Presence brings together two recent bodies of work by Pennsylvania artist Michael Allen. One is a selection of Allen’s signature drawings and paintings from the past 12 years, depicting the atmospheres and fleeting moments within his commonplace. The other is a collection of plein air paintings, painted onsite in single settings, from 2012 to 2018. These two bodies of work commingle in a process of observations gathered over prolonged periods of time and depict the delicate balance between nature and development.
From vast valleys of farmland of the Pennsylvania Piedmont to the towering bridges spanning the Susquehanna River, Allen’s work celebrates the overlooked, in an attempt to reveal and understand experience within each environment. Allen’s painted places are his lived-in spaces, his day-to-day surroundings. It is through his familiarity with these places that he explores deeper connections between the land and its inhabitants. These images, witnessed and collected over many years, are not depictions of one specific moment, but rather a combination of experience distilled over time. They go beyond a simple record of a place and time; they contribute to and extend a long tradition of landscape painting.
Through Allen’s observations, the relationship between nature and development is depicted time and time again. Found dispersed within Allen’s paintings and drawings, flora and fauna coexist among a myriad of structures and turned earth, in varying climatic conditions. In his work, ephemeral beauty of the wider world is revealed from the vantage point of the southeast Pennsylvania landscape.
About the Artist
Michael Allen is an American painter focusing primarily on the landscape and the relationships within. His depictions of fleeting moments are a composite of multiple experiences from familiar settings. Derived from a combination of memory, invention, and direct observation, his works seek to present a natural world with a human presence.
Allen earned his MFA from the University of Delaware and his BFA from Kutztown University of Pennsylvania. His work has been the subject of 12 solo exhibitions including Landscapes at the Lancaster Museum of Art in 1999. He has exhibited with Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE, LewAllen Galleries, Santa Fe, NM, Artists’ House Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, and Lancaster Galleries, Lancaster, PA.
His work has been included in exhibitions at The New Britain Museum of American Art, CT, Huntington Museum of Art, WV, Butler Institute of American Art, OH, Washington County Museum of Fine Art, MD, Delaware Contemporary, DE, Allentown Art Museum, PA, Reading Public Museum, PA, The State Museum, PA, Susquehanna Art Museum, PA, Lancaster Museum of Art, PA, among others, as well as several university galleries.
Allen was the featured emerging artist in the October 2005 issue of Art & Antiques Magazine. A selection of his paintings were published in the Spring 2007 edition of the highly regarded literary journal the Gettysburg Review with his painting, Neighborhood and Industry, reproduced on the cover. His work has also been featured in Plein Air Magazine, Professional Artist Magazine, and New American Paintings, among others.
Allen is widely collected across the United States and can be found in the permanent collections of the Lancaster Museum of Art, Lancaster, PA, The Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, Armstrong World Industries, Lancaster, PA, Ann B Barshinger Cancer Institute, Lancaster PA, Suzanne H. Arnold Art Gallery at Lebanon Valley College, Annville, PA, Visions of the Susquehanna Collection, Susquehanna Heritage Center, Wrightsville, PA, among others.
He currently lives and works in Palmyra, PA and is represented by Somerville Manning Gallery, Greenville, DE
Plan Your Visit
Exhibition Details
Date: April 10 through July 26, 2026
Gallery: Dōshi Gallery in SAM Lobby and DeSoto Family Vault
Events
Third in the Burg
Friday, May 15, 2026
5:00 – 8:00 pm
Free Admission
Artwork
Intervals
Michael Allen, Intervals, 2024, oil on linen
Thaw
Michael Allen, Thaw, 2016, oil on linen
Written into the Landscape
Michael Allen, Written into the Landscape, 2023, oil on linen