Art news

Groundbreaking Arlington exhibition will showcase 30 world-famous Black artists

A work by Kehinde Wiley will be part of the exhibition — but likely not his portrait of Barack Obama.

Image courtesy of Kehinde Wiley

The Arlington Museum of Art is set to host the landmark traveling exhibition "30 Americans" this summer.

Described in a release as "showcasing works by 30 emerging and established African American artists of the last three decades," the list of artists on display includes marquee names like Kara Walker, Carrie Mae Weems, Nick Cave, Mark Bradford, Glenn Ligon, Jean-Michel Basquiat, and Mickalene Thomas.

Perhaps the most noteworthy of all is Kehinde Wiley, who famously was chosen to paint the official portraits of Barack and Michelle Obama. (The Obamas' portraits won't be in the Arlington exhibition, but they will be on view at a Houston museum in 2022.)

The exhibition is coming to Arlington from the renowned Rubell Museum in Miami, Florida, which also loaned the museum "Keith Haring: Against All Odds," one of the most successful exhibits in AMA’s history. "30 Americans" has also traveled to museums in Albuquerque, Honolulu, Philadelphia, Kansas City, and more.

"We decided to bring this exhibit to Arlington to provide more individual access to art that will inspire and engage ever growing audiences," says AMA board president Christopher Hightower in a statement.

According to the release, "30 Americans" focuses on issues of race, sexuality, gender, and historical identity in contemporary culture while exploring the powerful influence of artistic legacy and community across generations. It features works from a variety of mediums: painting, sculpture, photography, video, and installation.

“This is an important exhibit that will undoubtedly spark conversation about race in America," says Tonya Veasey, "30 Americans" Committee Chair and CEO for the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, in the release. "It comes at a time when race and social justice issues are at the top of people's minds on a day-to-day basis."

The AMA's exhibition dates are still somewhat tentative due to COVID-19 considerations, a spokeswoman says, but they're penciling in May 22-August 29. Admission is $10 for adults, $5 for seniors 55 and up, $5 for students, and children and military are free.

museums

Mural News

Netflix House will debut in Dallas with murals from acclaimed artist

Netflix House

Jeremy Biggers at Netflix House

A long-awaited immersive venue is opening in Dallas, and it will debut with local art on its walls: Netflix House, a year-round exhibit revolving around Netflix shows and movies, will open at Galleria Dallas on December 11, with two murals from award-winning Dallas multi-medium artist Jeremy Biggers.

Netflix House is an immersive dive complete with merchandise store, film house, arcade, and restaurant-bar. When it opens, Dallas will be the second location in the U.S., following Philadelphia, where it debuted in November 2025, also with murals from a local artist.

A graduate of Booker T. Washington High School for Performing and Visual Arts, Biggers is a renowned artist whose murals can be found spashed on walls across Dallas. Many, such as the Selena portrait on the wall outside Top Ten Records at 306 S. Bishop Ave., have become local landmarks.

He's a logical choice, having worked with a number of corporations including Nike, Adidas, the Dallas Mavericks, and IBM, for whom he created the "THINK" mural in their Dallas corporate office. His works have also been exhibited nationally, including a 2024 solo exhibition "be safe out there bro" at Band of Vices, a gallery in Los Angeles.

"Being chosen to be the artist to paint this mural, it would have been a disservice to myself, as well as the art scene in the city, not to try to infuse myself into it," he says.

$\u200bJeremy Biggers at Netflix House$ Jeremy Biggers at Netflix HouseNetflix House

Biggers did two murals featuring his interpretation of Netflix figures including the Squid Game Young-hee doll, characters from KPop Demon Hunters and megahit series Stranger Things, plus Pandy and DJ Catnip, the best friends in the interactive series Gabby’s Dollhouse.

Both murals are intensely colored works that incorporate Biggers' signature motif: a grid of polka dots spread across the image.

One is on the exterior of Netflix House, at the parking entrance, a colorful collage of characters, measuring 38 feet x 50 feet — the tallest mural Biggers has tackled. He painted it with aerosol; it took him two months to complete.
The other is on the interior, on the mall side entrance of Netflix House, measuring 57 feet x 12 feet — a study in moody blacks and blues, with accents of neon-red that give it a 3D effect.

“I'm trying to tell the story of Netflix, and the story of where Netflix has been historically, where Netflix is headed in the future, and then also infusing my own narrative and my own language visually into that story,” he says.

“They could have opened this anywhere, so for Dallas to be one of the very first locations — that’s a testament to us as a market, as consumers of arts and consumers in general," he says.

Jeremy Biggers at Netflix HouseNetflix House

galleries openings