iAmerican University Museum at the Katzen Arts CenterWard Circle, Northwest DC
Double Feature: Two Graphic Narratives by Mary Garrard
A Project Space show of two digital graphic narratives by AU's professor emerita of art history, played out on monitors: a travelling Miami palm tree, and the Odyssey retold around its women.
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In scene 55, a palm tree named Palmira prepares her species discrimination case. This is The Adventures of a Miami Palm Tree (2014), in which a dissatisfied palm sets off around the world and splits in two, Palmira and Palmono, and the story turns political and psychological.
Mary Garrard spent her career writing about Artemisia Gentileschi and other Renaissance women artists before she began drawing on her iPhone and iPad. The museum likens the result to a graphic novel, a manga or Goya's Caprichos. You watch the scenes appear one after another on monitors, like a film. The second story, The Odyssey by Homer (So They Say), from 2024, keeps Homer's plot but makes the women the more active protagonists.
A palm tree preparing a discrimination case is a very Washington turn for a story that started in Miami. It's in the Project Space, and entry is free, Wednesday to Sunday, 11am to 4pm, closed 26 and 27 November for Thanksgiving.
Look for
The palm meets Shiva
In scene 50 of the palm tree story, the travelling palm encounters Shiva generating the sacred Ganges from a mountain.
Palmira's lawsuit
Scene 55 shows Palmira, one half of the split palm, preparing her species discrimination case.
Scylla and Charybdis
In Book 8 of Garrard's Odyssey, the ship approaches the narrow channel between the two monsters, with the narrator remembering Circe's advice.
Good for
- Cheap Culture
- Locals Who've Seen It All
- Rainy Days
Skip if
You want paintings on the wall: both stories play as image sequences on monitors.
Also at American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center
On now nearby
Image credits
5
- Double Feature: Two Graphic Narratives by Mary GarrardCourtesy of American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center
- Revolutions: Art from the Hirshhorn Collection, 1860–1960Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Smithsonian Institution
- Shahzia Sikander: The Last Post© 2025 Shahzia Sikander, courtesy the artist and Sean Kelly; Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Creative Aging 2026: Art Is EssentialPhoto Blythe / The Phillips Collection
- American University Museum at the Katzen Arts CenterHerrperry123 / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 4.0