Jennie C. Jones and Melvin Edwards are included group exhibition, Revelation: A Journey Into Abstraction at the National Museum of African American History & Culture, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., on view from June 12, 2026.
The National Museum of African American History & Culture's press release follows:
Revelation: A Journey into Abstraction explores the profound range and depth of abstract art created by African American artists from the mid‑20th century to the present. This exhibition reintroduces key works from the museum's collection and debuts new acquisitions, offering fresh context and perspectives.
Organized into five thematic sections—Natural World Refracted, The Shape of Sound, Colored Surfaces, Dreams Deferred, and Transcendent Visions—the exhibition highlights the many ways abstraction has not only been used as a formalist vehicle to explore shape, color, and form but also as a language of cultural memory, protest, identity, and transformation.
From the echo of jazz rhythms to meditations on color, from spiritual transcendence to urgent calls for justice, these works reflect abstraction’s power to engender thought and alter perception. Revelation celebrates the expansive creativity of artists who have contributed to the rich fabric of American abstraction.
