HOW ANNE BUCKWALTER INTEGRATES THE EROTIC WITH THE MUNDANE
October 29, 2025
Words: Athena Waligore
Artist Anne Buckwalter’s practice is inspired by folk art traditions, and her paintings include domestic objects such as quilts, ceramics, and farm animals. But her work is not tame; it often integrates “the erotic with the mundane.” A painting of a laundry room seems to document chores, but closer inspection reveals a pair of leather sex toys hanging with the laundry. Bedroom scenes show patterned quilts and pastel wallpaper—as well as naked bodies engaged in sexual acts. She explains the layered approach as her process making room for complexity and honoring questions about “the body, femininity, and desire.”
Since earning an MFA from Maine College of Art in 2012, Buckwalter has built a thriving career. She’s won several awards, including a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, been included in residencies at the Vermont Studio Center, Mass MoCA, and elsewhere, and mounted numerous solo and group shows. She is represented by Uffner & Liu (New York), Pentimenti Gallery (Philadelphia), Micki Meng (San Francisco), and Rebecca Camacho Presents (San Francisco).
Over two dozen of the artist’s paintings are on view at Uffner & Liu in New York until November 1, 2025. Anne Buckwalter: Lover’s Knot is the artist’s third solo exhibition at the gallery, which is located at 170 Suffolk Street on the Lower East Side of Manhattan. And Buckwalter’s work was also recently on display in her home state of Maine, in a solo show at the Farnsworth Art Museum, which was on view through September 21, 2025. The exhibition, Manors | Momentum, presents new paintings and two site-specific murals. It was her first institutional solo show; she has had a dozen solo exhibitions at gallery spaces.
Interior Design spoke with the artist about these two exhibitions, her inspirations and process, and upcoming work.
