PAFA The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

Join us to celebrate the talent and imagination of CSFP students at our Student Art Showcase at PAFA The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts! ✨ Featuring artwork from students at partner schools across Philadelphia, this event honors both America’s 250th anniversary and CSFP’s 25-year legacy.

Check out a sneak peek of some of the art that will be on display.

🎨 🖌️ “Dark Angel” by George Tooker is a self-portrait with allegorical content. He depicts himself in the bottom right corner wearing a blue work shirt and holding a thin paintbrush, eyes half-open as if in trance or deep concentration. Though seventy-six, he renders himself youthful, with hair, beard, mustache, and brows catching golden highlights. A second figure—the “angel” of the title—stands behind him with a hand in blessing on his head. The angel is a Black androgynous figure in a yellow shirt and blue robe, with warm brown wings framing the scene. Both figures emit a soft glow against an orange background that unifies the image.

George Tooker (1920–2011) was an American painter known for egg tempera works exploring isolation, spirituality, and psychological tension. He developed a visual language of stillness and symbolic ambiguity, placing figures in dreamlike environments. Tooker, a gay artist, worked within mid-century New York art circles linked to Magic Realism and figurative painting.

George Tooker’s Dark Angel was included in George Tooker: A Retrospective (2009), jointly organized by PAFA, the National Academy Museum, and the Columbus Museum of Art. The exhibition gathered 66 works from 1945 onward, offering a broad view of his career and postwar figurative painting. PAFA’s presentation reflects its engagement with Tooker’s work, also held in its collection. Dark Angel is currently on view in A Nation of Artists.




🖼️ George Tooker (1920-2011), Dark Angel, 1995-1996. Egg tempera on gesso panel, 24 x 19 in. (60.96 x 48.26 cm.). Henry C. Gibson Fund, 2007.7 © artist or artist's estate.

Spend a full day at PAFA this Friday, June 26 making and experiencing art.

Start in the morning with our Cyanotype Basics Workshop (9:30–11:30 AM), where you’ll create your own your own prints using a historic photographic process. Then come back at 6 PM for the Architecture & Cast Hall Tour and explore the Historic Landmark Building and its collection of cast sculpture behind-the-scenes.

With the museum open until 8 PM on Fridays, you can take your time and make it a full day of art.

🔗 www.pafa.org/events

Juneteenth is a celebration of freedom, resilience, and Black culture.

Through her art, Elizabeth Catlett uplifted Black voices and experiences, creating powerful images of strength, dignity, and community. Her work honored Black life, celebrated collective strength, and reflected the ongoing pursuit of freedom and justice.

Join us on June 20 for 'Voices of Freedom: The Nine O'Clock Whistle,' a special Juneteenth program featuring a documentary screening, artist conversation, and discussion with Dr. Willa Cofield about civil rights, activism, and cultural memory. Then join us on July 1 for 'Elizabeth Catlett: Mentorship and Collaboration in Practice,' an art history lecture with Charmaine Branch exploring Catlett's legacy as a groundbreaking Black artist, printmaker, sculptor, educator, and mentor.

🔗 buff.ly/l0q2nAc

This sculpture by Elizabeth Catlett is currently on view at PAFA in 'A Nation of Artists,' a major exhibition that brings together three remarkable collections—the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Middleton Family Collection—for a once-in-a-generation presentation celebrating 250 years of American creativity. A sculpture by Catlett is also on view at the PMA as part of the exhibition.




🖼️ Elizabeth Catlett (1915-2012), Woman Walking (Standing Woman), 1987, cast 1997. Bronze, 32 x 8 x 8 1/2 in. (81.28 x 20.32 x 21.59 cm.). Art by Women Collection, Gift of Linda Lee Alter, 2011.1.9 © Mora-Catlett Family / Licensed by VAGA at Artists Rights Society (ARS), NY

🎨 Summer art classes in Philadelphia are starting soon! Whether you're looking to build new skills, explore a creative passion, or continue your artistic practice, PAFA's Summer Session 2 Continuing Education courses offer hands-on instruction from professional artists in painting, printmaking, sculpture, and book arts.

Featured classes include:

🖌️ The Portrait in Oil with Jill A. Rupinski
Develop your portrait painting skills through an in-depth exploration of oil painting techniques.
https://buff.ly/wrx9boT

🪵 Woodcut Printmaking with Rebecca Gilbert
Learn the fundamentals of relief printmaking by carving and printing from a wood block.
https://buff.ly/KRJHhAg

🎨 Etching, Monoprints, and Monotypes with Tony Rosati
Explore intaglio printmaking, monotypes, and monoprints in PAFA's professional print studios.
https://buff.ly/bY3pJA2

🗿 Terracotta Figure Sculpture with Morgan Dummitt
Study figure sculpture from a live model while learning clay modeling and surface-finishing techniques.
https://buff.ly/dKqyTh4

📚 Creating Artist Books with Rosae Reeder
Combine imagery, storytelling, and bookmaking to create unique artist books and handmade art objects.
https://buff.ly/kWIrWwv

Register now and spend the end of your summer creating at PAFA, America's first museum and school of fine arts.

In observance of Juneteenth, PAFA will be closed on Thursday, June 19. We look forward to celebrating this important holiday with our community on Saturday, June 20, during Voices of Freedom: "The Nine O'Clock Whistle" and Dr. Willa Cofield, a special afternoon of film, conversation, and reflection inspired by the ongoing pursuit of freedom and justice.

🔗 https://buff.ly/ZWf0WNx

GUESS WHAT — We have one exhibition opening tomorrow and another that was just installed! Plan your visit to see these two new exhibitions in the Anne Bryan Gallery.

Proof Testing: The PrintLab Artist Residency at Brandywine Workshop and Archives
📅 June 18–October 26, 2026
📍 Samuel M.V. Hamilton Building, Anne Bryan Gallery

This exhibition highlights the PrintLab Artist Residency (2025–26), where artists expanded contemporary printmaking through both traditional and experimental processes including woodcut, photolithography, CNC routing, laser cutting, and animation. Featuring work by El Anatsui, Lavett Ballard, Willie Cole, Delita Martin, and others, the exhibition focuses on experimentation, process, and innovation in contemporary printmaking.

Organized in partnership with Brandywine Workshop and Archives. A concurrent exhibition, PrintLab: Material Futures, is on view at BWA during the same dates.

&

A Singular School: Selections from the PAFA School Collection

This exhibition presents painting from across PAFA’s art school community alongside alumni work. It highlights a wide range of approaches from representation to abstraction, showing the evolving voices and experimentation within a contemporary art school environment.




🖼️ Delita Martin (b. Conroe, TX, 1972), The Little Rootkeeper, 2025. Photolithograph with hand-applied ink on paper, 31 ½ x 24 ½ in. Collaborative printer: Justine Ditto (BFA, PAFA, ’17). Brandywine Workshop and Archives. © Delita Martin.
🖼️ Brian Boutwell, PAFA Student 2000-2005; PAFA Staff 2006-2022; "Romanesque", Oil on canvas, 2015, PAFA School Collection

Njideka Akunyili Crosby (Certificate ’06) (Njideka Akunyili Crosby) continues to shape the cultural moment through work rooted in layered histories, memory, and identity.

Her official portrait of President Barack Obama (Barack Obama) and First Lady Michelle Obama (Michelle Obama), unveiled at the Obama Presidential Center (Obama Foundation), brings that same depth and sensitivity to a national stage, creating a powerful work of contemporary art.

That same layered approach is evident in I Always Face You, Even When It Seems Otherwise (2012), the work featured here. Through acrylic, pastel, charcoal, and photo transfer, Akunyili Crosby weaves together intimate personal moments with imagery drawn from Nigerian magazines and family archives, exploring transnational identity and the complexities of belonging across cultures. See it at PAFA, on view in A Nation of Artists.

Congratulations on such a meaningful and historic accomplishment, Njideka Akunyili Crosby. The kind of impact we hope our artists have, and what’s possible through a PAFA education.




🖼️ Njideka Akunyili Crosby (b. 1983), I Always Face You, Even When It Seems Otherwise, 2012. 2 panels, each: 78 x 78 in. (198.12 x 198.12 cm.), Acrylic, pastel, charcoal, colored pencil, collage and Xerox transfers on paper. Museum Purchase, 2012.29a&b. © artist or artist’s estate

🩷 To take love seriously, to see it as something built over time, shaped by attention and care, is at the center of Kati Gegenheimer's We’ve Only Just Begun — currently on view at PAFA.

In her first institutional exhibition, Kati Gegenheimer brings together works from the past four years, where familiar forms and a vivid palette unfold across the Morris Gallery and extend into the architecture of the space. Drawing on the aesthetics of girlhood, the work holds together sweetness and difficulty, surface and depth.

Don’t miss this exhibition in the Morris Gallery of PAFA’s Historic Landmark Building during your visit.

“Like the song, Gegenheimer traffics in the saccharine or sentimental to inspire a long look at how love — romantic, familial, brotherly— is a choice, one that requires time and rewards patience.” — Leah Triplett, Curator of Contemporary Art at PAFA
🔗 https://buff.ly/nbKEI8R

Plan your visit → buff.ly/ZGpGoiC
We’re open 10–5 Thursday through Monday, with extended hours on Fridays until 8 PM.

🎨🖌️ "The Wise and Foolish Virgins" by Violet Oakley | It's game day in the city. Seek a moment of calm inside to see 'A Nation of Artists at PAFA,' featuring 'The Wise and Foolish Virgins (1908–1909), in which Violet Oakley interprets the biblical parable (Matthew 25:1–13) through two luminous stained glass lancet windows, contrasting those who are prepared with those who are not. Drawing on medieval Gothic traditions, the composition moves from a shadowed scene of the foolish virgins to the illuminated procession of the wise, who carry their lamps toward an open cathedral door. Through intricate detail and luminous color, Oakley explores themes of time and readiness, and the consequences of both.

Violet Oakley (1874–1961), one of the leading American muralists of her time, was known for her ambitious, narrative-driven works and her belief in art as a vehicle for civic and spiritual ideals. Her career spanned illustration, mural painting, and stained glass, and she played a central role in Philadelphia’s cultural life while also advocating for international peace and cooperation.

A PAFA alumna, faculty member (1912–1917), and longtime exhibitor, Oakley maintained a deep and lasting connection to the Academy throughout her career. Her work reflects PAFA’s role in shaping American artists and, in turn, the artists who shaped its legacy.

Now on view at PAFA in A Nation of Artists, a once-in-a-generation exhibition uniting the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, and the Middleton Family Collection to celebrate 250 years of American creativity across PAFA and PMA.

In town for the FIFA World Cup? Step inside for a moment of respite between matches.
🔗 www.pafa.org/visit




Source: pafaarchives.org & Woodmere Art Museum, “Saint Peter’s Episcopal Church, The Wise Virgins and Foolish Virgins Stained Glass Lancet Windows," woodmeremuseum.org
🖼️ Violet Oakley (1874-1961), The Wise and Foolish Virgins, 1908-1909, Stained glass lancet windows. each window: 100 x 23 1/4 in. (254 x 59.055 cm.), John S. Phillips Fund, 2009.2.1a&b