Past Exhibitions

Octavia E. Butler, Map of Acorn from notes for Parable of the Talents

Mapping Fiction

Jan. 15–May 22, 2022 | Coinciding with the centennial of the publication of James Joyce's modernist novel, Ulysses, the exhibition "Mapping Fiction" explores the construction of fictional worlds through maps and novels.

An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump

Science and the Sublime: A Masterpiece by Joseph Wright of Derby

Feb. 12–May 30, 2022 | “Science and the Sublime: A Masterpiece by Joseph Wright of Derby” explores one of the great masterpieces from the Age of Enlightenment, Joseph Wright of Derby's monumental An Experiment on a Bird in the Air Pump alongside 15 works from The Huntington's own collections. |

Chinese calligraphy character

A Garden of Words: The Calligraphy of Liu Fang Yuan

Part 1: Aug. 28–Dec. 13, 2021 | Part 2: Jan. 29–May 16, 2022 | This exhibition of contemporary Chinese calligraphy is the inaugural installation in the Chinese Garden's new art gallery, the Studio for Lodging the Mind.

orbit pavilion

Orbit Pavilion

NASA's "Orbit Pavilion" is an outdoor installation where captivating sounds represent the movements of the International Space Station and 19 Earth Science satellites as they orbit above.

vertical colored stripes

What Now: Collecting for the Library in the 21st Century, Part 2

Aug. 7–Nov. 1, 2021 | This two-part exhibition explores The Huntington's role in documenting the human experience through more than 100 items from the Library collections.

Portrait of a young Black man with orange poppies in the background.

Kehinde Wiley: “A Portrait of a Young Gentleman”

Oct. 2, 2021–Jan. 3, 2022 | A newly commissioned painting by renowned American artist Kehinde Wiley, A Portrait of a Young Gentleman, debuted Oct. 2, 2021 in the Thornton Portrait Gallery, across from Thomas Gainsborough's The Blue Boy (ca. 1770).

Closeup of a painting of a crying eye

Made in L.A. 2020: a version

April 17-Aug. 1, 2021 | "Made in L.A. 2020: a version" debuts new installations, videos, films, sculpture, performances, and paintings from Los Angeles–based artists, many commissioned specifically for the exhibition.

Lifelines/Timelines graphic

Lifelines/Timelines: Exploring The Huntington’s Collections Through Bonsai

Oct. 17, 2020–Jan. 25, 2021 | This exhibition explores the march of time by comparing the age of California juniper bonsai trees alongside major moments in the institution's 100-year history.

Plate engraving by Andrew Raftery

Andrew Raftery: The Autobiography of a Garden

Jan. 18, 2020–Jan. 4, 2021 | American artist Andrew Raftery's series of twelve plates charts the evolution of the garden he planted in Providence, Rhode Island, as it grew and changed over the course of a calendar year.

Greenhouse Fantasies by Lynette Yiadom-Boakye

The Hilton Als Series: Lynette Yiadom-Boakye

Jan. 25, 2020–May 11, 2020 | Five studies of fictional characters by contemporary artist Lynette Yiadom-Boakye create a dialogue with The Huntington's collection of formal 18th-century British portraits in this exhibition curated by Pulitzer Prize-winning author Hilton Als.

visitor looking at display in a gallery

Beautiful Science: Ideas that Changed the World

"Beautiful Science" features hundreds of artifacts that tell the stories of the breakthroughs, discoveries, and people at the forefront of astronomy, natural history, medicine, and light.

Beside the Edge of the World graphic treatment

Beside the Edge of the World

Nov. 9, 2019–Feb. 24, 2020 | Five artists create works based on The Huntington's collections investigating ideas of perfection using Thomas More's satirical work Utopia (1516).