George Mason University has three veteran art shows open this fall. Side by side, they ask who counts as a veteran artist.
Most museums give veteran artists one show. Mason Exhibitions in Northern Virginia gave them three, in three buildings, at the same time. Each one is built around a different group of people.
As You Were
As You Were is at the Gillespie Gallery in Fairfax from August 24 to November 11, 2026. It has work by seventeen veteran artists, including a Gold Star spouse and a caregiver. It looks at sacrifice and resilience, and at the years after service in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The curator is CAP (Ret.) Moira McGuire, who used to direct healing arts at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. Her background suggests a show shaped by how art helps people recover.
What Remains?
At Mason Exhibitions Arlington, What Remains? runs August 22 to November 28. Cheryl Edwards curated it. The artists are intercultural veterans who served during the Vietnam War, and the work comes from public and private collections. The show asks what memory and witness mean, and what service leaves behind across generations.
In Her Image: Art by Women Veterans
The Buchanan Partners Gallery at the Hylton Center in Manassas hosts In Her Image from September 14 to October 31. Steven Luu curated it, and some pieces come from Mason’s own University Art Collection. It follows the progress of women in uniform and how service, access, and leadership change the way they are seen. It closes October 31, so go soon.
What the setup says
Seeing the three shows together invites comparison. Vietnam-era artists and post-9/11 artists carry different public histories. Women veterans have often been left out of the picture people hold of who served. By including a Gold Star spouse and a caregiver, As You Were stretches the idea further, to people whose lives the uniform changed even though they never wore it.
For us, that is the story. Veteran art has no single voice. Era and role both change what gets made and how it reads.
Visiting
Gillespie Gallery is at 4515 Patriot Circle, Fairfax. Mason Exhibitions Arlington is at 3601 Fairfax Drive. The Buchanan Partners Gallery is at 10960 George Mason Circle, Manassas. Hours differ by venue, so check Mason Exhibitions before you go.
Editor’s note: this story uses the exhibitions’ published descriptions, which don’t name most individual artists.
