Permanent Exhibits

A detail from Alexander Gardner's portrait of Lincoln. (National Portrait Gallery)

There are plenty of temporary exhibitions to enliven the grand reopening of the Old Patent Office Building (a baker's dozen, in fact). But that doesn't mean that you should overlook the permanent collections. Here are a few of the more notable installations:

NATIONAL PORTRAIT GALLERY

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"America's Presidents" With expanded installations focusing on five U.S. presidents (Washington, Jackson, Lincoln and both Roosevelts), this mostly worshipful portrait show takes visitors almost up to the present (Dubya has yet to arrive), as well as a little bit beyond, in the appearance of a gold-framed mirror in front of which those feeling presidential can dream. Second floor west.

"BRAVO!" Frank Gallo's epoxy resin sculpture of a bikini-clad Raquel Welch, um, rounds out this display of otherwise mostly painted portraits of figures from the world of the performing arts. Third floor mezzanine south.

"Champions" What display of sport portraiture would be complete without a kitschy LeRoy Neiman, here represented by the artist's splashy homage to ice hockey's Bobby Hull? Third floor mezzanine south.

"Twentieth-Century Americans" Andy Warhol's silkscreen of Michael Jackson shares space with Alice Neel's naked self-portrait in this survey, which culminates in a themed gallery devoted to the American search for justice. Third floor south.

SMITHSONIAN AMERICAN ART MUSEUM

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"The Throne of the Third Heaven of the Nations' Millennium

General Assembly" A longtime favorite of many, this gold and silver aluminum foil-wrapped folk-art environment (built in a Washington garage by James Hampton) is justifiably the centerpiece of the museum's folk art galleries, curated by William Christenberry, who has a one-man show just next door. First floor west.

"Art Since 1945" and "Contemporary Art" Here's where you'll find all the high tech: Video artist Nam June Paik's "Megatron/Matrix" and "Electronic Superhighway: Continental U.S., Alaska, Hawaii"; a computer-controlled painting-cum-lightshow by David Hockney called "Snails Space"; and an installation by Edward Kienholz and Nancy Reddin Kienholz featuring the almost imperceptible soundtrack of an urban street. You'll also find galleries devoted to abstract expressionism and color field painting, along with the so-called Lincoln Gallery, one-time site of Abe's second-term inaugural ball and current home to some of the coolest public couches in the building (manufactured after a design by artist Isamu Noguchi). Third floor north and east.

"The American Experience" Who are we? What makes us Americans? How did we get this way? Those are some of the open-ended questions asked by the hodgepodge of art in this orientation gallery, which includes an abstract sculpture by Martin Puryear, photographs of monuments by Lee Friedlander and iconic paintings by Edward Hopper and Georgia O'Keeffe. First floor south.