Joan Danziger’s Wildly Whimsical World… at the Katzen

A mystical menagerie has quietly taken up residence at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center. “The Magical World of Joan Danziger” delivers a deep dive into nearly six decades of the artist’s imaginative output; an enchanting exhibition where insects inch, birds hover, horses gallop, and mythology mingles with the natural world.

The retrospective celebrates the prolific career of Washington-based artist Joan Danziger, who continues creating daily in her DC studio at age 91. The show gathers more than 100 works, tracing her evolution from a surrealist-inspired painter of the 1960s to the boundary-bending multimedia sculptor she is today.

Throughout the galleries, visitors encounter shimmering glass horses, wall-crawling beetles made of wire and glass, and sculptural trees from her “Mythic Landscapes” series.

Running concurrently is “Ravens: Spirits of the Sky,” a companion exhibition devoted to Danziger’s newest creations: 24 striking sculptures of ravens crafted from metal armatures and jewel-like shards of colored glass. Suspended and perched throughout the gallery, the birds gleam in a mythic aviary of reds, greens, deep blues, and iridescents.

“The Magical World of Joan Danziger” and “Ravens: Spirits of the Sky” are on view — with free admission — through May 17, 2026.