The North Carolina Museum of Art will show a Basquiat painting beside Banksy's reply to it from Nov. 22 to May 30. Entry is free, and it is Banksy's first time at the museum.

A painting by Jean-Michel Basquiat and Banksy’s answer to it will hang side by side at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh from Sunday, Nov. 22. Entry is free.

The museum announced “Basquiat × Banksy” in a press release. It runs through May 30, 2027, in the East Building, Level A.

It is the first time Banksy’s work has been shown at the museum, the NCMA said. It is only the second time Basquiat’s art has come to the museum since the “30 Americans” exhibition in 2011.

What is on show

The exhibition is two large paintings, placed in conversation:

  • “Boy and Dog in a Johnnypump” (1982) by Basquiat: acrylic, crayon and spray paint on canvas, 96 by 164 inches
  • “Banksquiat. Boy and Dog in Stop and Search” (2018) by Banksy: acrylic and wax marker on birch wood, 96 by 135⅝ inches

Both are from private collections, according to the exhibition page. The show began at the Smithsonian’s Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington and is on a national tour. Hirshhorn associate curator Betsy Johnson organized it.

“We are excited to bring these two incredible works together for NCMA audiences,” Katherine White, the museum’s interim director and CEO, said in the release. “The show invites visitors to make connections between two artists whose ideas and artwork have shaped contemporary visual culture while exploring questions of identity, power and popular culture.”

Free events around the show

The museum has two free events tied to Basquiat on its calendar:

  • Lecture, “Chromatic Basquiat”: 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, Dec. 2, in the East Building’s SECU Auditorium. Richard J. Powell, an art history professor at Duke University, will speak on Basquiat’s use of color. Free, with registration on the lecture page.
  • Dance, “Casting Crowns”: noon and 2 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 12, in the East Building, Level B. Frankie Lee III presents a dance work inspired by Basquiat, as part of the museum’s In Motion, In Time series. Free.

What it means for you

  • When: Nov. 22 to May 30, 2027. The galleries are open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Wednesday through Sunday, according to the museum’s visitor page.
  • Closed: Mondays and Tuesdays, and on Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s Day and Easter. The museum is closed Thursday, Nov. 26, the first week the show is open.
  • Where: 2110 Blue Ridge Road, Raleigh. Parking is free in the Blue Ridge lots.
  • Cost: free. The museum’s pages do not say a ticket is needed for this show.

More free outings are on our free things to do page, and this month’s shows are on our arts and exhibitions page. For the week ahead, see things to do.