About the Artist

Annette Polan is a Washington DC–based portrait artist and contemporary fine artist known internationally for her work in American portraiture. She graduated with a B.A. in Art History from Hollins University in Roanoke, Virginia, and completed graduate studies at the Corcoran College of Art and additional coursework at the École du Louvre and the Tyler School of Art. Ms. Polan is Professor Emeritus of the Corcoran College of Art and Design at George Washington University. Drawing on more than thirty years of teaching and artistic practice, she co-founded the Insight Institute, an arts-based initiative that uses visual analysis and creative thinking to support leadership and problem solving across professional fields.

As a prominent portrait artist in Washington DC, Annette Polan has photographed and painted official portraits of leaders in government, law, business, and the arts. Her portrait subjects include Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, former West Virginia Governor Gaston Caperton, Peter Tarnoff for the Council on Foreign Relations, Judge Rya Zobel for the Federal Judicial Center, Edward Villella for the Miami City Ballet, and Lord Baltimore for Kiplin Hall in Great Britain.

Polan has lectured and taught internationally on her work and on contemporary American portraiture in Europe, Asia, and Australia. Her paintings and installations have been featured in numerous solo and group exhibitions in the United States and abroad. She has also participated in the U.S. Department of State’s Art in Embassies Program, with works exhibited in Denmark and Fiji. Her artistic practice explores narrative through portraiture, painting, video, and site-specific installations.

Annette Polan organized Faces of the Fallen, a national exhibition of 1,323 portraits created by 230 American artists honoring service members who died in Afghanistan and Iraq between October 10, 2001 and November 11, 2004. The exhibition opened at the Women in Military Service for America Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery. In recognition of her support of military families and service members, she received the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Outstanding Public Service Award, the highest civilian honor awarded by the Chairman for exceptional public service.

Polan is the former Chairman of the Painting Department at the Corcoran College of Art and Design and has served on the board of the Washington Project for the Arts. She currently serves on the board of the Smith Center for Healing and the Arts and is a member of ArtTable, the Cosmos Club, the International Women’s Forum, and the Women’s Forum of Washington. She is listed in Who’s Who in America, Who’s Who of American Artists, Who’s Who of American Women, The Dictionary of International Biography, and The World’s Who’s Who of Women.

With Lynn McKinley-Grant, MD, and Aneta Georgievska-Shine, PhD, Polan co-developed the Insight Institute to promote the integration of the arts across professional disciplines. Inspired by decades of teaching experience, the program uses visual analysis and artistic thinking to enhance observation, creativity, and human-centered problem solving in fields such as healthcare, education, and business.