Gallery Talk: People, Places and Otherwise

Journey through a vivid and often surreal visual world in this gallery talk on Richard Dana’s wide-ranging drawings in graphite, charcoal, and ink. Blending observation, imagination, and experimentation, Dana’s enigmatic figures, dreamlike structures, and layered narratives invite viewers to discover their own meanings within these intricate and emotionally resonant works. For more than four decades, the self-taught artist has returned to drawing as his most essential form of expression. This exhibition brings together works spanning early to recent pieces, including images of a young genie emerging from a bottle in a barren landscape, a startled businessman holding a baby in a midnight office, enigmatic portraits, and phantasmagorical structures and terrains. Drawing on sources as varied as the human condition, the natural world, science, and global cultures, Dana transforms observation and imagination into images that are both intricate and open-ended. The gallery talk offers a guided opportunity to engage with these layered and evocative works.

When: Saturday, July 11, 2026 (gallery talk date; the exhibition is on view as part of the Summer 2026 exhibitions opening June 13, 2026)

Showtimes: Specific gallery talk time not listed; check museum schedule

Tickets: Free and open to the public

Lineup: Richard Dana, artist; Nancy Sausser, curator

Run time: Not specified

Ages: Not specified; likely all ages

Venue: American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center, 4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW, Washington, DC

Note: This gallery talk focuses on the exhibition *Richard Dana: People, Places and Otherwise*, which is one of several concurrent Summer 2026 exhibitions at the museum. Dana has exhibited in 25 solo shows and over 140 group exhibitions across major American cities and twenty countries; he previously worked as a Soviet affairs analyst before "morphing into an artist."