The National Academy Museum presents its biennial non-member invitational exhibition, an exceptional selection of contemporary works by over 125 of the finest artists from across the country. This Annual consists of works by newly emerging artists and established artists, providing an exhibition of diverse ideas, mediums, and techniques. The annual invitational exhibition offers an opportunity to the public to preview new artistic directions in contemporary American art. Included in this exhibition are artists José Bedia, Leonardo Drew, Ming Fay, Maria Elena González, Steven Holl, David Reed, David Row, Sean Scully, James Wines, Betty Woodman and many others. Selections were made from over four-hundred recommended artists submitted for consideration and chosen by a curatorial committee comprised of a panel of seven prominent National Academicians.

This annual includes site specific installations in the Academy’s Beaux-Arts townhouse by up-and-coming artists Lisha Bai, Soo Sunny Park and the more recognized Yuriko Yamaguchi. Wall sculptures by James O. Clark, Jean Feinberg, Mathew Northridge and Steve Novick, although quite different in style, possesses a similar presence of elegance and intellect. The rigorous non-representational works of Ben La Rocco, Don Voisine, and Elizabeth McDonald, the abstractions of Nancy Brett, Loretta Dunkelman, Eve Olitski, and Elizabeth Marran, continue to reshape definitions of painting as do the more representational pieces of Sabina Klein, Cynthia Lin, Jeffrey Lewis, E.E. Smith, and Anthony H. Thompson. Nuance and the delicate balance of content and form can be seen in works on paper by Jaq Belcher, Stephanie Laura Franks, Celia Gerard, and Elizabeth Gourlay as well as in the collage works of Douglas Craft, Chambliss Giobbi, Mario Naves, and Mel Rubin. The architectural renderings, drawings, etchings, engravings, photographs, prints, sculpture, and watercolors in the 183rd Annual describe some of the fresh and innovative artistic explorations that contemporary American artists are engaged in today.

A catalogue documenting trends, process, and media explored by the artists who are participating accompanies this exhibition. Written by art historian and Artist Membership Director, Nancy Malloy, this important resource includes an introduction by the Academy’s President, Susan Shatter.