A PROPOSAL FOR THE COSMOS CLUB
A conversation at the intersection of art, memory, and diplomacy
America: An Unfinished Portrait is a sculptural exhibition by Zachary Oxman, currently on view at Meridian International Center in commemoration of the United States’ 250th anniversary. The work depicts figures and symbols central to the American story, among them George Washington, Abraham Lincoln, John F. Kennedy, Eleanor Roosevelt, Martin Luther King Jr., and the Statue of Liberty.
The exhibition sits, by design, at the intersection of art, memory, and diplomacy. Portraiture has always been a civic form. It is how nations have chosen to be seen, how leaders have shaped their legacies, and how the public has come to recognize the figures who carry a country’s ideals. Diplomacy operates on a parallel grammar. It depends on the willingness to see another clearly, to hold complexity, and to keep looking when meaning resists a single reading.
Each work asks the viewer to do precisely that. Utilizing an innovative process developed over the past fifteen years, the portraits merge diverse materials, technology, and optics into a space between painting and sculpture. From a single vantage point, the image appears fragmented. As the viewer moves, the portrait gathers and resolves. Clarity arrives through movement, attention, and patience. The likeness draws you in. The perspective keeps you in it.
As the country marks 250 years, the American story is being engaged less as a settled account than as a living narrative, shaped by perspective, memory, and interpretation. In this moment, art can offer what argument alone often cannot: a shared language, a place for reflection, and a framework for the kind of patient dialogue required to imagine the next two hundred and fifty years.
A Proposal
A focused exhibition of selected works from America, an Unfinished Portrait at the Cosmos Club, scaled to the format and space available. The installation could include a small group of freestanding, self-supported portraits, allowing for a meaningful presentation with minimal logistical complexity.
The exhibition would be accompanied by an artist talk on the thesis and purpose of the collection, as well as the unique process by which the work is made. A moderated Q&A would follow, opening a dialogue that moves from process to purpose to aspiration.
About the Artist
Zachary Oxman is a Washington-based sculptor and third-generation Washingtonian. For more than three decades, his work has been commissioned for public spaces and major private collections, and exhibited at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the American Craft Museum in New York, and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. His work is part of the White House Collection of American Crafts, and he has created official presidential gifts for many world leaders across three administrations.
This short film offers context for the ideas behind America: An Unfinished Portrait
This exhibition invites audiences to reflect on the nation’s history as a living and evolving narrative, one shaped by perspective, memory, and time.
Rooted in the tradition of portraiture, artist Zachary Oxman has devoted more than a decade to developing an innovative visual language that merges diverse materials, technology, and optics.
Oxman’s work serves as a mirror, reflecting how Americans have understood their leaders, ideals, and national identity across generations. Blurring the boundaries between painting and sculpture, Oxman’s portraits challenge perception and remind us that history is not static, but continually reexamined and reinterpreted.
Through this collection of portraits, Oxman draws on enduring American figures, inviting dialogue and exploration into the complexities of our shared American story.
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This short film offers context for the ideas behind America: An Unfinished Portrait.
Perception and perspective shape how we interpret and experience the world around us.
Perception guides what we notice in the present moment; perspective deepens and expands over time as we grow, encounter challenges, and reconsider what once seemed certain.
These portraits linger in the space between perception and meaning. In that pause—that breath before connection takes hold—the whole becomes visible. History gathers this way. Shaped by time, encounter, and return. It endures. Unfinished.
- Zachary Oxman
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