RIK FREEMAN

Rik Freeman’s painting is as close to a biography of a neighborhood as any artwork is likely to get. Shaw Rhythms (2003), a piece created for the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, references the neighborhood’s namesake, Col. Robert G. Shaw, the commander of the all-black 54th Massachusetts Infantry during the Civil War; his face appears in the quilted pattern at the center of the composition. The painting also shows a mob of weapon-wielding residents from the riots of the so-called “Red Summer” of 1919. Central to the painting is music—specifically, the city’s heritage as a jazz destination, which is harder to trace in Shaw today. The most prominent figure is none other than DC’s favorite son, Marvin Gaye. “I thought if ever the opportunity presented itself to again put Marvin back on a piece, I would,” Freeman says. “And Shaw Rhythms did just that.” Located on Level Two, outside of

Room 204B.