at the Olympics,  it brought back memories of when the Soviet block judges used to screw all other athletes...

Jezabel Dabouis: fuck you!

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District has announced a Call for Artists for the second phase of their Signal Box Public Art Project in downtown Bethesda, MD.  The A&E District will select 10 artists whose original designs will be printed onto a vinyl wrap to adorn 10 Signal Boxes located throughout downtown Bethesda.  This new project will beautify the signal boxes, provide an opportunity to local artists (including high school artists) and bring more public art to our community. 

Artists must be 14 years of age or older and residents of Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Virginia. Each selected artist will be paid $650 for the use of their design, and the deadline to apply is Thursday, April 30, 2026.

More info here.

submittable.com/submit" target="_blank">Application here.

From the WPA:

We're pleased to announce the 10 grant recipients for the 2026 funding cycle of Wherewithal Grants, providing financial support and peer mentorship for DC-area artists in areas of research and project presentations. Six artists and collectives have been awarded with research grants of $5,000 each, and four artists and collectives have been awarded with project & presentation grants of $7,500 each, for a total disbursement of $60,000 this cycle.

Research grantees: Gia Harewood, Jackie Hoysted, Brooke Jay & Chrystal Seawood, Christopher Kardambikis, Adriana Monsalve, and Kat Thompson.

Project & Presentation grantees: abdu ali mongo & Maleke Glee, Sobia Ahmad & Benny Shaffer, Ama BE, and Shariq Shah.

Over the next year, artists from this cohort will organize projects including: a multi-genre publication inspired by the Black queer body in motion; a three-day symposium bringing together a cohort of artists, filmmakers, and poets whose work probes land and film as reciprocal sites of encounter; a performance dinner; and an intergenerational cooking workshop. Others will conduct research around fascinating topics such as: soil memory, mycology, diasporic memories and language, and the history of DIY publishing in the 21st century.

Throughout the yearlong grant cycle, grantees will produce their work independently and in dialogue with one another, convening regularly as a group facilitated by Nathalie von Veh, Wherewithal Regrants Manager.

An independent panel of four artists and curators reviewed 113 applications and are awarding 10 grants. The adjudication panel consisted of: Jenna Crowder, Writer and Editor (Washington, DC); Krista Green, Grit Fund Program Manager, The Peale (Baltimore, MD); Rex Delafkaran, Artist and Wherewithal Alum (Chicago, IL); and Sara O’Keeffe, Senior Curator, Art Omi (Ghent, NY). They evaluated each proposal based on the criteria of Artistic Impact, Context/Audience, Collaboration, Feasibility, and Budget.

 National Portrait Gallery Announces Winners of the Seventh Outwin

Boochever Portrait Competition and Opening of

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today”

Kameron Neal Receives $25,000 and New Commission 

as First-Prize Winner of the National Triennial

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has announced Brooklyn-based artist Kameron Neal as the first-prize winner of the seventh national Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Neal’s two-channel video installation “Down the Barrel (of a Lens)” (2023) draws upon his time as a public artist in residence at New York City’s Department of Records, and it places the audience between two screens of declassified New York Police Department surveillance footage filmed between 1960 and 1980. As the first-prize winner, Neal will receive $25,000 and a commission to create a portrait of a living individual for the museum’s permanent collection. “Down the Barrel (of a Lens)” will be on view as part of “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” exhibition, co-curated by the competition’s director Taína Caragol, the Portrait Gallery’s senior curator of painting and sculpture, and Charlotte Ickes, the Portrait Gallery’s curator of time-based media art and special projects.

Held every three years, the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition is dedicated to supporting the next wave of contemporary portraiture in the U.S. “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” will be on view at the museum Jan. 24 through Aug. 30, 2026. From the exhibition’s opening through April 5, 2026, visitors—in person and online—can vote for their favorite artwork to receive the People’s Choice Award.

Previous first-prize winners of the national competition include David Lenz (2006), Dave Woody (2009), Bo Gehring (2013), Amy Sherald (2016), Hugo Crosthwaite (2019) and Alison Elizabeth Taylor (2022).

Second prize for the 2025 competition was awarded to Jared Soares of Washington, D.C., for his photograph “Misidentified by Artificial Intelligence: Alonzo and Carronne” (2023), a portrait of a Maryland resident who was falsely accused of a crime and arrested based on facial recognition software. Third prize was awarded to David Antonio Cruz of New York City for his painting “isaiditoncebefore,butnowIfeelitevenmore_feelin’pretty,pretty,pretty” (2023). Part of the artist’s “chosenfamilies” series, the painting shows the artist with Archel, one of his lifelong friends. Soares and Cruz will receive $10,000 and $7,500, respectively.

“As the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition rounds the corner on two decades since its founding in 2006, it continues to highlight contemporary artists working in portraiture who push to expand preconceived notions of the centuries-old genre,” Caragol said. “The 2025 competition-based triennial invites visitors to explore how artists are engaging with portraiture, sometimes embracing its tradition and other times redrawing the boundaries of the genre, with the intent of examining what it means to be human.”    

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” includes 34 portraits (by 35 artists) in mediums ranging from painting, photography and sculpture to immersive, time-based media installations. The artworks were chosen from more than 3,300 submissions to an anonymous open call, which was juried by experts in the fields of portraiture and contemporary art. The finalists include portraits by artists based in 12 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

Jurors for the 2025 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition were Carla Acevedo-Yates, curator, writer and member of the artistic team for documenta 16; Huey Copeland, the Andrew W. Mellon Chair and Professor of Modern Art and Black Study, Department of History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh; LaToya Ruby Frazier, artist; and Daniel Lind-Ramos, artist. “The Outwin 2025” co-curators Caragol and Ickes also served on the jury with Rhea L. Combs, the Portrait Gallery’s former director of curatorial affairs. The full list of exhibiting artists is below.

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog available at the museum’s store or online.  

The competition and exhibition are made possible by the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition Endowment, which was established by Virginia Outwin Boochever, a longtime docent at the National Portrait Gallery. The endowment is sustained by her family.

As part of the Spotlight on the Arts closing day celebrations, May 3rd, the Fairfax  Commission on the Arts is teaming up to create a vibrant Art Walk throughout downtown Fairfax!

Artists, performers, dancers, painters, poets, fashionistas — all art forms and mediums are invited to participate. This is a community-wide art social, networking, and connection event designed to bring together our local businesses and creative tribes for an unforgettable day of artful energy.

Keep it simple or go big — bring a sketchbook and picnic blanket, set up a table, pop up an easel — it’s all welcome!

A limited number of tent spaces are available, along with flexible sidewalk space throughout the downtown area. They"re partnering with local businesses, boutiques, and shops to create a vibrant, walkable experience that encourages visitors to explore and support the entire community. 

The Call for entry form is a preliminary information gathering system. More information will be sent out to participating members who enter by 3-15-26. Get the form from Cheryl Neway, Commissioner for COA, Designer, Artist and owner of Perfect Mistakes ®️

If you watched the scam jurying at the Olympics,  it brought back memories of when the Soviet block judges used to screw all other athletes...

Jezabel Dabouis: fuck you!

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District has announced a Call for Artists for the second phase of their Signal Box Public Art Project in downtown Bethesda, MD.  The A&E District will select 10 artists whose original designs will be printed onto a vinyl wrap to adorn 10 Signal Boxes located throughout downtown Bethesda.  This new project will beautify the signal boxes, provide an opportunity to local artists (including high school artists) and bring more public art to our community. 

Artists must be 14 years of age or older and residents of Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Virginia. Each selected artist will be paid $650 for the use of their design, and the deadline to apply is Thursday, April 30, 2026.

More info here.

submittable.com/submit" target="_blank">Application here.

From the WPA:

We're pleased to announce the 10 grant recipients for the 2026 funding cycle of Wherewithal Grants, providing financial support and peer mentorship for DC-area artists in areas of research and project presentations. Six artists and collectives have been awarded with research grants of $5,000 each, and four artists and collectives have been awarded with project & presentation grants of $7,500 each, for a total disbursement of $60,000 this cycle.

Research grantees: Gia Harewood, Jackie Hoysted, Brooke Jay & Chrystal Seawood, Christopher Kardambikis, Adriana Monsalve, and Kat Thompson.

Project & Presentation grantees: abdu ali mongo & Maleke Glee, Sobia Ahmad & Benny Shaffer, Ama BE, and Shariq Shah.

Over the next year, artists from this cohort will organize projects including: a multi-genre publication inspired by the Black queer body in motion; a three-day symposium bringing together a cohort of artists, filmmakers, and poets whose work probes land and film as reciprocal sites of encounter; a performance dinner; and an intergenerational cooking workshop. Others will conduct research around fascinating topics such as: soil memory, mycology, diasporic memories and language, and the history of DIY publishing in the 21st century.

Throughout the yearlong grant cycle, grantees will produce their work independently and in dialogue with one another, convening regularly as a group facilitated by Nathalie von Veh, Wherewithal Regrants Manager.

An independent panel of four artists and curators reviewed 113 applications and are awarding 10 grants. The adjudication panel consisted of: Jenna Crowder, Writer and Editor (Washington, DC); Krista Green, Grit Fund Program Manager, The Peale (Baltimore, MD); Rex Delafkaran, Artist and Wherewithal Alum (Chicago, IL); and Sara O’Keeffe, Senior Curator, Art Omi (Ghent, NY). They evaluated each proposal based on the criteria of Artistic Impact, Context/Audience, Collaboration, Feasibility, and Budget.

 National Portrait Gallery Announces Winners of the Seventh Outwin

Boochever Portrait Competition and Opening of

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today”

Kameron Neal Receives $25,000 and New Commission 

as First-Prize Winner of the National Triennial

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has announced Brooklyn-based artist Kameron Neal as the first-prize winner of the seventh national Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Neal’s two-channel video installation “Down the Barrel (of a Lens)” (2023) draws upon his time as a public artist in residence at New York City’s Department of Records, and it places the audience between two screens of declassified New York Police Department surveillance footage filmed between 1960 and 1980. As the first-prize winner, Neal will receive $25,000 and a commission to create a portrait of a living individual for the museum’s permanent collection. “Down the Barrel (of a Lens)” will be on view as part of “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” exhibition, co-curated by the competition’s director Taína Caragol, the Portrait Gallery’s senior curator of painting and sculpture, and Charlotte Ickes, the Portrait Gallery’s curator of time-based media art and special projects.

Held every three years, the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition is dedicated to supporting the next wave of contemporary portraiture in the U.S. “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” will be on view at the museum Jan. 24 through Aug. 30, 2026. From the exhibition’s opening through April 5, 2026, visitors—in person and online—can vote for their favorite artwork to receive the People’s Choice Award.

Previous first-prize winners of the national competition include David Lenz (2006), Dave Woody (2009), Bo Gehring (2013), Amy Sherald (2016), Hugo Crosthwaite (2019) and Alison Elizabeth Taylor (2022).

Second prize for the 2025 competition was awarded to Jared Soares of Washington, D.C., for his photograph “Misidentified by Artificial Intelligence: Alonzo and Carronne” (2023), a portrait of a Maryland resident who was falsely accused of a crime and arrested based on facial recognition software. Third prize was awarded to David Antonio Cruz of New York City for his painting “isaiditoncebefore,butnowIfeelitevenmore_feelin’pretty,pretty,pretty” (2023). Part of the artist’s “chosenfamilies” series, the painting shows the artist with Archel, one of his lifelong friends. Soares and Cruz will receive $10,000 and $7,500, respectively.

“As the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition rounds the corner on two decades since its founding in 2006, it continues to highlight contemporary artists working in portraiture who push to expand preconceived notions of the centuries-old genre,” Caragol said. “The 2025 competition-based triennial invites visitors to explore how artists are engaging with portraiture, sometimes embracing its tradition and other times redrawing the boundaries of the genre, with the intent of examining what it means to be human.”    

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” includes 34 portraits (by 35 artists) in mediums ranging from painting, photography and sculpture to immersive, time-based media installations. The artworks were chosen from more than 3,300 submissions to an anonymous open call, which was juried by experts in the fields of portraiture and contemporary art. The finalists include portraits by artists based in 12 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

Jurors for the 2025 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition were Carla Acevedo-Yates, curator, writer and member of the artistic team for documenta 16; Huey Copeland, the Andrew W. Mellon Chair and Professor of Modern Art and Black Study, Department of History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh; LaToya Ruby Frazier, artist; and Daniel Lind-Ramos, artist. “The Outwin 2025” co-curators Caragol and Ickes also served on the jury with Rhea L. Combs, the Portrait Gallery’s former director of curatorial affairs. The full list of exhibiting artists is below.

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog available at the museum’s store or online.  

The competition and exhibition are made possible by the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition Endowment, which was established by Virginia Outwin Boochever, a longtime docent at the National Portrait Gallery. The endowment is sustained by her family.

As part of the Spotlight on the Arts closing day celebrations, May 3rd, the Fairfax  Commission on the Arts is teaming up to create a vibrant Art Walk throughout downtown Fairfax!

Artists, performers, dancers, painters, poets, fashionistas — all art forms and mediums are invited to participate. This is a community-wide art social, networking, and connection event designed to bring together our local businesses and creative tribes for an unforgettable day of artful energy.

Keep it simple or go big — bring a sketchbook and picnic blanket, set up a table, pop up an easel — it’s all welcome!

A limited number of tent spaces are available, along with flexible sidewalk space throughout the downtown area. They"re partnering with local businesses, boutiques, and shops to create a vibrant, walkable experience that encourages visitors to explore and support the entire community. 

The Call for entry form is a preliminary information gathering system. More information will be sent out to participating members who enter by 3-15-26. Get the form from Cheryl Neway, Commissioner for COA, Designer, Artist and owner of Perfect Mistakes ®️

If you watched the scam jurying at the Olympics,  it brought back memories of when the Soviet block judges used to screw all other athletes...

Jezabel Dabouis: fuck you!

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District has announced a Call for Artists for the second phase of their Signal Box Public Art Project in downtown Bethesda, MD.  The A&E District will select 10 artists whose original designs will be printed onto a vinyl wrap to adorn 10 Signal Boxes located throughout downtown Bethesda.  This new project will beautify the signal boxes, provide an opportunity to local artists (including high school artists) and bring more public art to our community. 

Artists must be 14 years of age or older and residents of Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Virginia. Each selected artist will be paid $650 for the use of their design, and the deadline to apply is Thursday, April 30, 2026.

More info here.

submittable.com/submit" target="_blank">Application here.

From the WPA:

We're pleased to announce the 10 grant recipients for the 2026 funding cycle of Wherewithal Grants, providing financial support and peer mentorship for DC-area artists in areas of research and project presentations. Six artists and collectives have been awarded with research grants of $5,000 each, and four artists and collectives have been awarded with project & presentation grants of $7,500 each, for a total disbursement of $60,000 this cycle.

Research grantees: Gia Harewood, Jackie Hoysted, Brooke Jay & Chrystal Seawood, Christopher Kardambikis, Adriana Monsalve, and Kat Thompson.

Project & Presentation grantees: abdu ali mongo & Maleke Glee, Sobia Ahmad & Benny Shaffer, Ama BE, and Shariq Shah.

Over the next year, artists from this cohort will organize projects including: a multi-genre publication inspired by the Black queer body in motion; a three-day symposium bringing together a cohort of artists, filmmakers, and poets whose work probes land and film as reciprocal sites of encounter; a performance dinner; and an intergenerational cooking workshop. Others will conduct research around fascinating topics such as: soil memory, mycology, diasporic memories and language, and the history of DIY publishing in the 21st century.

Throughout the yearlong grant cycle, grantees will produce their work independently and in dialogue with one another, convening regularly as a group facilitated by Nathalie von Veh, Wherewithal Regrants Manager.

An independent panel of four artists and curators reviewed 113 applications and are awarding 10 grants. The adjudication panel consisted of: Jenna Crowder, Writer and Editor (Washington, DC); Krista Green, Grit Fund Program Manager, The Peale (Baltimore, MD); Rex Delafkaran, Artist and Wherewithal Alum (Chicago, IL); and Sara O’Keeffe, Senior Curator, Art Omi (Ghent, NY). They evaluated each proposal based on the criteria of Artistic Impact, Context/Audience, Collaboration, Feasibility, and Budget.

 National Portrait Gallery Announces Winners of the Seventh Outwin

Boochever Portrait Competition and Opening of

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today”

Kameron Neal Receives $25,000 and New Commission 

as First-Prize Winner of the National Triennial

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has announced Brooklyn-based artist Kameron Neal as the first-prize winner of the seventh national Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Neal’s two-channel video installation “Down the Barrel (of a Lens)” (2023) draws upon his time as a public artist in residence at New York City’s Department of Records, and it places the audience between two screens of declassified New York Police Department surveillance footage filmed between 1960 and 1980. As the first-prize winner, Neal will receive $25,000 and a commission to create a portrait of a living individual for the museum’s permanent collection. “Down the Barrel (of a Lens)” will be on view as part of “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” exhibition, co-curated by the competition’s director Taína Caragol, the Portrait Gallery’s senior curator of painting and sculpture, and Charlotte Ickes, the Portrait Gallery’s curator of time-based media art and special projects.

Held every three years, the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition is dedicated to supporting the next wave of contemporary portraiture in the U.S. “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” will be on view at the museum Jan. 24 through Aug. 30, 2026. From the exhibition’s opening through April 5, 2026, visitors—in person and online—can vote for their favorite artwork to receive the People’s Choice Award.

Previous first-prize winners of the national competition include David Lenz (2006), Dave Woody (2009), Bo Gehring (2013), Amy Sherald (2016), Hugo Crosthwaite (2019) and Alison Elizabeth Taylor (2022).

Second prize for the 2025 competition was awarded to Jared Soares of Washington, D.C., for his photograph “Misidentified by Artificial Intelligence: Alonzo and Carronne” (2023), a portrait of a Maryland resident who was falsely accused of a crime and arrested based on facial recognition software. Third prize was awarded to David Antonio Cruz of New York City for his painting “isaiditoncebefore,butnowIfeelitevenmore_feelin’pretty,pretty,pretty” (2023). Part of the artist’s “chosenfamilies” series, the painting shows the artist with Archel, one of his lifelong friends. Soares and Cruz will receive $10,000 and $7,500, respectively.

“As the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition rounds the corner on two decades since its founding in 2006, it continues to highlight contemporary artists working in portraiture who push to expand preconceived notions of the centuries-old genre,” Caragol said. “The 2025 competition-based triennial invites visitors to explore how artists are engaging with portraiture, sometimes embracing its tradition and other times redrawing the boundaries of the genre, with the intent of examining what it means to be human.”    

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” includes 34 portraits (by 35 artists) in mediums ranging from painting, photography and sculpture to immersive, time-based media installations. The artworks were chosen from more than 3,300 submissions to an anonymous open call, which was juried by experts in the fields of portraiture and contemporary art. The finalists include portraits by artists based in 12 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

Jurors for the 2025 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition were Carla Acevedo-Yates, curator, writer and member of the artistic team for documenta 16; Huey Copeland, the Andrew W. Mellon Chair and Professor of Modern Art and Black Study, Department of History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh; LaToya Ruby Frazier, artist; and Daniel Lind-Ramos, artist. “The Outwin 2025” co-curators Caragol and Ickes also served on the jury with Rhea L. Combs, the Portrait Gallery’s former director of curatorial affairs. The full list of exhibiting artists is below.

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog available at the museum’s store or online.  

The competition and exhibition are made possible by the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition Endowment, which was established by Virginia Outwin Boochever, a longtime docent at the National Portrait Gallery. The endowment is sustained by her family.

As part of the Spotlight on the Arts closing day celebrations, May 3rd, the Fairfax  Commission on the Arts is teaming up to create a vibrant Art Walk throughout downtown Fairfax!

Artists, performers, dancers, painters, poets, fashionistas — all art forms and mediums are invited to participate. This is a community-wide art social, networking, and connection event designed to bring together our local businesses and creative tribes for an unforgettable day of artful energy.

Keep it simple or go big — bring a sketchbook and picnic blanket, set up a table, pop up an easel — it’s all welcome!

A limited number of tent spaces are available, along with flexible sidewalk space throughout the downtown area. They"re partnering with local businesses, boutiques, and shops to create a vibrant, walkable experience that encourages visitors to explore and support the entire community. 

The Call for entry form is a preliminary information gathering system. More information will be sent out to participating members who enter by 3-15-26. Get the form from Cheryl Neway, Commissioner for COA, Designer, Artist and owner of Perfect Mistakes ®️

If you watched the scam jurying at the Olympics,  it brought back memories of when the Soviet block judges used to screw all other athletes...

Jezabel Dabouis: fuck you!

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District has announced a Call for Artists for the second phase of their Signal Box Public Art Project in downtown Bethesda, MD.  The A&E District will select 10 artists whose original designs will be printed onto a vinyl wrap to adorn 10 Signal Boxes located throughout downtown Bethesda.  This new project will beautify the signal boxes, provide an opportunity to local artists (including high school artists) and bring more public art to our community. 

Artists must be 14 years of age or older and residents of Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Virginia. Each selected artist will be paid $650 for the use of their design, and the deadline to apply is Thursday, April 30, 2026.

More info here.

submittable.com/submit" target="_blank">Application here.

From the WPA:

We're pleased to announce the 10 grant recipients for the 2026 funding cycle of Wherewithal Grants, providing financial support and peer mentorship for DC-area artists in areas of research and project presentations. Six artists and collectives have been awarded with research grants of $5,000 each, and four artists and collectives have been awarded with project & presentation grants of $7,500 each, for a total disbursement of $60,000 this cycle.

Research grantees: Gia Harewood, Jackie Hoysted, Brooke Jay & Chrystal Seawood, Christopher Kardambikis, Adriana Monsalve, and Kat Thompson.

Project & Presentation grantees: abdu ali mongo & Maleke Glee, Sobia Ahmad & Benny Shaffer, Ama BE, and Shariq Shah.

Over the next year, artists from this cohort will organize projects including: a multi-genre publication inspired by the Black queer body in motion; a three-day symposium bringing together a cohort of artists, filmmakers, and poets whose work probes land and film as reciprocal sites of encounter; a performance dinner; and an intergenerational cooking workshop. Others will conduct research around fascinating topics such as: soil memory, mycology, diasporic memories and language, and the history of DIY publishing in the 21st century.

Throughout the yearlong grant cycle, grantees will produce their work independently and in dialogue with one another, convening regularly as a group facilitated by Nathalie von Veh, Wherewithal Regrants Manager.

An independent panel of four artists and curators reviewed 113 applications and are awarding 10 grants. The adjudication panel consisted of: Jenna Crowder, Writer and Editor (Washington, DC); Krista Green, Grit Fund Program Manager, The Peale (Baltimore, MD); Rex Delafkaran, Artist and Wherewithal Alum (Chicago, IL); and Sara O’Keeffe, Senior Curator, Art Omi (Ghent, NY). They evaluated each proposal based on the criteria of Artistic Impact, Context/Audience, Collaboration, Feasibility, and Budget.

 National Portrait Gallery Announces Winners of the Seventh Outwin

Boochever Portrait Competition and Opening of

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today”

Kameron Neal Receives $25,000 and New Commission 

as First-Prize Winner of the National Triennial

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has announced Brooklyn-based artist Kameron Neal as the first-prize winner of the seventh national Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Neal’s two-channel video installation “Down the Barrel (of a Lens)” (2023) draws upon his time as a public artist in residence at New York City’s Department of Records, and it places the audience between two screens of declassified New York Police Department surveillance footage filmed between 1960 and 1980. As the first-prize winner, Neal will receive $25,000 and a commission to create a portrait of a living individual for the museum’s permanent collection. “Down the Barrel (of a Lens)” will be on view as part of “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” exhibition, co-curated by the competition’s director Taína Caragol, the Portrait Gallery’s senior curator of painting and sculpture, and Charlotte Ickes, the Portrait Gallery’s curator of time-based media art and special projects.

Held every three years, the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition is dedicated to supporting the next wave of contemporary portraiture in the U.S. “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” will be on view at the museum Jan. 24 through Aug. 30, 2026. From the exhibition’s opening through April 5, 2026, visitors—in person and online—can vote for their favorite artwork to receive the People’s Choice Award.

Previous first-prize winners of the national competition include David Lenz (2006), Dave Woody (2009), Bo Gehring (2013), Amy Sherald (2016), Hugo Crosthwaite (2019) and Alison Elizabeth Taylor (2022).

Second prize for the 2025 competition was awarded to Jared Soares of Washington, D.C., for his photograph “Misidentified by Artificial Intelligence: Alonzo and Carronne” (2023), a portrait of a Maryland resident who was falsely accused of a crime and arrested based on facial recognition software. Third prize was awarded to David Antonio Cruz of New York City for his painting “isaiditoncebefore,butnowIfeelitevenmore_feelin’pretty,pretty,pretty” (2023). Part of the artist’s “chosenfamilies” series, the painting shows the artist with Archel, one of his lifelong friends. Soares and Cruz will receive $10,000 and $7,500, respectively.

“As the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition rounds the corner on two decades since its founding in 2006, it continues to highlight contemporary artists working in portraiture who push to expand preconceived notions of the centuries-old genre,” Caragol said. “The 2025 competition-based triennial invites visitors to explore how artists are engaging with portraiture, sometimes embracing its tradition and other times redrawing the boundaries of the genre, with the intent of examining what it means to be human.”    

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” includes 34 portraits (by 35 artists) in mediums ranging from painting, photography and sculpture to immersive, time-based media installations. The artworks were chosen from more than 3,300 submissions to an anonymous open call, which was juried by experts in the fields of portraiture and contemporary art. The finalists include portraits by artists based in 12 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

Jurors for the 2025 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition were Carla Acevedo-Yates, curator, writer and member of the artistic team for documenta 16; Huey Copeland, the Andrew W. Mellon Chair and Professor of Modern Art and Black Study, Department of History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh; LaToya Ruby Frazier, artist; and Daniel Lind-Ramos, artist. “The Outwin 2025” co-curators Caragol and Ickes also served on the jury with Rhea L. Combs, the Portrait Gallery’s former director of curatorial affairs. The full list of exhibiting artists is below.

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog available at the museum’s store or online.  

The competition and exhibition are made possible by the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition Endowment, which was established by Virginia Outwin Boochever, a longtime docent at the National Portrait Gallery. The endowment is sustained by her family.

As part of the Spotlight on the Arts closing day celebrations, May 3rd, the Fairfax  Commission on the Arts is teaming up to create a vibrant Art Walk throughout downtown Fairfax!

Artists, performers, dancers, painters, poets, fashionistas — all art forms and mediums are invited to participate. This is a community-wide art social, networking, and connection event designed to bring together our local businesses and creative tribes for an unforgettable day of artful energy.

Keep it simple or go big — bring a sketchbook and picnic blanket, set up a table, pop up an easel — it’s all welcome!

A limited number of tent spaces are available, along with flexible sidewalk space throughout the downtown area. They"re partnering with local businesses, boutiques, and shops to create a vibrant, walkable experience that encourages visitors to explore and support the entire community. 

The Call for entry form is a preliminary information gathering system. More information will be sent out to participating members who enter by 3-15-26. Get the form from Cheryl Neway, Commissioner for COA, Designer, Artist and owner of Perfect Mistakes ®️

If you watched the scam jurying at the Olympics,  it brought back memories of when the Soviet block judges used to screw all other athletes...

Jezabel Dabouis: fuck you!

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District has announced a Call for Artists for the second phase of their Signal Box Public Art Project in downtown Bethesda, MD.  The A&E District will select 10 artists whose original designs will be printed onto a vinyl wrap to adorn 10 Signal Boxes located throughout downtown Bethesda.  This new project will beautify the signal boxes, provide an opportunity to local artists (including high school artists) and bring more public art to our community. 

Artists must be 14 years of age or older and residents of Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Virginia. Each selected artist will be paid $650 for the use of their design, and the deadline to apply is Thursday, April 30, 2026.

More info here.

submittable.com/submit" target="_blank">Application here.

From the WPA:

We're pleased to announce the 10 grant recipients for the 2026 funding cycle of Wherewithal Grants, providing financial support and peer mentorship for DC-area artists in areas of research and project presentations. Six artists and collectives have been awarded with research grants of $5,000 each, and four artists and collectives have been awarded with project & presentation grants of $7,500 each, for a total disbursement of $60,000 this cycle.

Research grantees: Gia Harewood, Jackie Hoysted, Brooke Jay & Chrystal Seawood, Christopher Kardambikis, Adriana Monsalve, and Kat Thompson.

Project & Presentation grantees: abdu ali mongo & Maleke Glee, Sobia Ahmad & Benny Shaffer, Ama BE, and Shariq Shah.

Over the next year, artists from this cohort will organize projects including: a multi-genre publication inspired by the Black queer body in motion; a three-day symposium bringing together a cohort of artists, filmmakers, and poets whose work probes land and film as reciprocal sites of encounter; a performance dinner; and an intergenerational cooking workshop. Others will conduct research around fascinating topics such as: soil memory, mycology, diasporic memories and language, and the history of DIY publishing in the 21st century.

Throughout the yearlong grant cycle, grantees will produce their work independently and in dialogue with one another, convening regularly as a group facilitated by Nathalie von Veh, Wherewithal Regrants Manager.

An independent panel of four artists and curators reviewed 113 applications and are awarding 10 grants. The adjudication panel consisted of: Jenna Crowder, Writer and Editor (Washington, DC); Krista Green, Grit Fund Program Manager, The Peale (Baltimore, MD); Rex Delafkaran, Artist and Wherewithal Alum (Chicago, IL); and Sara O’Keeffe, Senior Curator, Art Omi (Ghent, NY). They evaluated each proposal based on the criteria of Artistic Impact, Context/Audience, Collaboration, Feasibility, and Budget.

 National Portrait Gallery Announces Winners of the Seventh Outwin

Boochever Portrait Competition and Opening of

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today”

Kameron Neal Receives $25,000 and New Commission 

as First-Prize Winner of the National Triennial

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has announced Brooklyn-based artist Kameron Neal as the first-prize winner of the seventh national Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Neal’s two-channel video installation “Down the Barrel (of a Lens)” (2023) draws upon his time as a public artist in residence at New York City’s Department of Records, and it places the audience between two screens of declassified New York Police Department surveillance footage filmed between 1960 and 1980. As the first-prize winner, Neal will receive $25,000 and a commission to create a portrait of a living individual for the museum’s permanent collection. “Down the Barrel (of a Lens)” will be on view as part of “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” exhibition, co-curated by the competition’s director Taína Caragol, the Portrait Gallery’s senior curator of painting and sculpture, and Charlotte Ickes, the Portrait Gallery’s curator of time-based media art and special projects.

Held every three years, the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition is dedicated to supporting the next wave of contemporary portraiture in the U.S. “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” will be on view at the museum Jan. 24 through Aug. 30, 2026. From the exhibition’s opening through April 5, 2026, visitors—in person and online—can vote for their favorite artwork to receive the People’s Choice Award.

Previous first-prize winners of the national competition include David Lenz (2006), Dave Woody (2009), Bo Gehring (2013), Amy Sherald (2016), Hugo Crosthwaite (2019) and Alison Elizabeth Taylor (2022).

Second prize for the 2025 competition was awarded to Jared Soares of Washington, D.C., for his photograph “Misidentified by Artificial Intelligence: Alonzo and Carronne” (2023), a portrait of a Maryland resident who was falsely accused of a crime and arrested based on facial recognition software. Third prize was awarded to David Antonio Cruz of New York City for his painting “isaiditoncebefore,butnowIfeelitevenmore_feelin’pretty,pretty,pretty” (2023). Part of the artist’s “chosenfamilies” series, the painting shows the artist with Archel, one of his lifelong friends. Soares and Cruz will receive $10,000 and $7,500, respectively.

“As the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition rounds the corner on two decades since its founding in 2006, it continues to highlight contemporary artists working in portraiture who push to expand preconceived notions of the centuries-old genre,” Caragol said. “The 2025 competition-based triennial invites visitors to explore how artists are engaging with portraiture, sometimes embracing its tradition and other times redrawing the boundaries of the genre, with the intent of examining what it means to be human.”    

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” includes 34 portraits (by 35 artists) in mediums ranging from painting, photography and sculpture to immersive, time-based media installations. The artworks were chosen from more than 3,300 submissions to an anonymous open call, which was juried by experts in the fields of portraiture and contemporary art. The finalists include portraits by artists based in 12 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

Jurors for the 2025 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition were Carla Acevedo-Yates, curator, writer and member of the artistic team for documenta 16; Huey Copeland, the Andrew W. Mellon Chair and Professor of Modern Art and Black Study, Department of History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh; LaToya Ruby Frazier, artist; and Daniel Lind-Ramos, artist. “The Outwin 2025” co-curators Caragol and Ickes also served on the jury with Rhea L. Combs, the Portrait Gallery’s former director of curatorial affairs. The full list of exhibiting artists is below.

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog available at the museum’s store or online.  

The competition and exhibition are made possible by the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition Endowment, which was established by Virginia Outwin Boochever, a longtime docent at the National Portrait Gallery. The endowment is sustained by her family.

As part of the Spotlight on the Arts closing day celebrations, May 3rd, the Fairfax  Commission on the Arts is teaming up to create a vibrant Art Walk throughout downtown Fairfax!

Artists, performers, dancers, painters, poets, fashionistas — all art forms and mediums are invited to participate. This is a community-wide art social, networking, and connection event designed to bring together our local businesses and creative tribes for an unforgettable day of artful energy.

Keep it simple or go big — bring a sketchbook and picnic blanket, set up a table, pop up an easel — it’s all welcome!

A limited number of tent spaces are available, along with flexible sidewalk space throughout the downtown area. They"re partnering with local businesses, boutiques, and shops to create a vibrant, walkable experience that encourages visitors to explore and support the entire community. 

The Call for entry form is a preliminary information gathering system. More information will be sent out to participating members who enter by 3-15-26. Get the form from Cheryl Neway, Commissioner for COA, Designer, Artist and owner of Perfect Mistakes ®️

If you watched the scam jurying at the Olympics,  it brought back memories of when the Soviet block judges used to screw all other athletes...

Jezabel Dabouis: fuck you!

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District has announced a Call for Artists for the second phase of their Signal Box Public Art Project in downtown Bethesda, MD.  The A&E District will select 10 artists whose original designs will be printed onto a vinyl wrap to adorn 10 Signal Boxes located throughout downtown Bethesda.  This new project will beautify the signal boxes, provide an opportunity to local artists (including high school artists) and bring more public art to our community. 

Artists must be 14 years of age or older and residents of Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Virginia. Each selected artist will be paid $650 for the use of their design, and the deadline to apply is Thursday, April 30, 2026.

More info here.

submittable.com/submit" target="_blank">Application here.

From the WPA:

We're pleased to announce the 10 grant recipients for the 2026 funding cycle of Wherewithal Grants, providing financial support and peer mentorship for DC-area artists in areas of research and project presentations. Six artists and collectives have been awarded with research grants of $5,000 each, and four artists and collectives have been awarded with project & presentation grants of $7,500 each, for a total disbursement of $60,000 this cycle.

Research grantees: Gia Harewood, Jackie Hoysted, Brooke Jay & Chrystal Seawood, Christopher Kardambikis, Adriana Monsalve, and Kat Thompson.

Project & Presentation grantees: abdu ali mongo & Maleke Glee, Sobia Ahmad & Benny Shaffer, Ama BE, and Shariq Shah.

Over the next year, artists from this cohort will organize projects including: a multi-genre publication inspired by the Black queer body in motion; a three-day symposium bringing together a cohort of artists, filmmakers, and poets whose work probes land and film as reciprocal sites of encounter; a performance dinner; and an intergenerational cooking workshop. Others will conduct research around fascinating topics such as: soil memory, mycology, diasporic memories and language, and the history of DIY publishing in the 21st century.

Throughout the yearlong grant cycle, grantees will produce their work independently and in dialogue with one another, convening regularly as a group facilitated by Nathalie von Veh, Wherewithal Regrants Manager.

An independent panel of four artists and curators reviewed 113 applications and are awarding 10 grants. The adjudication panel consisted of: Jenna Crowder, Writer and Editor (Washington, DC); Krista Green, Grit Fund Program Manager, The Peale (Baltimore, MD); Rex Delafkaran, Artist and Wherewithal Alum (Chicago, IL); and Sara O’Keeffe, Senior Curator, Art Omi (Ghent, NY). They evaluated each proposal based on the criteria of Artistic Impact, Context/Audience, Collaboration, Feasibility, and Budget.

 National Portrait Gallery Announces Winners of the Seventh Outwin

Boochever Portrait Competition and Opening of

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today”

Kameron Neal Receives $25,000 and New Commission 

as First-Prize Winner of the National Triennial

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has announced Brooklyn-based artist Kameron Neal as the first-prize winner of the seventh national Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Neal’s two-channel video installation “Down the Barrel (of a Lens)” (2023) draws upon his time as a public artist in residence at New York City’s Department of Records, and it places the audience between two screens of declassified New York Police Department surveillance footage filmed between 1960 and 1980. As the first-prize winner, Neal will receive $25,000 and a commission to create a portrait of a living individual for the museum’s permanent collection. “Down the Barrel (of a Lens)” will be on view as part of “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” exhibition, co-curated by the competition’s director Taína Caragol, the Portrait Gallery’s senior curator of painting and sculpture, and Charlotte Ickes, the Portrait Gallery’s curator of time-based media art and special projects.

Held every three years, the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition is dedicated to supporting the next wave of contemporary portraiture in the U.S. “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” will be on view at the museum Jan. 24 through Aug. 30, 2026. From the exhibition’s opening through April 5, 2026, visitors—in person and online—can vote for their favorite artwork to receive the People’s Choice Award.

Previous first-prize winners of the national competition include David Lenz (2006), Dave Woody (2009), Bo Gehring (2013), Amy Sherald (2016), Hugo Crosthwaite (2019) and Alison Elizabeth Taylor (2022).

Second prize for the 2025 competition was awarded to Jared Soares of Washington, D.C., for his photograph “Misidentified by Artificial Intelligence: Alonzo and Carronne” (2023), a portrait of a Maryland resident who was falsely accused of a crime and arrested based on facial recognition software. Third prize was awarded to David Antonio Cruz of New York City for his painting “isaiditoncebefore,butnowIfeelitevenmore_feelin’pretty,pretty,pretty” (2023). Part of the artist’s “chosenfamilies” series, the painting shows the artist with Archel, one of his lifelong friends. Soares and Cruz will receive $10,000 and $7,500, respectively.

“As the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition rounds the corner on two decades since its founding in 2006, it continues to highlight contemporary artists working in portraiture who push to expand preconceived notions of the centuries-old genre,” Caragol said. “The 2025 competition-based triennial invites visitors to explore how artists are engaging with portraiture, sometimes embracing its tradition and other times redrawing the boundaries of the genre, with the intent of examining what it means to be human.”    

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” includes 34 portraits (by 35 artists) in mediums ranging from painting, photography and sculpture to immersive, time-based media installations. The artworks were chosen from more than 3,300 submissions to an anonymous open call, which was juried by experts in the fields of portraiture and contemporary art. The finalists include portraits by artists based in 12 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

Jurors for the 2025 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition were Carla Acevedo-Yates, curator, writer and member of the artistic team for documenta 16; Huey Copeland, the Andrew W. Mellon Chair and Professor of Modern Art and Black Study, Department of History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh; LaToya Ruby Frazier, artist; and Daniel Lind-Ramos, artist. “The Outwin 2025” co-curators Caragol and Ickes also served on the jury with Rhea L. Combs, the Portrait Gallery’s former director of curatorial affairs. The full list of exhibiting artists is below.

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog available at the museum’s store or online.  

The competition and exhibition are made possible by the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition Endowment, which was established by Virginia Outwin Boochever, a longtime docent at the National Portrait Gallery. The endowment is sustained by her family.

As part of the Spotlight on the Arts closing day celebrations, May 3rd, the Fairfax  Commission on the Arts is teaming up to create a vibrant Art Walk throughout downtown Fairfax!

Artists, performers, dancers, painters, poets, fashionistas — all art forms and mediums are invited to participate. This is a community-wide art social, networking, and connection event designed to bring together our local businesses and creative tribes for an unforgettable day of artful energy.

Keep it simple or go big — bring a sketchbook and picnic blanket, set up a table, pop up an easel — it’s all welcome!

A limited number of tent spaces are available, along with flexible sidewalk space throughout the downtown area. They"re partnering with local businesses, boutiques, and shops to create a vibrant, walkable experience that encourages visitors to explore and support the entire community. 

The Call for entry form is a preliminary information gathering system. More information will be sent out to participating members who enter by 3-15-26. Get the form from Cheryl Neway, Commissioner for COA, Designer, Artist and owner of Perfect Mistakes ®️

If you watched the scam jurying at the Olympics,  it brought back memories of when the Soviet block judges used to screw all other athletes...

Jezabel Dabouis: fuck you!

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District has announced a Call for Artists for the second phase of their Signal Box Public Art Project in downtown Bethesda, MD.  The A&E District will select 10 artists whose original designs will be printed onto a vinyl wrap to adorn 10 Signal Boxes located throughout downtown Bethesda.  This new project will beautify the signal boxes, provide an opportunity to local artists (including high school artists) and bring more public art to our community. 

Artists must be 14 years of age or older and residents of Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Virginia. Each selected artist will be paid $650 for the use of their design, and the deadline to apply is Thursday, April 30, 2026.

More info here.

submittable.com/submit" target="_blank">Application here.

From the WPA:

We're pleased to announce the 10 grant recipients for the 2026 funding cycle of Wherewithal Grants, providing financial support and peer mentorship for DC-area artists in areas of research and project presentations. Six artists and collectives have been awarded with research grants of $5,000 each, and four artists and collectives have been awarded with project & presentation grants of $7,500 each, for a total disbursement of $60,000 this cycle.

Research grantees: Gia Harewood, Jackie Hoysted, Brooke Jay & Chrystal Seawood, Christopher Kardambikis, Adriana Monsalve, and Kat Thompson.

Project & Presentation grantees: abdu ali mongo & Maleke Glee, Sobia Ahmad & Benny Shaffer, Ama BE, and Shariq Shah.

Over the next year, artists from this cohort will organize projects including: a multi-genre publication inspired by the Black queer body in motion; a three-day symposium bringing together a cohort of artists, filmmakers, and poets whose work probes land and film as reciprocal sites of encounter; a performance dinner; and an intergenerational cooking workshop. Others will conduct research around fascinating topics such as: soil memory, mycology, diasporic memories and language, and the history of DIY publishing in the 21st century.

Throughout the yearlong grant cycle, grantees will produce their work independently and in dialogue with one another, convening regularly as a group facilitated by Nathalie von Veh, Wherewithal Regrants Manager.

An independent panel of four artists and curators reviewed 113 applications and are awarding 10 grants. The adjudication panel consisted of: Jenna Crowder, Writer and Editor (Washington, DC); Krista Green, Grit Fund Program Manager, The Peale (Baltimore, MD); Rex Delafkaran, Artist and Wherewithal Alum (Chicago, IL); and Sara O’Keeffe, Senior Curator, Art Omi (Ghent, NY). They evaluated each proposal based on the criteria of Artistic Impact, Context/Audience, Collaboration, Feasibility, and Budget.

 National Portrait Gallery Announces Winners of the Seventh Outwin

Boochever Portrait Competition and Opening of

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today”

Kameron Neal Receives $25,000 and New Commission 

as First-Prize Winner of the National Triennial

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has announced Brooklyn-based artist Kameron Neal as the first-prize winner of the seventh national Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Neal’s two-channel video installation “Down the Barrel (of a Lens)” (2023) draws upon his time as a public artist in residence at New York City’s Department of Records, and it places the audience between two screens of declassified New York Police Department surveillance footage filmed between 1960 and 1980. As the first-prize winner, Neal will receive $25,000 and a commission to create a portrait of a living individual for the museum’s permanent collection. “Down the Barrel (of a Lens)” will be on view as part of “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” exhibition, co-curated by the competition’s director Taína Caragol, the Portrait Gallery’s senior curator of painting and sculpture, and Charlotte Ickes, the Portrait Gallery’s curator of time-based media art and special projects.

Held every three years, the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition is dedicated to supporting the next wave of contemporary portraiture in the U.S. “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” will be on view at the museum Jan. 24 through Aug. 30, 2026. From the exhibition’s opening through April 5, 2026, visitors—in person and online—can vote for their favorite artwork to receive the People’s Choice Award.

Previous first-prize winners of the national competition include David Lenz (2006), Dave Woody (2009), Bo Gehring (2013), Amy Sherald (2016), Hugo Crosthwaite (2019) and Alison Elizabeth Taylor (2022).

Second prize for the 2025 competition was awarded to Jared Soares of Washington, D.C., for his photograph “Misidentified by Artificial Intelligence: Alonzo and Carronne” (2023), a portrait of a Maryland resident who was falsely accused of a crime and arrested based on facial recognition software. Third prize was awarded to David Antonio Cruz of New York City for his painting “isaiditoncebefore,butnowIfeelitevenmore_feelin’pretty,pretty,pretty” (2023). Part of the artist’s “chosenfamilies” series, the painting shows the artist with Archel, one of his lifelong friends. Soares and Cruz will receive $10,000 and $7,500, respectively.

“As the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition rounds the corner on two decades since its founding in 2006, it continues to highlight contemporary artists working in portraiture who push to expand preconceived notions of the centuries-old genre,” Caragol said. “The 2025 competition-based triennial invites visitors to explore how artists are engaging with portraiture, sometimes embracing its tradition and other times redrawing the boundaries of the genre, with the intent of examining what it means to be human.”    

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” includes 34 portraits (by 35 artists) in mediums ranging from painting, photography and sculpture to immersive, time-based media installations. The artworks were chosen from more than 3,300 submissions to an anonymous open call, which was juried by experts in the fields of portraiture and contemporary art. The finalists include portraits by artists based in 12 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

Jurors for the 2025 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition were Carla Acevedo-Yates, curator, writer and member of the artistic team for documenta 16; Huey Copeland, the Andrew W. Mellon Chair and Professor of Modern Art and Black Study, Department of History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh; LaToya Ruby Frazier, artist; and Daniel Lind-Ramos, artist. “The Outwin 2025” co-curators Caragol and Ickes also served on the jury with Rhea L. Combs, the Portrait Gallery’s former director of curatorial affairs. The full list of exhibiting artists is below.

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog available at the museum’s store or online.  

The competition and exhibition are made possible by the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition Endowment, which was established by Virginia Outwin Boochever, a longtime docent at the National Portrait Gallery. The endowment is sustained by her family.

As part of the Spotlight on the Arts closing day celebrations, May 3rd, the Fairfax  Commission on the Arts is teaming up to create a vibrant Art Walk throughout downtown Fairfax!

Artists, performers, dancers, painters, poets, fashionistas — all art forms and mediums are invited to participate. This is a community-wide art social, networking, and connection event designed to bring together our local businesses and creative tribes for an unforgettable day of artful energy.

Keep it simple or go big — bring a sketchbook and picnic blanket, set up a table, pop up an easel — it’s all welcome!

A limited number of tent spaces are available, along with flexible sidewalk space throughout the downtown area. They"re partnering with local businesses, boutiques, and shops to create a vibrant, walkable experience that encourages visitors to explore and support the entire community. 

The Call for entry form is a preliminary information gathering system. More information will be sent out to participating members who enter by 3-15-26. Get the form from Cheryl Neway, Commissioner for COA, Designer, Artist and owner of Perfect Mistakes ®️

If you watched the scam jurying at the Olympics,  it brought back memories of when the Soviet block judges used to screw all other athletes...

Jezabel Dabouis: fuck you!

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District has announced a Call for Artists for the second phase of their Signal Box Public Art Project in downtown Bethesda, MD.  The A&E District will select 10 artists whose original designs will be printed onto a vinyl wrap to adorn 10 Signal Boxes located throughout downtown Bethesda.  This new project will beautify the signal boxes, provide an opportunity to local artists (including high school artists) and bring more public art to our community. 

Artists must be 14 years of age or older and residents of Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Virginia. Each selected artist will be paid $650 for the use of their design, and the deadline to apply is Thursday, April 30, 2026.

More info here.

submittable.com/submit" target="_blank">Application here.

From the WPA:

We're pleased to announce the 10 grant recipients for the 2026 funding cycle of Wherewithal Grants, providing financial support and peer mentorship for DC-area artists in areas of research and project presentations. Six artists and collectives have been awarded with research grants of $5,000 each, and four artists and collectives have been awarded with project & presentation grants of $7,500 each, for a total disbursement of $60,000 this cycle.

Research grantees: Gia Harewood, Jackie Hoysted, Brooke Jay & Chrystal Seawood, Christopher Kardambikis, Adriana Monsalve, and Kat Thompson.

Project & Presentation grantees: abdu ali mongo & Maleke Glee, Sobia Ahmad & Benny Shaffer, Ama BE, and Shariq Shah.

Over the next year, artists from this cohort will organize projects including: a multi-genre publication inspired by the Black queer body in motion; a three-day symposium bringing together a cohort of artists, filmmakers, and poets whose work probes land and film as reciprocal sites of encounter; a performance dinner; and an intergenerational cooking workshop. Others will conduct research around fascinating topics such as: soil memory, mycology, diasporic memories and language, and the history of DIY publishing in the 21st century.

Throughout the yearlong grant cycle, grantees will produce their work independently and in dialogue with one another, convening regularly as a group facilitated by Nathalie von Veh, Wherewithal Regrants Manager.

An independent panel of four artists and curators reviewed 113 applications and are awarding 10 grants. The adjudication panel consisted of: Jenna Crowder, Writer and Editor (Washington, DC); Krista Green, Grit Fund Program Manager, The Peale (Baltimore, MD); Rex Delafkaran, Artist and Wherewithal Alum (Chicago, IL); and Sara O’Keeffe, Senior Curator, Art Omi (Ghent, NY). They evaluated each proposal based on the criteria of Artistic Impact, Context/Audience, Collaboration, Feasibility, and Budget.

 National Portrait Gallery Announces Winners of the Seventh Outwin

Boochever Portrait Competition and Opening of

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today”

Kameron Neal Receives $25,000 and New Commission 

as First-Prize Winner of the National Triennial

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has announced Brooklyn-based artist Kameron Neal as the first-prize winner of the seventh national Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Neal’s two-channel video installation “Down the Barrel (of a Lens)” (2023) draws upon his time as a public artist in residence at New York City’s Department of Records, and it places the audience between two screens of declassified New York Police Department surveillance footage filmed between 1960 and 1980. As the first-prize winner, Neal will receive $25,000 and a commission to create a portrait of a living individual for the museum’s permanent collection. “Down the Barrel (of a Lens)” will be on view as part of “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” exhibition, co-curated by the competition’s director Taína Caragol, the Portrait Gallery’s senior curator of painting and sculpture, and Charlotte Ickes, the Portrait Gallery’s curator of time-based media art and special projects.

Held every three years, the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition is dedicated to supporting the next wave of contemporary portraiture in the U.S. “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” will be on view at the museum Jan. 24 through Aug. 30, 2026. From the exhibition’s opening through April 5, 2026, visitors—in person and online—can vote for their favorite artwork to receive the People’s Choice Award.

Previous first-prize winners of the national competition include David Lenz (2006), Dave Woody (2009), Bo Gehring (2013), Amy Sherald (2016), Hugo Crosthwaite (2019) and Alison Elizabeth Taylor (2022).

Second prize for the 2025 competition was awarded to Jared Soares of Washington, D.C., for his photograph “Misidentified by Artificial Intelligence: Alonzo and Carronne” (2023), a portrait of a Maryland resident who was falsely accused of a crime and arrested based on facial recognition software. Third prize was awarded to David Antonio Cruz of New York City for his painting “isaiditoncebefore,butnowIfeelitevenmore_feelin’pretty,pretty,pretty” (2023). Part of the artist’s “chosenfamilies” series, the painting shows the artist with Archel, one of his lifelong friends. Soares and Cruz will receive $10,000 and $7,500, respectively.

“As the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition rounds the corner on two decades since its founding in 2006, it continues to highlight contemporary artists working in portraiture who push to expand preconceived notions of the centuries-old genre,” Caragol said. “The 2025 competition-based triennial invites visitors to explore how artists are engaging with portraiture, sometimes embracing its tradition and other times redrawing the boundaries of the genre, with the intent of examining what it means to be human.”    

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” includes 34 portraits (by 35 artists) in mediums ranging from painting, photography and sculpture to immersive, time-based media installations. The artworks were chosen from more than 3,300 submissions to an anonymous open call, which was juried by experts in the fields of portraiture and contemporary art. The finalists include portraits by artists based in 12 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

Jurors for the 2025 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition were Carla Acevedo-Yates, curator, writer and member of the artistic team for documenta 16; Huey Copeland, the Andrew W. Mellon Chair and Professor of Modern Art and Black Study, Department of History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh; LaToya Ruby Frazier, artist; and Daniel Lind-Ramos, artist. “The Outwin 2025” co-curators Caragol and Ickes also served on the jury with Rhea L. Combs, the Portrait Gallery’s former director of curatorial affairs. The full list of exhibiting artists is below.

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog available at the museum’s store or online.  

The competition and exhibition are made possible by the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition Endowment, which was established by Virginia Outwin Boochever, a longtime docent at the National Portrait Gallery. The endowment is sustained by her family.

As part of the Spotlight on the Arts closing day celebrations, May 3rd, the Fairfax  Commission on the Arts is teaming up to create a vibrant Art Walk throughout downtown Fairfax!

Artists, performers, dancers, painters, poets, fashionistas — all art forms and mediums are invited to participate. This is a community-wide art social, networking, and connection event designed to bring together our local businesses and creative tribes for an unforgettable day of artful energy.

Keep it simple or go big — bring a sketchbook and picnic blanket, set up a table, pop up an easel — it’s all welcome!

A limited number of tent spaces are available, along with flexible sidewalk space throughout the downtown area. They"re partnering with local businesses, boutiques, and shops to create a vibrant, walkable experience that encourages visitors to explore and support the entire community. 

The Call for entry form is a preliminary information gathering system. More information will be sent out to participating members who enter by 3-15-26. Get the form from Cheryl Neway, Commissioner for COA, Designer, Artist and owner of Perfect Mistakes ®️

If you watched the scam jurying at the Olympics,  it brought back memories of when the Soviet block judges used to screw all other athletes...

Jezabel Dabouis: fuck you!

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District has announced a Call for Artists for the second phase of their Signal Box Public Art Project in downtown Bethesda, MD.  The A&E District will select 10 artists whose original designs will be printed onto a vinyl wrap to adorn 10 Signal Boxes located throughout downtown Bethesda.  This new project will beautify the signal boxes, provide an opportunity to local artists (including high school artists) and bring more public art to our community. 

Artists must be 14 years of age or older and residents of Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Virginia. Each selected artist will be paid $650 for the use of their design, and the deadline to apply is Thursday, April 30, 2026.

More info here.

submittable.com/submit" target="_blank">Application here.

From the WPA:

We're pleased to announce the 10 grant recipients for the 2026 funding cycle of Wherewithal Grants, providing financial support and peer mentorship for DC-area artists in areas of research and project presentations. Six artists and collectives have been awarded with research grants of $5,000 each, and four artists and collectives have been awarded with project & presentation grants of $7,500 each, for a total disbursement of $60,000 this cycle.

Research grantees: Gia Harewood, Jackie Hoysted, Brooke Jay & Chrystal Seawood, Christopher Kardambikis, Adriana Monsalve, and Kat Thompson.

Project & Presentation grantees: abdu ali mongo & Maleke Glee, Sobia Ahmad & Benny Shaffer, Ama BE, and Shariq Shah.

Over the next year, artists from this cohort will organize projects including: a multi-genre publication inspired by the Black queer body in motion; a three-day symposium bringing together a cohort of artists, filmmakers, and poets whose work probes land and film as reciprocal sites of encounter; a performance dinner; and an intergenerational cooking workshop. Others will conduct research around fascinating topics such as: soil memory, mycology, diasporic memories and language, and the history of DIY publishing in the 21st century.

Throughout the yearlong grant cycle, grantees will produce their work independently and in dialogue with one another, convening regularly as a group facilitated by Nathalie von Veh, Wherewithal Regrants Manager.

An independent panel of four artists and curators reviewed 113 applications and are awarding 10 grants. The adjudication panel consisted of: Jenna Crowder, Writer and Editor (Washington, DC); Krista Green, Grit Fund Program Manager, The Peale (Baltimore, MD); Rex Delafkaran, Artist and Wherewithal Alum (Chicago, IL); and Sara O’Keeffe, Senior Curator, Art Omi (Ghent, NY). They evaluated each proposal based on the criteria of Artistic Impact, Context/Audience, Collaboration, Feasibility, and Budget.

 National Portrait Gallery Announces Winners of the Seventh Outwin

Boochever Portrait Competition and Opening of

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today”

Kameron Neal Receives $25,000 and New Commission 

as First-Prize Winner of the National Triennial

The Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery has announced Brooklyn-based artist Kameron Neal as the first-prize winner of the seventh national Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition. Neal’s two-channel video installation “Down the Barrel (of a Lens)” (2023) draws upon his time as a public artist in residence at New York City’s Department of Records, and it places the audience between two screens of declassified New York Police Department surveillance footage filmed between 1960 and 1980. As the first-prize winner, Neal will receive $25,000 and a commission to create a portrait of a living individual for the museum’s permanent collection. “Down the Barrel (of a Lens)” will be on view as part of “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” exhibition, co-curated by the competition’s director Taína Caragol, the Portrait Gallery’s senior curator of painting and sculpture, and Charlotte Ickes, the Portrait Gallery’s curator of time-based media art and special projects.

Held every three years, the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition is dedicated to supporting the next wave of contemporary portraiture in the U.S. “The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” will be on view at the museum Jan. 24 through Aug. 30, 2026. From the exhibition’s opening through April 5, 2026, visitors—in person and online—can vote for their favorite artwork to receive the People’s Choice Award.

Previous first-prize winners of the national competition include David Lenz (2006), Dave Woody (2009), Bo Gehring (2013), Amy Sherald (2016), Hugo Crosthwaite (2019) and Alison Elizabeth Taylor (2022).

Second prize for the 2025 competition was awarded to Jared Soares of Washington, D.C., for his photograph “Misidentified by Artificial Intelligence: Alonzo and Carronne” (2023), a portrait of a Maryland resident who was falsely accused of a crime and arrested based on facial recognition software. Third prize was awarded to David Antonio Cruz of New York City for his painting “isaiditoncebefore,butnowIfeelitevenmore_feelin’pretty,pretty,pretty” (2023). Part of the artist’s “chosenfamilies” series, the painting shows the artist with Archel, one of his lifelong friends. Soares and Cruz will receive $10,000 and $7,500, respectively.

“As the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition rounds the corner on two decades since its founding in 2006, it continues to highlight contemporary artists working in portraiture who push to expand preconceived notions of the centuries-old genre,” Caragol said. “The 2025 competition-based triennial invites visitors to explore how artists are engaging with portraiture, sometimes embracing its tradition and other times redrawing the boundaries of the genre, with the intent of examining what it means to be human.”    

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” includes 34 portraits (by 35 artists) in mediums ranging from painting, photography and sculpture to immersive, time-based media installations. The artworks were chosen from more than 3,300 submissions to an anonymous open call, which was juried by experts in the fields of portraiture and contemporary art. The finalists include portraits by artists based in 12 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico.

Jurors for the 2025 Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition were Carla Acevedo-Yates, curator, writer and member of the artistic team for documenta 16; Huey Copeland, the Andrew W. Mellon Chair and Professor of Modern Art and Black Study, Department of History of Art and Architecture, University of Pittsburgh; LaToya Ruby Frazier, artist; and Daniel Lind-Ramos, artist. “The Outwin 2025” co-curators Caragol and Ickes also served on the jury with Rhea L. Combs, the Portrait Gallery’s former director of curatorial affairs. The full list of exhibiting artists is below.

“The Outwin 2025: American Portraiture Today” will be accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog available at the museum’s store or online.  

The competition and exhibition are made possible by the Outwin Boochever Portrait Competition Endowment, which was established by Virginia Outwin Boochever, a longtime docent at the National Portrait Gallery. The endowment is sustained by her family.

As part of the Spotlight on the Arts closing day celebrations, May 3rd, the Fairfax  Commission on the Arts is teaming up to create a vibrant Art Walk throughout downtown Fairfax!

Artists, performers, dancers, painters, poets, fashionistas — all art forms and mediums are invited to participate. This is a community-wide art social, networking, and connection event designed to bring together our local businesses and creative tribes for an unforgettable day of artful energy.

Keep it simple or go big — bring a sketchbook and picnic blanket, set up a table, pop up an easel — it’s all welcome!

A limited number of tent spaces are available, along with flexible sidewalk space throughout the downtown area. They"re partnering with local businesses, boutiques, and shops to create a vibrant, walkable experience that encourages visitors to explore and support the entire community. 

The Call for entry form is a preliminary information gathering system. More information will be sent out to participating members who enter by 3-15-26. Get the form from Cheryl Neway, Commissioner for COA, Designer, Artist and owner of Perfect Mistakes ®️

If you watched the scam jurying at the Olympics,  it brought back memories of when the Soviet block judges used to screw all other athletes...

Jezabel Dabouis: fuck you!

The Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District has announced a Call for Artists for the second phase of their Signal Box Public Art Project in downtown Bethesda, MD.  The A&E District will select 10 artists whose original designs will be printed onto a vinyl wrap to adorn 10 Signal Boxes located throughout downtown Bethesda.  This new project will beautify the signal boxes, provide an opportunity to local artists (including high school artists) and bring more public art to our community. 

Artists must be 14 years of age or older and residents of Washington, D.C., Maryland, or Virginia. Each selected artist will be paid $650 for the use of their design, and the deadline to apply is Thursday, April 30, 2026.

More info here.

submittable.com/submit" target="_blank">Application here.

From the WPA:

We're pleased to announce the 10 grant recipients for the 2026 funding cycle of Wherewithal Grants, providing financial support and peer mentorship for DC-area artists in areas of research and project presentations. Six artists and collectives have been awarded with research grants of $5,000 each, and four artists and collectives have been awarded with project & presentation grants of $7,500 each, for a total disbursement of $60,000 this cycle.

Research grantees: Gia Harewood, Jackie Hoysted, Brooke Jay & Chrystal Seawood, Christopher Kardambikis, Adriana Monsalve, and Kat Thompson.

Project & Presentation grantees: abdu ali mongo & Maleke Glee, Sobia Ahmad & Benny Shaffer, Ama BE, and Shariq Shah.

Over the next year, artists from this cohort will organize projects including: a multi-genre publication inspired by the Black queer body in motion; a three-day symposium bringing together a cohort of artists, filmmakers, and poets whose work probes land and film as reciprocal sites of encounter; a performance dinner; and an intergenerational cooking workshop. Others will conduct research around fascinating topics such as: soil memory, mycology, diasporic memories and language, and the history of DIY publishing in the 21st century.

Throughout the yearlong grant cycle, grantees will produce their work independently and in dialogue with one another, convening regularly as a group facilitated by Nathalie von Veh, Wherewithal Regrants Manager.

An independent panel of four artists and curators reviewed 113 applications and are awarding 10 grants. The adjudication panel consisted of: Jenna Crowder, Writer and Editor (Washington, DC); Krista Green, Grit Fund Program Manager, The Peale (Baltimore, MD); Rex Delafkaran, Artist and Wherewithal Alum (Chicago, IL); and Sara O’Keeffe, Senior Curator, Art Omi (Ghent, NY). They evaluated each proposal based on the criteria of Artistic Impact, Context/Audience, Collaboration, Feasibility, and Budget.