Back in September, I looked at which artists were showing at the most museums simultaneously in the United States. I thought that was useful, so I’m doing it again.
The idea is the same: I looked at more than 200 museums, and counted which artists were on view any time during December (that includes a show like the Baltimore Museum’s “Illustrating Agency,” which closed December 1). The resulting list includes a little more than 3,400 artist names. Of these, only about 300 appear more than once—a tiny fraction. And of these, a very few repeat multiple times, giving a sense of which voices are most resonating with curators and institutions.
As I said back in September: Because I’m most interested in breadth of influence, I decided not to make any distinctions between bigger and smaller institutions. I rank career retrospectives and surveys highly, followed by special commissions or exhibitions that spotlight a specific body of work, biennial appearances, and then inclusions in thematic group shows.
Themes: All the most visible figures are Black and Indigenous. A rhetoric of speaking for and to historically marginalized identities surrounds a lot of the work.
More strikingly, multiple of these figures are nodes in networks of advocacy: Simone Leigh has organized events and conferences, including “The Loophole of Retreat” in Venice, specifically for Black women artists and scholars; Jaune Quick-to-See Smith recently curated the touring show “The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans,” which began at the National Gallery of Art.
Museums & Institutions
Which Artists Dominate U.S. Museums Right Now? We Crunch the
Numbers
Based on looking at hundreds of shows in U.S. museums for December 2024.
BY BEN DAVIS | DECEMBER 9, 2024
From left: Director of the National Gallery of Art Kaywin Feldman, artist and exhibition curator Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, and U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland perform a blanketing ceremony at the National Gallery of Art, on September 21, 2023 in Washington, D.C. Photo: Shannon Finney/Getty Images
Back in September, I looked at which artists were showing at the most museums simultaneously in the United States. I thought that was useful, so I’m doing it again.
The idea is the same: I looked at more than 200 museums, and counted which artists were on view any time during December (that includes a show like the Baltimore Museum’s “Illustrating Agency,” which closed December 1). The resulting list includes a little more than 3,400 artist names. Of these, only about 300 appear more than once—a tiny fraction. And of these, a very few repeat multiple times, giving a sense of which voices are most resonating with curators and institutions.
As I said back in September: Because I’m most interested in breadth of influence, I decided not to make any distinctions between bigger and smaller institutions. I rank career retrospectives and surveys highly, followed by special commissions or exhibitions that spotlight a specific body of work, biennial appearances, and then inclusions in thematic group shows.
Themes: All the most visible figures are Black and Indigenous. A rhetoric of speaking for and to historically marginalized identities surrounds a lot of the work.
More strikingly, multiple of these figures are nodes in networks of advocacy: Simone Leigh has organized events and conferences, including “The Loophole of Retreat” in Venice, specifically for Black women artists and scholars; Jaune Quick-to-See Smith recently curated the touring show “The Land Carries Our Ancestors: Contemporary Art by Native Americans,” which began at the National Gallery of Art.
Jaune Quick-to-See Smith
As an artist, Jaune Quick-to-See Smith (b. 1940) channels Native American iconography in a witty Pop expressionist style. A signature are her melted maps of the U.S., replete with swirling references to Indigenous history.
“Part of what I do in my work is use my art as a platform for my beliefs…,” she once told the Smithsonian. “I passionately believe in the life I live, so I think my work will probably go on being political in some way.”
Such work has found a ready audience at museums and biennials. Indeed, the show now celebrating her career at the Saint Louis Art Museum features a pair of artworks, the painting State Names Map: Cahokia (2023) and the sculpture Trade Canoe: Cahokia (2023), she created for the city’s Counterpublic triennial last year.
SURVEYS:
”Jaune Quick-to-See Smith” at the Saint Louis Art Museum, through May 11, 2025
GROUPS:
“Illustrating Agency” at the Baltimore Art Museum, through December 1, 2024
”For Dear Life: Art, Medicine, and Disability” at the Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, through February 2, 2025
“American Sunrise: Indigenous Art at Crystal Bridges” at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, through March 23, 2025
”Making Their Mark: Works from the Shah Garg Collection” at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, through April 20, 2025
“By Dawn’s Early Light” is on view at Nasher Museum of Art, Duke University, through May 11, 2025
”Expanding Horizons: The Evolving Character of a Nation” at the Toledo Museum of Art, through August 30, 2025