Arts and Entertainment

Palmer Museum of Art presents three shows in eclectic summer exhibition lineup

Julie Heffernan, "Self-Portrait as Standing My Ground," 2016, oil on canvas, 68x66 inches. Courtesy of Catharine Clark Gallery. Credit: Julie HeffernanAll Rights Reserved.

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — The Palmer Museum of Art at Penn State has announced its summer 2018 exhibition schedule. This summer, the museum will present recent large-scale paintings by contemporary artist Julie Heffernan, as well as exhibitions drawn from the museum’s permanent collection, including a display of documentary and modernist photographs of the city, and a selection of posters from the golden age of American poster art.

'When the Water Rises: Recent Paintings by Julie Heffernan'
July 10 to Sept. 2

The Palmer’s major exhibition for summer 2018 highlights a selection of monumental canvases by contemporary artist Julie Heffernan, a former professor of painting at Penn State. In "When the Water Rises: Recent Paintings by Julie Heffernan," the artist explores her personal response to the dilemma and threat of climate change. Intricately wrought and meticulously detailed, the narrative paintings begin the conversation about how humans might adapt to vastly different climactic conditions or environmental disasters through imaginative scenarios and alternative habitats.

A professor of fine arts at Montclair State University, Heffernan received her master of fine arts in painting from Yale University and is represented by P.P.O.W. in New York and the Catharine Clark Gallery in San Francisco. Her work is represented in many major museum collections, including the Brooklyn Museum, McNay Art Museum, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, and the Palmer Museum of Art.

"When the Water Rises" was organized by the LSU Museum of Art in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog.

'Framing the City: Photographs from the Permanent Collection'
June 5 to Aug. 19

Photographers have long turned their cameras on the city, capturing its soaring architecture and diverse populations from unexpected vantage points and perspectives. Spanning an entire century, the 35 works on view in "Framing the City" trace trends in documentary and modernist photography from across the globe. The exhibition offers glimpses of urban centers ranging from New York and Pittsburgh to Paris and Moscow and features views of people, goods and cultures in flux as captured by numerous photographers who have endeavored to frame the city and its inhabitants.

Drawn from the Palmer’s permanent collection, the exhibition includes photographs by Lewis Hine, Henri Cartier-Bresson, Charles Sheeler, Berenice Abbott, Frank Paulin, Elliott Erwitt, Larry Fink, Andy Warhol, and many others.

This exhibition was organized by the Palmer Museum of Art.

'American Art Posters of the 1890s'
May 22 to Aug. 19

Around the turn of the 20th century, colorful, eye-catching posters swept the country in what was dubbed “the poster craze.” Bright placards in windows and on newsstands advertised periodicals to a growing middle-class readership as artist-designers transformed the look of the advertising poster during the 1890s. More than a dozen American art posters are on view in this intimate exhibition drawn entirely from the Palmer’s permanent collection.

The show features numerous posters by artist-illustrator Edward Penfield, whose bold graphic style exemplifies the art poster aesthetic. Also included are works by several of his peers, including William H. Bradley, William Carqueville, and Ethel Reed.

This exhibition was organized by the Palmer Museum of Art.

About the Palmer Museum of Art

The Palmer Museum of Art on the Penn State University Park campus is a free-admission arts resource for the University and surrounding communities in central Pennsylvania. With a collection of 8,850 objects representing a variety of cultures and spanning centuries of art, the Palmer is the largest art museum between Pittsburgh and Philadelphia. Areas of strength include the museum’s collection of American art from the late 18th century to the present, Old Master paintings, prints and photography, ceramics and studio glass, and a growing collection of modern and contemporary art. The museum presents 10 exhibitions each year and, with 11 galleries, a print-study room, 150-seat auditorium, and outdoor sculpture garden, the Palmer Museum of Art is the leading cultural resource for the region.

Museum hours are 10 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Tuesday through Saturday and noon to 4 p.m. Sunday. The museum is closed Mondays and some holidays.

The Palmer receives state arts funding support through a grant from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, a state agency funded by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

For more information on the Palmer Museum of Art or for a calendar of upcoming events, visit palmermuseum.psu.edu.

Last Updated July 10, 2018