The Allentown Art Museum opened three new exhibitions this month.
“Angela Fraleigh: Threaded with moonlight” is Allentown-based artist Angela Fraleigh’s newest body of work, inspired by the Allentown Art Museum’s rich textile holdings and the long history of textiles as a medium associated with female labor.
A trio of new large-scale paintings and an accompanying suite of small works explore spinning, stitching, and weaving as acts of power, centering women as makers with the potential to craft meaning and magic as well as cloth. It is on view through March 17.
“Nostalgia for My Island: Puerto Rican Painting from the Museo de Arte de Ponce (1786–1962)” explores this innovative period in Puerto Rican art through 20 exceptional works from the Museo de Arte de Ponce (MAP) in Puerto Rico.
The exhibition highlights a rich array of voices, including paintings by early Puerto Rican masters José Campeche y Jordán and Francisco Oller y Cestero. Allentown is the second venue for the traveling exhibition, and the first on the East Coast. It run through April 28.
“The Making of Gustave Baumann’s El Velorio (The Wake)” features works from the museum’s collection: the graphite and pastel sketches of Baumann’s initial idea, the carved wood blocks from which the completed woodcut was printed, and individual color proofs.
Together these elements demonstrate the way in which the image was built and how a complex woodcut is developed. It is on display through April 28.
Admission to the museum is always free, and there is free parking in the museum’s lot at Fifth and Linden streets. The galleries are open 11 a.m. until 4 p.m. every Thursday through Sunday, with extended hours on Third Thursdays until 8 p.m. Visit https://www.allentownartmuseum.org.
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