Alexander Gray Associates
Skip to main content
  • Menu
  • Artists
  • Exhibitions
  • Art Fairs
  • News / Events
  • Press
  • Publications
  • Gallery
Menu

Joan Semmel: Skin in the Game: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts,

October 28, 2021 - April 3, 2022
  • Current
  • Upcoming
  • Past

Joan Semmel: Skin in the Game: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

Past exhibition
October 28, 2021 - April 3, 2022
  • Overview
  • Installations
  • Videos
  • Related Artists
Overview
Installation view: Joan Semmel: Skin in the Game, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 2021. Photo: Adrian Cubillas. Courtesy Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia

Installation view: Joan Semmel: Skin in the Game, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 2021. Photo: Adrian Cubillas. Courtesy Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia

Joan Semmel's solo exhibition Skin in the Game at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA.

The Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Art's press release follows:

The first retrospective of Joan Semmel’s work—sixty years of the iconic artist’s groundbreaking paintings, from her early abstract-expressionist paintings through her movement-defining feminist art and activism to the vital work that she is making of her own mature body today.

Joan Semmel: Skin in the Game brings together almost sixty years of Semmel’s groundbreaking paintings, including important institutional loans; a selection of her rarely-seen drawings and collages; and a robust grouping of her current work, which foregrounds the exhibition in her still active studio practice.

The exhibition will include approximately 40 paintings that show the remarkable continuity and assiduity of Semmel’s practice, and focus on four main themes—erotic abstraction; the self; expressive figuration; and photography and painting—that traverse five decades of work and reveal a strong counter narrative to the traditional telling of the history of painting in the United States from the late 1960s to today.

Semmel’s work reflects the ongoing struggle for women’s equal representation and power to make decisions about their own bodies and sexuality while centering female empowerment through the self. In Semmel’s own words: “I do not pretend to address the problems of all women in the world. My work is personal and I speak for myself. Women artists have to speak for themselves and then unite to fight the political fight.” 

Installations
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Semmel Pafa 2021 6
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Semmel Pafa 2021 11
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Semmel Pafa 2021 14
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Semmel Pafa 2021 19
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Semmel Pafa 2021 23
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Semmel Pafa 2021 26
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Semmel Pafa 2021 28
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Semmel Pafa 2021 31
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Semmel Pafa 2021 34
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Semmel Pafa 2021 35
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Semmel Pafa 2021 36
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Semmel Pafa 2021 37
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Semmel Pafa 2021 41
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Semmel Pafa 2021 49
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Semmel Pafa 2021 47
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Semmel Pafa 2021 53
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Semmel Pafa 2021 54
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Semmel Pafa 2021 56
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Semmel Pafa 2021 58
Open a larger version of the following image in a popup: Semmel Pafa 2021 59

Installation view: Joan Semmel: Skin in the Game, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 2021. Photo: Adrian Cubillas. Courtesy Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia

Videos
  • Joan Semmel on "Skin in the Game"

    Joan Semmel on "Skin in the Game"

    Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts (PAFA) A Virtual Tour of the first retrospective of this groundbreaking artist, on view through April 3, narrated by Joan Semmel. This video is made possible through the support of the... Read more

Related artist

  • Joan Semmel

    Joan Semmel

Back to Past exhibitions

Alexander Gray Associates

384 Broadway
New York NY 10013
United States


Tuesday – Saturday
10:30 AM – 6:00 PM
Telephone +1 212 399 2636

Inquires

Sales
sales@alexandergray.com

Press
press@alexandergray.com

General
info@alexandergray.com

Mailing List

Subscribe to email list for announcements
info@alexandergray.com

Privacy Policy
Accessibility Policy
Cookie Policy
Manage cookies
Copyright © 2025
Instagram, opens in a new tab.

This website uses cookies
This site uses cookies to help make it more useful to you. Please contact us to find out more about our Cookie Policy.

Manage cookies
Accept

Cookie preferences

Check the boxes for the cookie categories you allow our site to use

Cookie options
Required for the website to function and cannot be disabled.
Improve your experience on the website by storing choices you make about how it should function.
Allow us to collect anonymous usage data in order to improve the experience on our website.
Allow us to identify our visitors so that we can offer personalised, targeted marketing.
Save preferences