The woolly mammoth coexisted with early man, yet went extinct about 4,000 years ago. In fact, causes for its extinction were climate change and hunting by humans. It all sounds so familiar. The artist Nick Cave has named his installation at the Smithsonian “Mammoth,” and you can be sure it addresses nature, culture, and loss while celebrating the endless invention and hope of Homo sapiens. There is always much to see in Cave’s work, which glitters and delves, colors, collages, and camouflages. Through assemblage he has created his own mammoths for this show, and there’s a 70-foot table covered with bright oddities and objects—it’s like a glittering flea market or the bounty from a joyful dig through the strata of the 20th century. “I come from a family of makers, musicians, poets, singers, craftsmen, woodworkers, quilters,” Cave recently told The New York Times, “and that was something that I wanted to focus on.” —Laura Jacobs