Anne Buckwalter at the Allentown Art Museum 2026

Anne Buckwalter

Heirloom

Allentown Art Museum

Rodale Gallery

November 21, 2026 – April 18, 2027

Anne Buckwalter’s work explores domestic interiors and the stories they tell about desire. Each room she depicts holds clues to the inhabitants’ sexuality—whether it’s a glimpse of a moment of pleasure or an erotic photograph on the shelf. Filled with antique furniture, lively quilts, and meandering floral wallpaper, these rooms also evoke a traditional American home. Their décor attests to Buckwalter’s interest in American folk art, especially the Pennsylvania German furnishings of her childhood home in Lancaster County.

Buckwalter’s newest paintings and drawings build on these themes while also drawing inspiration from regional quilts and Pennsylvania German needlework from the Museum’s holdings. In addition to borrowing from the visual language of this material, her recent works also play on its cultural associations, asserting that its old-fashioned wholesomeness can coincide with an active and joyful sex life. The exhibition will include a selection of these historic textiles in dialogue with Buckwalter’s work.

The first museum exhibition of Buckwalter’s work in Pennsylvania, Heirloom asks complex questions about heritage and home while normalizing and celebrating sex as part of the human experience.

Anne Buckwalter (b. 1987, Lancaster, PA) received her MFA from Maine College of Art, Portland, ME in 2012, and her BFA from Tyler School of Art, Philadelphia, PA in 2010. She has had recent solo exhibitions at Haverkampf Leistenschneider, Berlin, Germany (2026); Uffner & Liu, New York, NY (2025); Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME (2025); SOCO Gallery, Charlotte, NC (2025); Rebecca Camacho, San Francisco, CA (2024); MASSIMODECARLO, Paris, FR (2024); and Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York, NY (2023). Her work has been included in recent group exhibitions at New Discretions, New York, NY (2026); Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT (2026); MASSIMODECARLO, Paris, France (2025); Fleisher/Ollman, Philadelphia, PA (2025); Halsey McKay Gallery, East Hampton, NY (2025); Sidecar, Night Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2024); Haverkampf Leistenschneider, Berlin, Germany (2024); Rachel Uffner Gallery, New York, NY (2024); Micki Meng, San Francisco, CA (2024); Monya Rowe Gallery, New York, NY (2024); ICA at MECA, Portland, ME (2023); and Nicola Vassell Gallery, New York, NY (2022). Her work is in the collections of the Aishti Foundation, Lebanon; the Art Museum of West Virginia, Morgantown, WV; the Farnsworth Art Museum, Rockland, ME; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA; X Museum, Beijing, China; and Zuzeum, Latvia. Buckwalter currently lives and works in Durham, ME.