Image: American Visionary Art Museum, Baltimore
The American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore will open ‘Flaunt: When Appearance Speaks’ on October 10, 2026, bringing together more than 60 works that examine how appearance can communicate identity, feeling and intention. The exhibition, the museum’s 31st major thematic presentation, will remain on view through September 5, 2027, in the Zanvyl A. Krieger Main Building.
Organized around adornment and outward expression, ‘Flaunt’ spans drawing, portraiture, photography, fiber, wearable form and sculpture. The museum’s description emphasizes works that use transformed everyday materials, including buttons, pipe cleaners and bark. Rather than treating appearance as a surface to be interpreted only for what lies beneath it, the exhibition asks visitors to consider what may already be visible in decoration, costume, pose and construction.
The exhibition’s announced works include Montrel Beverly’s ‘Cowboy Boots (Hers)’ from 2025, Lucy Walker’s ‘Finty-African Hunting Dog’ from 2019 and Shawn Payne’s ‘Space Heels’ from 2024. The museum’s featured image is ‘Coral Dress’ by Maria “Maima” Tani, dated 2019–2021. The available exhibition material does not provide a complete artist list or individual interpretations of the works, but identifies the show’s broad range of media and its interest in the communicative power of crafted form.
‘Flaunt’ will be presented alongside the museum’s wider program of thematic and artist-focused exhibitions. The current schedule lists ‘Esther and the Dream of One Loving Human Family’ in the building’s second-floor gallery, a long-term presentation centered on Esther Krinitz’s Holocaust survival story and 36 hand-embroidered works. On the third floor, ‘The Strength to Be Joyful’ presents work and biography related to Southern visionary artist Mary Proctor. The museum’s 30th-anniversary exhibition, ‘Fantastic Realities,’ is scheduled to close on September 6, 2026, shortly before ‘Flaunt’ begins.
The American Visionary Art Museum is located at 800 Key Highway in Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. Admission grants entry to the museum and its current exhibitions, according to the institution’s visitor information. ‘Flaunt’ is listed for the Zanvyl A. Krieger Main Building, the same building identified for ‘Fantastic Realities’ and other parts of the museum’s exhibition program.
A preview celebration for ‘Flaunt: When Appearance Speaks’ is scheduled for October 9, from 7 to 10 p.m., at the museum. The event page says that Director Ellen Owens, Curator Gage Branda and artists in the exhibition are expected to give brief remarks at 7:15 p.m., followed by an official unveiling at 7:30 p.m. The public exhibition itself is scheduled to run from October 10, 2026, to September 5, 2027.
