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.
Virtual Exhibition
This digital catalogue was presented in connection with Drawing on a Legacy: Highlights from the John Driscoll American Drawings Collection, on view at the Palmer Museum of Art in spring 2020.
Drawing on a Legacy virtual exhibition
Special Exhibitions
Check out this spring's special exhibitions at the Palmer Museum!
Profiles of Vulnerability and Protection
January 18-April 20, 2025
Barbara and Lee Maimon Teaching Gallery, Level 2
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The Triumph of Nature: Art Nouveau from the Chrysler Museum of Art
February 15-May 11, 2025
Michael J. and Aimee Rusinko Kakos Galleries, Level 1, and Jason D. Kogan Gallery, Level 2
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Upcoming Exhibitions
Plan ahead to see the below special exhibitions when they go on view at the Palmer!
Washi Transformed: New Expressions in Japanese Paper
June 7-July 27, 2025
Michael J. and Aimee Rusinko Kakos Galleries, Level 1, and Jason D. Kogan Gallery, Level 2
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Mark Dion and Alexis Rockman: Journey to Nature’s Underworld
August 23-December 7, 2025
Michael J. and Aimee Rusinko Kakos Galleries, Level 1, and Jason D. Kogan Gallery, Level 2
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Past Exhibitions
Missed a recent show? Check out our past special exhibitions.
Re/Collecting the Andes: Andean Art, Science, and the Sacred at Penn State
September 14-December 8, 2024
Barbara and Lee Maimon Teaching Gallery, Level 2
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MADE IN PA
June 1-December 1, 2024
Michael J. and Aimee Rusinko Kakos Galleries, Level 1, and Jason D. Kogan Gallery, Level 2
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The Art of Teaching: Medical Education and the Integrated Curriculum
June 1-September 1, 2024
Barbara and Lee Maimon Teaching Gallery, Level 2
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Designed for the Future: The New Palmer Museum of Art at the Arboretum
October 15-May 14, 2023
Special Exhibitions Gallery, First Floor
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Looking at Who We Are: The Palmer at Fifty
September 23-December 22, 2022
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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The Art of Remembering: A Selection of Gifts
August 26-December 22, 2022
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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HOME/STUDIO: 2022 Penn State School of Visual Arts Faculty Show
May 28-August 28, 2022
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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Staff Picks: A Selection of Palmer Favorites
June 3-September 18, 2022
Special Exhibitions Gallery, First Floor
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Those Who Taught: Selected Works by Former Faculty
May 20-August 14, 2022
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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An American Place: Selections from the James and Barbara Palmer Collection
January 29-May 1, 2022
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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A Way Through: Abstract Art of the 1940s
January 15-May 15, 2022
Special Exhibitions Gallery, First Floor
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Printmaking in the Age of Dürer
January 18-May 8, 2022
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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Global Asias: Contemporary Asian and Asian American Art from the Collections of Jordan D. Schnitzer and His Family Foundation
August 28-December 12, 2021
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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Place to Place: Recent Gifts of American Drawings and Watercolors, 1900-1950
September 14-December 12, 2021
Special Exhibitions Gallery, First Floor
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Ukiyo-e: Images from the Floating World, Japanese Woodblock Prints from the Permanent Collection
August 28-December 5, 2021
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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Summer Light: American Impressionist Paintings from the Thomas Clark Collection
May 8-August 29, 2021
Permanent Collection
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Field Language: The Painting and Poetry of Warren and Jane Rohrer
February 10-April 25, 2021
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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Pennsylvania Scenery: Early Landscape Prints from the Tavern Collection
January 31-May 1, 2021
Special Exhibitions Gallery, First Floor
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The Wit and Whimsy of Lucille Corcos
February 8-May 9, 2021
Special Exhibitions Gallery, First Floor
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African Brilliance: A Diplomat’s Sixty Years of Collecting
February 8-May 24, 2020
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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Drawing on a Legacy: Highlights from the John Driscoll American Drawings Collection
January 21-June 7, 2020
Special Exhibitions Gallery, First Floor
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Fantasy and Reality: The World According to Félix Buhot
September 29-December 15, 2019
Special Exhibitions Gallery, First Floor
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Bauhaus Transfers: Albers / Rauschenberg
September 3-December 15, 2019
Pincus Gallery, Second Floor
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Augusta Savage: Renaissance Woman
August 24-December 8, 2019
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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The Web of Life: John Biggers and the Power of Pedagogy
August 20-December 15, 2019
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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George Miller and American Lithography
June 18-September 15, 2019
Special Exhibitions Gallery, First Floor
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Myth Meets Modernism: The Manuel Álvarez Bravo Portfolio
June 11-August 4, 2019
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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Under the Mexican Sky: A Revolution in Modern Photography
June 1-July 28, 2019
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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From the Rooftops: John Sloan and the Art of a New Urban Space
February 3-May 12, 2019
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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Amazing Stories: Recent Acquisitions
January 12-May 26, 2019
Special Exhibitions Gallery, First Floor
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Subjective Spaces: Drawings and Collages by Robert Reed
January 5-May 19, 2019
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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A Small Radius of Light: G. Daniel Massad, A Retrospective
September 25-December 9, 2018
Special Exhibitions Gallery, Second Floor
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Object Lessons: American Still-Life Painting in the Nineteenth Century
September 4-December 16, 2018
Special Exhibitions Gallery, First Floor
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Instinctive Gestures: Recent Gifts from The Fishman-MacElderry Collection
August 28-December 16, 2018
Special Exhibitions Gallery, second floor
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When the Water Rises: Recent Paintings by Julie Heffernan
July 10-September 12, 2018
Special Exhibitions Gallery, second floor
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Framing the City: Photographs from the Permanent Collection
June 5-August 19, 2018
Special Exhibitions Gallery, first floor
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American Art Posters of the 1890s
May 22-August 19, 2018
Special Exhibitions Gallery, first floor
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Plastic Entanglements: Ecology, Aesthetics, Materials
February 13-June 17, 2018
Special Exhibitions Gallery, second floor
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Dox Thrash, Black Life, and the Carborundum Mezzotint
January 16-May 20, 2018
Special Exhibitions Gallery, first floor
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Small Prints, Big Artists: Renaissance and Baroque Masterpieces from Carnegie Museum of Art
February 2-May 15, 2016
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