Exhibitions

The Palmer Museum of Art presents new and changing special exhibitions and related programming every year. See below to explore what’s on view, what’s coming up, or what past exhibitions have been at the museum.


Past Exhibitions

Missed a recent show? Check out these recent special exhibitions.
Benjamin West (American, 1738–1820), Venus and Adonis (Bath of Venus), c. 1799, oil on canvas, 28 1/8 x 39 3/8 inches. Gift of John Driscoll, 2001.31 Violet Oakley (American, 1874–1961), Venus Rising from the Sea, 1940, oil on canvas, 40 ¼ x 30 ¼ inches. Gift of Bette and Arnold Hoffman, 2017.114

Conversations across the Collection


January 7-May 14, 2023

Read More
The new Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State. View from the Overlook Pavilion in the Arboretum. Architect: Allied Works. Rendering: Courtesy of MIR.

Designed for the Future: The New Palmer Museum of Art at the Arboretum


October 15-May 14, 2023

Read More
Eleanor Antin (American, b. 1935), Going Home from Roman Allegories, 2004, chromogenic print, 48-1/2 x 102-3/4 x 2 inches. Purchased with funds provided by the Donald W. Hamer Endowment for Art Acquisitions and Exhibitions, 2006.29. © Eleanor Antin

Looking at Who We Are: The Palmer at Fifty


September 23-December 22, 2022

Read More
Pancrace Bessa (French, 1772–1846), Hyacinthus Orientalis, 1810–1826, watercolor on white vellum, 7 3/8 x 4 9/16 inches. Presented in memory of James Rea Maxwell Jr., Class of 1921, 74.4

The Art of Remembering: A Selection of Gifts


August 26-December 22, 2022

Read More
Home/Studio wordmark

HOME/STUDIO: 2022 Penn State School of Visual Arts Faculty Show


May 28-August 28, 2022

Read More
Martin Lewis (American, 1881–1962), Little Penthouse, 1931

Staff Picks: A Selection of Palmer Favorites


June 3-September 18, 2022

Read More
William P. Hanson (American, 1928–2017), Grasses, Branches, and Shore, Maine, 1963/1969, watercolor, pencil, and crayon, 14 x 10 inches. Gift of Professor Cortland Eyer, 88.7, AS B056

Those Who Taught: Selected Works by Former Faculty


May 20-August 14, 2022

Read More
Thomas Hart Benton (American, 1889–1975), Shallow Creek, 1938–39, oil and Egg tempera on canvas mounted on board, 36 x 25 inches. Bequest of James R. and Barbara R. Palmer, 2019.31. © 2021 T.H. and R.P. Benton Trusts / Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

An American Place: Selections from the James and Barbara Palmer Collection


January 29-May 1, 2022

Read More
Lee Krasner (American, 1908–1984), Composition, 1949, oil on canvas, 38-1/16 x 27-13/16 inches, Philadelphia Museum of Art: Gift of the Aaron E. Norman Fund, Inc., 1959, 1959-31-1 © Pollock-Krasner Foundation / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York

A Way Through: Abstract Art of the 1940s


January 15-May 15, 2022

Read More
Albrecht Dürer (German, 1471–1528), Melencolia I, 1514, engraving, 9-7/16 × 7-5/16 inches. Anonymous loan

Printmaking in the Age of Dürer


January 18-May 8, 2022

Read More
Jun Kaneko (Japanese, b. 1942), Untitled, Tanuki, 2014

Global Asias: Contemporary Asian and Asian American Art from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation


August 28-December 12, 2021

Read More
Colin Campbell Cooper (American, 1856–1937), The Grand Place, Antwerp, 1908

Place to Place: Recent Gifts of American Drawings and Watercolors, 1900-1950


September 14-December 12, 2021

Read More
Utagawa Kuniyoshi (Japanese, 1798-1861), Kuwana: Legend of the Sailor Tokuzo, c. 1844-45, woodblock print, 14-5/8 x 10-1/4 inches, oban format. Gift of Dr. William E. Harkins, 75.84

Ukiyo-e: Images from the Floating World, Japanese Woodblock Prints from the Permanent Collection


August 28-December 5, 2021

Read More
George Loftus Noyes (American, 1865-1954), Sunlit Road, c. 1910

Summer Light: American Impressionist Paintings from the Thomas Clark Collection


May 8-August 29, 2021

Read More