To understand Maggie Michael’s paintings, start from the bottom.
Washington, D.C
Review | Maggie Michael may be D.C.’s most vital, volatile painter
In “Understory,” a show of Michael’s recent works on view near Union Market, motion is always key. Tall vertical paintings such as “Boulder Monument (Orange)” (2020/2022) and “Moon Fall (Mt. Hood, Mt. Sopris, Clay)” (2024) evoke the volcanic action of an idea rising to the surface and spilling over. The latest works by Michael — perhaps the most vital and visible D.C. painter since Sam Gilliam — unfold as a series of volatile discoveries.
Michael’s lyrical painting is a reminder of the power of pure abstraction as a lens for finding the world, as it is and as it could be. That Michael’s first major solo show since 2016 arrives at an all-time nadir for abstract-expressionist painting only makes the show more riveting.
Ten years ago, things were different. An overheated market was fixated on highly abstract post-minimalist painting, inviting a craze by collectors for “zombie formalism.” But abstraction is no longer top of mind for curators and dealers. Instead, museums and galleries across the country are deeply engaged with figurative painting, tackling urgent issues about identity and representation. Some critics say the rebound has gone too far, subbing a fad for abstraction with a fever for “zombie figuration.”
Michael’s style recalls mid-century ideals about the value of painting. Objects make frequent appearances on her canvases. A small grid-like device shows up in “Pink for Kiefer, Homage to Midgard” (2023-2024) and other works, a way of mentioning the hard-edge geometric tradition in abstract painting while also toying with the notion of the surface. The snakeskin that Michael pins to “Night Studio” (2024) is a casual quotation of Robert Rauschenberg, whose sculptural combines stretched the notion of painting with taxidermy and tires. She has an arsenal of abstract-expressionist strategies at her disposal, but as a stylist, she makes them all her own.
Michael produced 15 of the paintings in “Understory” while working as an artist-in-residence at the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans. During her residency, Michael says, she tried to produce a diptych or triptych in tribute to Mitchell, the New York School artist who relished large-format paintings, but it didn’t happen. That’s not so surprising. Michael is a tighter painter, and her style is much more densely plotted. For “Understory,” which occupies a space that once served as a Lululemon store, Michael uses the former fitting rooms to showcase a rotation of more than a dozen small paintings, some as little as 10 inches square — small in scale but not in scope.
With its epic sweep, “Chagall’s Horse Lands in Utah” (2021-2022) could easily take up an entire wall. In the painting, the loosest figure of a horse charges under an ocher orb that might signify a setting sun. Michael frames this circle with a stencil from player-piano print roll, another one of the artist’s signature marks. This painting summons the vast reaches of a twilight dreamscape, but the actual production is quite condensed. Michael delivers novellas that read like myth.
“Chagall’s Horse Lands in Utah” could be a fitting title for Michael’s entire project. Her approach to drafting abstract sagas draws on a rich and distinctly American painterly tradition. One of her own paintings tests the rule: “American Seance for CoBrA (Malachite)” (2022) stands apart from the others, with a muddled, primitive, almost Crayola-like brushstroke. Both the title and style nod to CoBrA — a collective of postwar European painters from Copenhagen (Co), Brussels (Br) and Amsterdam (A) — and specifically within this group Karel Appel, the founder from Amsterdam. Nestled within this very non-American and un-Michael-like piece is a section of painting that resembles malachite, a mineral whose radial copper banding is prized by Navajo and Hopi tribes in the Southwest.
These vivid undercurrents bubble up in one painting after another, although the sheer size of “Understory” means that viewers might miss such moments. The show, assembled by Michael herself, features nearly 50 paintings staged on multiple levels. At 3,000 square feet, the space is vast enough that it doesn’t feel cramped or forced; in fact, only an especially prolific artist could hope to fill it. But “Understory” risks being overwhelming. Two or three subsets of paintings in this show could easily stand on their own.
The most difficult painting on view might also be the most figurative. The composition of “Olympia’s Odalesque” (2017/2018) speaks directly to Édouard Manet’s “Olympia” (1863), the reclining nude Venus whose hand rests on her thigh like a tarantula. In Michael’s composition, a hard-edge rectangle intersected by a chevron conveys the thrust of a chaise longue within a frame. But the figure-ish shape inside that frame is cramped, its head missing, with only a nipple-like protrusion to suggest any feminine identity — a bleak reading of the original.
It may take another biennial or two for expressionist paintings to come back into vogue. Abstraction has lost its place, perhaps, but none of its power. Swoops of texture and gesture in a painting such as “Antelope Falls, Nude Descending” (2024) can unlock a primal feeling, as poetry or music manifests goose bumps or heart palpitations. Michael’s paintings dwell in that rush of blood, that sense of sensation.
If you go
Maggie Michael: Understory
1256 Fourth St. NE. unionmarketdc.com.
Where better to celebrate America’s 250th birthday and the country’s rich history than the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C. A new exhibit, which opened Thursday, tells the United States’ 250-year history with 250 objects.
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250 objects for 250 years at the National Museum of American History
Where better to celebrate America’s 250th birthday and the country’s rich history than the Smithsonian National Museum of American History in D.C. A new exhibit, which opened Thursday, tells the United States’ 250-year history with 250 objects.
Visitors will see the museum mainstays like the original American flag that inspired the “Star Spangled Banner” and the desk where Thomas Jefferson wrote the Declaration of Independence, but the new exhibit “In Pursuit of Life, Liberty & Happiness,” will also show some artifacts never before displayed.
“A surfboard that was used by Duke Kahanamoku, who is a Native Hawaiian surfer who really popularized surfing to the world. He was an Olympian and we have his massive, 9-foot surfboard that he shaped in Southern California in 1928,” said Theo Gonzalves, a curator at the National Museum of American History.
The exhibit covers the history of the nation through political action, including a sweater worn by a young woman during a school walkout during the Civil Rights Movement and a Tea Party sign from the 2010s.
It also delves into military history with the Revolutionary War’s gunboat “Philadelphia,” and a uniform worn by Gen. George Washington.
Pop culture, lifestyle and entertainment are also front and center.
“We have a Nintendo game set and so there are folks that are looking at their at that Nintendo game set, and they’re thinking, ‘I can’t believe that that’s now part of history,’” Gonzalves said. “I’m old enough to realize what Nintendo was for our generation, but it is part of American history.”
Megan Smith, the head of experience development at the museum, said a seemingly mundane object is one of her favorite artifacts in the museum.
“Hidden in a kind of boring looking exterior, which is a file cabinet that contains over 52,000 jokes written by Phyllis Diller,” she said. “Phyllis Diller was one of the first female stand-up comedians in America. It’s just an ordinary filing cabinet, but it’s filled with her career basically, and her creative process and all of her knowledge.”
Scientific and technological achievement throughout American history is also celebrated, including the first radiocarbon dating machine from the 1950s.
Anthea Hartig, the Elizabeth MacMillan director of the museum, said staff at the museum had to whittle down nearly 2 million artifacts to 250 artifacts that define American history.
“To take 2 million to get down to 250, and the curators did a beautiful job. The whole team did a lot of thinking about what are those objects that help show us in action as a people? Help understand the dreams that we’ve put into the declaration, how it’s expanded, who it includes,” she told WTOP.
She said the exhibit is the brainchild of over three years of curation work.
The National Museum of American History is open every day but Christmas.
“I hope people see themselves reflected in our work and in these objects,“ Hartig said.
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© 2026 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
Washington, D.C
The Work Behind the Welcome: NPS Tradespeople Restore Dupont Circle, Making D.C. Safer and More Beautiful (U.S. National Park Service)
NPS / Kelsey Graczyk
The hands behind the place
This work took more than plans. It took craftsmen and craftswomen.
NPS carpenters, masons, maintenance workers, preservation specialists, engineers and landscape architects worked together to renew the circle from the ground up. Crews installed about 10,000 feet of wood slats, cut and placed dowels, sanded rough surfaces, repaired worn concrete legs and painted benches to withstand weather and daily use.
Contractors also repaired fountain pipes and restored stone and marble features, returning moving water to the heart of the circle.
“I used to write project plans for this kind of work,” retired NPS Asset Manager Fred Francis said. “Now I’m out here helping do it. I’m working with a great group of people who are experts in their fields.”
Homelessness in the D.C. region ticked up slightly from 2025 to 2026, according to a new report from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.
Homelessness in the D.C. region ticked up slightly from 2025 to 2026, according to a new report from the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments.
Christine Hong, chair of the council’s Homeless Services Committee and chief of services to End and Prevent Homelessness with the Montgomery County Department of Health and Human Services, presented the findings at the council’s Wednesday meeting.
The report centers on the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s mandated point-in-time count of sheltered and unsheltered people experiencing homelessness on a single night in January.
“This year, the count was conducted on Feb. 4. We had to postpone it one week due to the extreme cold and winter weather event that we experienced the week prior,” Hong said. “Although it’s an imperfect measure, it provides an important regional snapshot of homelessness on a single night.”
The D.C. region reported 9,790 total people experiencing homelessness, an increase of 131 people or about 1% from 2025. The year-over-year regional change was modest. This count is closer in line to the 2019 number, before the pandemic.
“The regional story is that homelessness fell during the pandemic era, a period when expanded federal resources and emergency protections were in place, and then increased after those temporary supports ended,” Hong said. “The main takeaway is that regional homelessness is no longer increasing at the pace seen in 2023 and 2024, and is in line with the years immediately preceding the pandemic.”
Results varied by jurisdiction.
D.C. had the largest numerical increase, with 225 additional people counted. Prince George’s County, Maryland, had 175 additional people counted, a 29% increase. Montgomery County saw the largest decrease, down by 390 people or 26%. Hong pointed to the county’s investment in short-term housing.
“Montgomery County also spent a great deal to expand emergency shelter for families, because we are committed to ensuring no family with children would sleep outside even one night,” she said.
The count also included detailed information on race, veterans and household types.
“The broader evidence is clear, and is referenced in the report, that housing costs and the cost of living are major drivers of homelessness risk, especially for families with low income,” Hong said. “In practical terms, this means family homelessness is closely tied to whether low-income families can find and maintain housing.”
Read the full report here.
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© 2026 WTOP. All Rights Reserved. This website is not intended for users located within the European Economic Area.
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