Every August, some 70,000 creative souls descend upon Nevada’s Black Rock Desert for Burning Man , a weeklong festival of self-expression, total inclusion, and communal living. Radical dwellings and infrastructure appear out of nowhere only to then be completely disassembled, vanishing without a trace. Those of us who have never had the pleasure—or perhaps courage—to go will soon have the opportunity to live vicariously at the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s Renwick Gallery in Washington, D.C. Opening on March 30, its new exhibition “No Spectators: The Art of Burning Man” captures the experimental ethos through three stories of archival photographs, ephemera, jewelry, and costumes, as well as installations by the likes of Leo Villareal, Christopher Schardt, and Michael Garlington and Natalia Bertotti. (Pictured is Totem of Confessions, Garlington and Bertotti’s 2015 chapel of paper, plaster, and wood.) Seasoned Burners, meanwhile, can expect to find the same free spirit—just none of the dust. Through September 16; americanart.sidu
