Nick Cave Smithsonian Installation

- The exhibition, officially titled "Nick Cave: Mammoth," is the Smithsonian American Art Museum's largest-ever commission by a single artist and marks Cave's first solo exhibition in Washington, D.C. - The installation is deeply personal, drawing on Cave's family history in rural Chariton County, Missouri, and incorporates found objects like his grandmother's thimble collection and his grandfather's tools. - "Mammoth" transforms the museum's galleries into an immersive environment featuring the crafted hides and bones of mammoths, a video projection of the creatures, and hundreds of transformed found objects presented like paleontological specimens. - The exhibition will be on view from February 13, 2026, through January 3, 2027, and will include a series of public programs, such as a family day and a conversation with the artist. - This installation connects to Cave's broader body of work, including his famous "Soundsuits," which he first created in response to the 1991 beating of Rodney King as a form of protective shield that conceals race, class, and gender. - A site-specific performance that activates the installation is scheduled for Saturday, October 24, 2026. - Before becoming famous for his sculptural work, Nick Cave trained as a dancer with the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theater, an influence that is often incorporated into his performance-based pieces. - The artist's studio spent two weeks on-site to assemble the exhibition, which includes a massive 60-by-20-foot hand-beaded tapestry depicting a landscape from his childhood in Missouri.